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CHAPTER VII. 



THE PROGRESS OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 



IF it had been already observed and admitted 

 that sciences of the same kind follow, and must 

 follow, the same course in the order of their deve- 

 lopement, it would be unnecessary to give a history 

 of any special branch of Systematic Zoology ; since 

 botany has already afforded us a sufficient example 

 of the progress of the classificatory sciences. But 

 we may be excused for introducing a sketch of the 

 advance of one department of zoology, since we are 

 led to the attempt by the peculiar advantage we 

 possess in having a complete history of the subject 

 written with great care, and brought up to the 

 present time, by a naturalist of unequalled talents 

 and knowledge. I speak of Cuvier's Historical 

 View of Ichthyology, which forms the first chapter 

 of his great work on that part of natural history. 

 The place and office in the progress of this science, 

 which is assigned to each person by Cuvier, will 

 probably not be lightly contested. It will, there- 

 fore, be no small confirmation of the justice of the 

 views on which the distribution of the events in the 

 history of botany was founded, if Cuvier's repre- 

 sentation of the history of ichthyology offers to us 

 obviously a distribution almost identical. 



We shall find that this is so ; that we have, in 



