CETOLOGY. 



677 



logy. De Ilhtoria Piscium, edited by his friend Ray, con- 



s "Y""'*' tains many valuable remarks on cetaceous animals, 

 especially on thf great n'/utli; tin- <(O//)/IIH, the por- 

 pesse t and the grampus. Vhis learned writer was one 

 ot thf first to mark distinctly, the similarity of ana- 

 tomical structure in whales and quadrupeds. 



Ray. Ray. in his tiynojtsis Piscium, follows his prede- 



cessors in natural history, in the error of including 

 cetacca among fishes, though he seems to be among 

 the first that have doubted of its propriety. His 

 reasons for this arrangement, from which we infer 

 his hesitation, are, that the form of their bodies 

 agrees with that of fish ; that they are entirely na- 

 ked, or covered only with a smooth skin ; and that 

 they live entirely in the water, and have all the ac- 

 tions of fish. Now, in this last circumstance, our 

 distinguished naturalist is mistaken ; and, as he found 

 their mode of respiration formed to his arrangement 

 an objection not easily to be overcome, he divides 

 fishes into those that breathe by lungs (pulmone re- 

 spirantes), and those that breathe by gills (bronchiis 

 respirantes) ; thus establishing the former of these 

 sections, for the purpose of including the cetaceous 

 animals. The number of species enumerated by Ray 

 is considerable, and he has noticed almost all those 

 which have occasionally been thrown on the coasts 

 of our islands. 



Sibbald. The rirst work of any distinguished eminence as a 



separate treatise on cetaceous animals, is the Phalain- 

 ologia Nova of Sir Robert Sibbald, first published 

 at Edinburgh in 1692, and reprinted in London so 

 lately as 1773. In this work, the writer professes to 

 describe the rarer species of whales that had been 

 cast on the shores of Scotland, distinguishing them 

 according to their natural characters into genera and 

 species, and adding some observations on the nature, 

 origin, and use of spermaceti and ambergris. Con- 

 sidering the time at which this was written, it is a 

 valuable work, containing accurate descriptions, and, 

 in general, judicious remarks. It first treats of whales 

 in general, then distinguishes these into such as have 

 teeth in both jaws, such as have teeth only in the lower 

 jaw, and such as want teeth altogether, the proper 

 BalfKiuK. He particularly describes the grampus; the 

 small spermaceti whale, or round-headed cachalot ; the 

 black-headed spermaceti whale, or great-headed ca- 

 chalot ; the high-Jinned cachalot of Pennant ; the 

 common or Greenland whale ; dx: pike -headed nhale ; 

 and the round lipped rvhale. 



As far as Sir Robert depends on his own observa- 

 tions, we believe he is in general perfectly correct ; 

 and his work must be considered as one of the best 

 treatises on cetology, and far superior to any thing 

 that appeared on the subject for nearly 100 years a 

 terwards. 



ArtedL Early in the 18th century, Artedi, the friend and 



companion of Linne", composed his Synopsis Pis- 

 cium, into which he has introduced the cetaceous ani- 

 mals as an order of fishes, and where he has distin- 

 guished a greater number of species than had been 

 enumerated before. His specific characters are, in 

 general, highly expressive, and very accurate, though, 

 m describing the grampus as having broad serrated 

 teeth, (dentibiis latin serralis,) a mistake into which 

 Linne has also fallen, he seems to have copied the 

 erroneous account of Rondelet. 



Among the last writers who have considered the 

 o 



cetacea as an order of fishes, it Mr Pennant, who, in 

 the third volume of his liritith Zoology, describe* 

 twelve species of these animals as his first division of 

 fishes, under the title of cetaceous jith. His princi- 

 pal reason for this arrangement is, that in this way 

 we preserve entire the chain of beings, since as the 

 teals and manuti resemble quadrupeds in the struc- 

 ture of their fore feet, and fishes in the structure of 

 their tail, so cetaceous animals resemble the manati 

 in the former circumstance, and, still more than they, 

 resemble fishes in the form of their body, and struc- 

 ture of their tail. Pennant has borrowed much ot 

 his information from Sir Robert Sibbald's work, and 

 has also gleaned freely both from the ancients, and 

 from some modern histories and voyages, as Dale's 

 Account of Harwich; Marten's Hutory of SpitzbeT' 

 gen; Crantz's Greenland; and Borlase's Account of 

 Cornwall. In one instance, the blunt-headed cacha' 

 lot, he seems to have described entirely from his own 

 observation, and has given a figure of the animal and 

 its teeth. 



The most complete and scientific work on cetolo- La C(pede 

 gy, is undoubtedly the Hutoire Naturelle det Ce- 

 taces of La Cepede, published at Paris in 4to in the 

 year 1804, (12th year of the republic.) John Hun- 

 ter had given the best account of the anatomy and 

 physiology of these animals, in the 77th volume of 

 the Philosophical Transactions ; and Bonnaterre had 

 described, in a masterly manner, their natural histo- 

 ry, in that department of the Encyclopedic Mcthodique 

 allotted to CETOLOGY ; but it was reserved for La Ce- 

 pede to bring together every thing valuable that had 

 been written on the subject ; to reduce it to form and 

 method ; andimprovethe whole by systematic arrange- 

 ment, and animated description. He has distributed 

 the thirty-four species (or varieties) of cetacea, which 

 he describes, into two orders, the toothless and the 

 toothed. Of the former, he makes two tribes and 

 eight species ; of the latter, eight tribes and twenty- 

 six species. His division of the genera, of which we 

 shall say more presently, is certainly more accurate 

 and scientific than that of any of his predecessors, in- 

 asmuch as it is founded on anatomical differences ; 

 and though his generic and specific characters are of- 

 ten unnecessarily long, and involve circumstances that 

 are implied in the preceding characters of the or- 

 der, or the genus, they are more accurate and more 

 descriptive than those of any other author with whom 

 we are acquainted. 



These are the principal writers on zoology who 

 have treated on cetaceous animals ; but there are se- 

 veral works on the productions of particular countries, 

 which contain useful or curious information on the 

 same subject. Of these, we shall notice a few of the 

 most respectable, and thus conclude our historical, 

 sketch of cetological writers. 



Among the earliest of these is the History of let- Anderson's. 

 land, drawn up by John Anderson, a German natu- Iceland, 

 ralist of considerable reputation. He has described 

 several species that were little known before his time, 

 particularly the nordcaptr, or Iceland whale, the 

 knobbtjish, or Scrag whale, and the Jupiter Jish, or 

 pike- headed whale : and he has interspersed some 

 amusing particulars respecting their manners, and the 

 methods employed by the Icelanders in taking them, 

 though these latter cannot always be received with, 

 implicit credit. 



