6 FISHES, 



prove of interest to the class of society in which the author 

 moved. Salviani's work is of a high standard, most remarkable 

 for the age in which he lived. It could not fail to convey valu- 

 able instruction, and to render Ichthyology popular in the 

 country to the fauna of which it was devoted, but it would not 

 have advanced Ichthyology as science generally ; and in this 

 respect Salviani is not to be compared with Eondelet or Belon. 



Rondelet. G. EoNDELET (1507-1557) had tlie great advantage over 



Belon in having received a medical education at Paris, and 

 more especially m having gone through a complete course of 

 instruction in anatomy as a pupil of Guentherus of Andernach. 

 This is conspicuous throughout his works — " Libri de Piscibus 

 marinis" (Lugd. 1554, foL) ; and " Universse aquatilium his- 

 torise pars altera " {Lugd. 1555, fol.) Nevertheless they cannot 

 be regarded as more than considerably enlarged editions of 

 Belon's work. For although he worked independently of the 

 latter, and differs from him in numerous details, the system 

 adopted by him is characterised by the same absence of 

 the true principles of classification. Eondelet had a much 

 more extensive knowledge of details. His work is almost 

 entirely limited to European, and chiefly Mediterranean, 

 forms, and comprises not less than 197 marine and 47 fresh- 

 water fishes. His descriptions are more complete and his 

 figures much more accurate than those of Belon ; and the 

 specific account is preceded by introductory chapters in which 

 he treats in a general manner on the distinctions, the external 

 and internal parts, and on the economy of fishes. Like 

 Belon, he had no conception of the various categories of 

 classification — for instance, confounding throughout his work 

 the terms "genus" and "species;" but he had intuitively 

 a notion of what liis successors called a "species," and his 

 principal object was to coUect and give as much information 

 as possible of such species. 



