FISHES. 529 



It appears to me the best arrangement of this kind that ever was 

 made; and in it the divisions are not only precisely systematica!, 

 but, in some measure, adopted by Nature itself. This learned 

 Frenchman has imited the systems of Artedi and Linnseus to- 

 gether ; and, by bringing one to correct the other, has made out 

 a number of tribes that are marked with the utmost precision, 

 A part of this system, however,, we have already gone through 

 in the cartilaginous, or, as he calls a part of them, the branchios- 

 tegous tribe of fishes. In the arrangement of these, I have fol- 

 lowed Linnaeus, as the number of them was but small, and his 

 method simple. But in that which is more properly called the 

 spinous class of Jishes, I will follow Mr Gouan's system •, the 

 terms of which, as well as of all the former systems, require some 

 explanation. I do not love to multiply the technical terms of a 

 science ; but it often happens that names, by being long used, 

 are as necessary to be known as the science itself. 



If we consider the substance of the fin of a fish, we shall find 

 it composed, besides the skin, either of straight, hard, pointed, 

 bony prickles or spines, as in the pike ; or of soft, crooked, or 

 forked bones, or cartilages, as in the herring. — The fish that 

 have bony prickly fins, are called prickly-finned fish ; the latter, 

 that have soft, or cartilaginous fins, are called soft finned fish. 

 The prickly-finned fish have received the Greek new-formed 

 name oi Acanthopterigii ; the soft-finned fish have likewise their 

 barbarous Greek name of Malacopterigii. Thus far Artedi has 

 supplied Mr Gouan with names and divisions. All spinous 

 fish are divided into jirickly-finned fish and soft-finned fish. 



Again, Litmaeus has taught him to remark the situation of 

 the fins ; for the ventral, or belly-fins, which are those particu- 

 larly to be remarked, are either wholly wanting, as in the eel, and 

 then the fish is called Apodal (a Greek word, signifying with- 

 out feet) ; or the ventral-fins are placed more forward than the 

 pectoral-fins, us in the haddock, and then the animal is a Jugu- 

 lar-fish ; or the ventral-fins are placed directly under the pectoral- 

 fins, as in the father-lasher, and then it is called a Thoracic-fish ; 

 or, lastly, the ventral-fins arc placed nearer the tail than the 

 pectoral-fins, as in the minnow, and then it is an Abdominal-fish. 

 Possessed of these distributions, the French naturalist mixes 

 and unites them into two grand divisions. All the prickly-finned 

 fish make one general division ; all the soft-iinned fish another. 

 III. 2 V 



