BARON CUVIER. 07 



ind strength to the publication of those researches already 

 nade in the Natural History of Fishes, but, above all, to 

 he termination of ray general Treatise on Comparative 

 Inatomy." Scarcely did he seem to breathe between the 

 inished and the commenced undertaking; in fact, the ma- 

 terials for several were collecting at the same time; that 

 which he termed his " General Treatise on Comparative 

 Anatomy" was always in preparation ; every week brought 

 a fresh accumulation of notes and drawings; many of the 

 latter, and all of the former, made by his own hand. The 

 plan of the Ichthyology was laid before the public by M. 

 Cuvier, in a Prospectus describing the state of this branch 

 of the science, his actual resources, and those he hoped to 

 enjoy. M. Valenciennes, now Professor of Mollusca to the 

 Museum of the Jardin des Plantes, was called in to aid him 

 in the innumerable details attendant on such an enterprise, 

 and is now charged with the continuation of the task which 

 his great master left unfinished. Eight volumes were pub- 

 lished at the time of M. Cuvier's death, and, since then, M. 

 Valenciennes has added another; the whole to be completed 

 in twenty volumes. * 



The title at once implies the nature of what is to follow : 

 " Natural History of Fishes, containing more than Five 

 Thousand Species of these Animals, described after Nature, 

 and distributed according to their Affinities, with Observa- 

 tions on their Anatomy, and critical Researches on their 

 Nomenclature, ancient as well as modern." Linnaeus de- 

 termined 477 species, and De Lacepede 1500 ; thus, with- 

 out calculating on the multiplication caused by the sy- 

 nonymes of these authors, the increase made by M. Cuvier 

 is enormous. Throughout the work one species is chosen 

 from each group for detail, and that preferred which is the 

 most interesting, or the easiest to procure. This is described 

 with the greatest minuteness, and serves not only as a type, 

 but a means of comparison for the characteristic but simple dif- 

 ferences between the other species which compose the group. 



* This ninth volume was half printed during the life of M. Cuvier ; and 

 j left, in manuscript of his own writing, enough for three or four more 

 olumes ; but this being in detached pieces, it will be scattered through 



i rest of the work, according to the progress of the subject. 



