VI Preface. 



But not only for this reason do we consider that in this 

 volume, which is a monument of Bleeker's ichthyological 

 work, a short biographical notice is indispensible about this 

 remarkable man. For, besides being a great ichthyologist, 

 he knew how to make the most of his manysided talents, 

 of his great love of work and his inexhaustable zeal in 

 other directions also. His enthusiasm for science was of in- 

 calculable advantage to scientific life in Dutch East India and 

 as he mounted higher and became Privy Councillor, he was 

 a great champion for more liberal ideas in the government 

 of the colony. 

 ^^Pieter Bleeker was born at Zaandam on lO July, 1819. 

 His parents were simple folk and not rich, so after having 

 passed through the primary school, he had to content himself 

 with a very simple training for apothecary and to that end 

 was apprenticed for 3 years in Amsterdam. This awakened 

 his love of scientific work, especially of anatomy, physiology 

 and zoology, and decided him to become qualified as a 

 physician. Once more he was forced to manage in the cheapest 

 way and so he attended the clinical school at Haarlem, then 

 still in existence. By diligent private study, especially in the 

 well-provided library of Teyler's Institution in Haarlem, Bleeker 

 managed to fill the gaps which the mediocrity of the above- 

 mentioned school left in his training, and so in 1840 he was 

 qualified as surgeon and country practitioner. His youth and 

 especially his youthful appearance stood in the way of his 

 success as a physician, so after having vainly sollicited a post 

 at the Museum of Natural History at Leyden he went to 

 Paris, where his very slender means enabled him to remain 

 for a little more than 6 months. Here he spent his morning 

 hours in the hospitals, his afternoons in the institutions of 

 the Jardin des Plantes. 



After his return to Holland in the spring of 1841 he tried 

 again for an appointment at the Leyden Museum, but being 

 once more unsuccessful he passed the necessary examination 

 for army surgeon. In May 1841 he received his commission 



