40 MEMOIR OP 



read in others to their own works, without con- 

 sidering whether the statements are true or false, 

 following rather the authority of men than the 

 truth of history, as Pliny has done with Asistotle, 

 Solina with Pliny, ^Elian with Oppian, &c. It has 

 heen our determination, however, on the contrary, 

 to state nothing, the truth of which we had not 

 ascertained, and hence we have often heen forced 

 to criticise the writings of our predecessors, without, 

 however, the slightest wish to be captious." It was 

 this fixed determination to subject the authority of 

 men to that of truth, and to reject whatever was 

 unauthenticated and fabulous, and retain only the 

 little that was true, which constituted the marked 

 improvement of the age, and which together with 

 the advantageous employment of such opportuni- 

 ties as they personally enjoyed, raised the small 

 band of Ichthyologists, of which Salviani was one, 

 to the eminence they have obtained, and to which 

 they have so just a claim. 



The number of species represented in the second 

 book amounts only to ninety-nine ; and even 

 this number must be reduced. Four of the most 

 striking and best plates represent those molluscous 

 animals now known under the classical appellation 

 of cephalopodia, the sepia of older naturalists, and 

 popularly the singular cuttlefish, from which it has 

 been thought, we believe erroneously, that China 

 ink is prepared. Dismissing these, upon which 

 much that is curious is said, and allowing for 



' O 



the two plates of the singular cetrina^ the num- 



