42 MEMOIR OF CUVIER. 



It commences with a historical account of the DFO- 

 gress of Ichthyology from the earliest ages to the 

 date of the commencement of the work, which is 

 itself an example of much curious research. The 

 science, in its progress, is divided into three great 

 eras ; the first commencing with Aristotle. Before 

 that period, all ohservers were partial ; that great 

 master observed for himself, and most of the writers, 

 to the middle of the sixteenth century, made use of 

 and copied his information. Rondeletius, Belon, and 

 Salvianus, commence the second era, also observers 

 themselves, who corrected and extended the works 

 of their predecessors, and gave them a positive foun- 

 dation, by descriptions and figures, of well-determined 

 species. The third era is placed at the end of the 

 seventeenth century, when Willoughby and Ray 

 attempted the first sub-division of species, and which 

 Artedi and Linnaeus completed, in the middle of the 

 eighteenth century, by the establishment of genera 

 founded upon well known species. The anatomy 

 and classification follow the history, and occupy the 

 whole of the first volume ; the second commence? 

 with the detailed description of species ; every great 

 group or family is preceded by a description of the 

 characters and distribution, and every species that 

 is known, or previously mentioned, is separately de- 

 scribed or commented upon. Each volume is ac- 

 companied with a fasciculus of beautiful plates, shew- 

 ing the most remarkable forms; while a folio number 

 contains the designs devoted to the anatomy. Nin A 



