MEMOIR OF RONDELET. 4^ 



torpedo, deserving to be sought after on that account 

 alone. The gall-bladder is long, the gall watery ; 

 the spleen blackish. If we examine this fish through 

 the mouth, when its body is distended as much as 

 possible, the whole seems pellucid ; and by the light 

 admitted, it appears like a lantern of frightful ap- 

 pearance. The rana marina can live a considerable 

 time out of water. We have seen them sometimes 

 live two days on the shore among grass, and have 

 known them seize with their teeth the foot of a fox 

 in search of prey in the night and hold it till morn- 

 ing, from which we may form an opinion of the 

 strength of its moutL and teeth. Th flesh is soft, 

 excrementitious, and unsavoury." * 



These specimens, which it is unnecessary to 

 multiply, will convey some idea of the character 

 and properties of Rondelet's famous work. Not a, 

 small number of the Mediterranean fishes he des- 

 cribes are so rare, that they were not again seen by 

 naturalists till the time of Risso and Savigny. This 

 work furnishes nearly all that has been said re- 

 specting the fishes of the Mediterranean by Ges- 

 ner, Aldrovandi, Willughby, Artedi, and Linnaeus. 

 Bloch does not say much about them ; but Lacepede 

 was not a little indebted to Rondelet. The work 

 was translated into French (Lyons, 1558), and this 

 translation has been ascribed to Laurent Joubert, 

 the friend of Rondelet, and also his biographer ; by 

 others it is assigned to Desmoulins. Boussuet wrote 

 an abridgement of the 4 De piscibus marinis' in Latin, 

 * Page 363367, 



