ILLUSTRATIONS FOR FUTURE WORKS. 123 



upon reptiles), while a young physician, who 

 is an admirable draughtsman, makes my ana- 

 tomical figures. For my share, I direct their 

 work while writing the text, and thus the 

 whole advances with great strides. I do not, 

 however, stop here. Having by permission of 

 the Director of the Museum one of the finest 

 collections of fossils in Germany at my dis- 

 position, and being also allowed to take the 

 specimens home as I need them, I have under- 

 taken to publish the ichthyological part of 

 the collection. Since it only makes the differ- 

 ence of one or two people more to direct, I 

 have these specimens also drawn at the same 

 time. Nowhere so well as here, where the 

 Academy of Fine Arts brings together so many 

 draughtsmen, could I have the same facility 

 for completing a similar work ; and as it is an 

 entirely new branch, in which no one has as 

 yet done anything of importance, I feel sure 

 of success ; the more so because Cuvier, who 

 alone could do it (for the simple reason that 

 every one else has till now neglected the fishes), 

 is not engaged upon it. Add to this that just 

 now there is a real need of this work for the 

 determination of the different geological for- 

 mations. Once before, at the Heidelberg 

 meeting, it had been proposed to me; the 



