18 ACALETIIS IN GENERAL. Part I. 



(jf procoding years. Several works give such r('xii»ih ; l)ut they onlv sei've to 

 Ijring more glarhigly to hght the defieieiiey of the inf'oniiation upon which a natural 

 system might Ix' built. The fullest of these compilations is the thirteentli edition 

 of the Systemu Xutura^ of Linnaeus, pul)lished between the years 178o and 17''-> 

 by J. Fr. (Jiiieliu.' Another is the Encyclopedie Methodicjue, published bv an 

 association of naturalists in Paris in 201 vols. 4to., lietween the years 17S2 and 

 1832, with a view of j^resenting a conijilete cyclo]>a'dia ol' all that was known at 

 the time in every Ijranch of Natural Histor}'. The Acalephs were compiled by 

 Bruguiere. Nearly all tla- illustratious pul)lishe(l l)y earlier oljservers are liere 

 reproduced, but nothing new is added. These pid)licatious have lost their merit 

 now, and can only l^e used as books of easy reference to the scattered descriptions 

 and figures of i)re\ious writers. 



Besides the publication of these systematic cyclo])a'dias, we have also to notice 

 the scientific dictionaries of the time, wliich aimeil at giving similar, tliough more 

 condensed, accounts of the knowledge of their age," but ibd not add mucli to the 

 real progress of science. Not so with tla' proceedings and transactions of leai'ued 

 societies;'" for in their volumes we find iunumeral)le original papers in which the 

 discoveries of the day are recorded, and among them, la^re and there, some notices 

 Ijearing more or less directly u[)on the natural history of tiie Acalephs. The most 

 important of tliem have already l)een (juoted. 



SECTION IV. 



THE ."SYSTEMATIC WKITEKS AM) ANATOMISTS. 



With the l)egimiiug of the nineteenth century opens another era in the history 

 of Acale})lis. Now, for the first time, are successful attempts made to comlnne sys- 

 tematically the investigations of the past, and every year adds new materials to 



1 Gmklin (J. Fk.), Cur. a Liiine Systrina X:i- tlioso uf tliu lv(i3':il S(jcic','y of London, of tlie Aea- 



turw per Kcjina tria Nalnni', dr., cdilio dcrirna demia Xalnra' t'uriosornin, and of thr Academy of 



tertia, aucta ut I'i'forniala, Lrijiziy, 17<sS-17;i,'.!, 7 Sciences of Paris. Tlie former are jiublislied under 



vols. 8vo. tlie title of I'liilosopliical Transactions of tlie Royal 



= Valmont de ]!(imai:k, Dictionnaire raisonne Socicly, tlic laltei- as IMemoires de rAcadcmie des 



universcl d'liistoire iiatnrelle. Paris, 17(J5-17GS, h Sciences de Paris, and those of the Academia Na- 



vols. 8vo. ; 2e edit. ITfiS, 17C'J, 12 vols. Svo. ; .'!e tura', C'nriosoruni appeared, iirst under tlie title Mis- 



L'dit. 177."), C \ols. Svo.; -le edit. Lyon, 171)1, 1"» cellanea, next, as Kphemerides, and afterwards as 



vols. 8vo. Acta, and are now continued as Nova Acta Aca- 



'^ The most valuable of Ihesi; transactions are demia' Ca'sareo-Leoiioldimc Natura' Curiosoruin. 



