Sect. I.] Zodlogi/. 155 



this subject is, perhaj^s, tlie most satisfactory hi- 

 therto presented to the student of natural history. 



Dr. Robert Townson, a respectable naturahst of 

 Great Britain, has contributed to extend our know- 

 ledge of the physiology of the Amphibia, His 

 Tracts and Observations in Natural History ami 

 Piiysiology, published in 1799? contain many origi- 

 nal observations concerning the respiration, absur]j- 

 tion, &c., of this class of animals. 



Within the same period, Ichthyology^ or the his- 

 tory of the fourth Linnaean class, has been culti- 

 vated with great diligence and success. Lewis 

 Marsigli, an Italian, by his Historia Maris, piil>- 

 lished in 172o, and by his work on the Danube^ 

 published in 1726, gave much new and valuable in- 

 formation on this subject. The PJiilosophia Ich- 

 thyologica of Artedi*, first given to the public in 

 1738, may be considered as one of the most im- 

 portant works on fishes, which the age produced. 

 Next to Artedi came Linnaeus, who greatly distin- 

 guished himself by a new arrangement of this class 

 of animals, and by improving, in various respects, 

 their natural history. He was followed by Gouan, 

 of Montpellier, who, in his Historia Piscium, pul> 

 lishedin 1770, adopted the Linna^an arrangement, 

 and rendered important service to this part of zoo- 

 logy. About the year 1786, M. Broussonet, of 

 France, made a very instructive' present to natu- 

 ralists, in his work on the rare fishes, and those 

 which had been before badly described. But, of 



* Artedi was a Swede, the contemporary and friend of Linnars. 

 He Avas born in 1705, two yejrs beibrehis illustrious coumr)-man ; 

 and died in 1/35, being accidentally drowned in a canal at Am- 



steidani. 



