NEW CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 203 



manuscripts and take an account of my ta- 

 bles in order to condense the whole in a few 

 phrases. I have already told you that the in- 

 vestigation of the living fishes had suggested 

 to me a new classification, in which families as 

 at present circumscribed respectively received 

 new, and to my thinking more natural posi- 

 tions, based upon other considerations than 

 those hitherto brought forward. I did not at 

 first lay any special stress on my classification. 

 . . . My object was only to utilize certain 

 structural characters which frequently recur 

 among fossil forms, and which might there- 

 fore enable me to determine remains hitherto 

 considered of little value. ... Absorbed in 

 the special investigation, I paid no heed to 

 the edifice which was meanwhile unconscious- 

 ly building itself up. Having however com- 

 pleted the comparison of the fossil species in 

 Paris, I wanted, for the sake of an easy revis- 

 ion of the same, to make a list according to 

 their succession in geological formations, with 

 a view of determining the characteristics more 

 exactly and bringing them by their enumera- 

 tion into bolder relief. What was my joy and 

 surprise to find that the simplest enumeration 

 of the fossil fishes according to their geolog- 

 ical succession was also a complete statement 



