572 FISHES. 



The work of Willughby, entitled De Historia Piscium libri 

 quatuor^ published in 1686 by his celebrated countryman and 

 coadjutor John Ray, may be considered the earliest mo- 

 dern work in which the classification of fishes is founded on a 

 scientific basis. Willughby's volume was followed, in 1713, 

 by the Synopsis Methodica Piscium of Ray, a posthumous 

 work, published along with his Synopsis of Birds, by his 

 friend Dr Derham, after the death of their author. This 

 work of Ray contains nearly the same arrangement as he had 

 adopted in the previous one of Willughby ; and it continued to 

 be the standard and model for ichthyological inquiries till the 

 publication of the tiystema Naturae of Linnaeus. Ray in his 

 synopsis distinctly marked the leading division of this class of 

 animals into Cartilaginous and Osseous ; distinguished the fami- 

 lies with soft or spinous fins ; and was the first to direct attention 

 to the characters which theposition and the number of the fins and 

 their rays afford as the foundation of family distinctions. Though 

 he included the Cetacea among his fishes, yet he was perfectly 

 aware of their anomalous character ; for he observes (p. 4.) that, 

 excepting in the external figure, naked skin, and in their pro- 

 gressive motion by swimming, they had nothing in common with 

 fishes, but were otherwise allied to the viviparous quadrupeds. 

 And even Artedi, the friend and coadjutor of Linnaeus, who, it 

 may be noticed, adopted Ray's principles of classification and most 

 of his leading characters in the arrangement of this portion of 

 the animal kingdom, included the Cetaceous Mammalia among 

 the fishes. 



The work of Artedi, who died before its completion, was pub- 

 lished by Linnaeus, in 1738, under the title of Ichthyologla. The 

 method of Artedi it is not necessary here to detail. It was adopted 

 by Linnaeus in the first edition of his great work, was modified 

 considerably in the second, and in the twelfth edition, the last 

 which this eminent man lived to publish, the fishes were included 

 in four orders, according to the position of the fins, viz. 1. 

 APODES, or fishes destitute of ventral fins. 2. JUGULARES, those 

 which have the ventral fins placed before the pectoral ones. 

 3. THORACICI, those which have the ventral fins placed under the 

 pectoral. And 4. ABDOMINALES, or those which have the ven- 

 tral fins placed behind the pectoral ones. Linnaeus removed the 



