PROGRESS OF ICHTHYOLOGY. 395 



never dreamt that the nomenclature which was in 

 use in his time could ever become obscure 3 ; hence 

 he has taken no precaution to enable his readers to 

 recognize the species of which he speaks ; and in 

 him and in other ancient authors, it requires much 

 labour and great felicity of divination to determine 

 what the names mean. The perception of this diffi- 

 culty among modern naturalists led to systems, and 

 to nomenclature founded upon system; but these 

 did not come into being immediately at the time of 

 which we speak ; nor till the evil had grown to a 

 more inconvenient magnitude. 



Period of Accumulation of Materials. Exotic 

 Collections. The fishes of Europe were for some 

 time the principal objects of study ; but those of 

 distant regions soon came into notice 4 . In the 

 seventeenth century the Dutch conquered Brazil, 

 and George Margrave, employed by them, described 

 the natural productions of the country, and espe- 

 cially the fishes. Bontius, in like manner, described 

 some of those of Batavia. Thus these writers cor- 

 respond to Rumphius and Rheede in the history of 

 botany. Many others might be mentioned ; but we 

 must hasten to the formation of systems, which is 

 our main object of attention. 



Epoch of the Fixation of Characters. Ray and 

 Willoughby. In botany, as we have seen, though 

 Ray was one of the first who invented a con- 

 nected system, he was preceded at a considerable 



3 Cuvicr, p. 17- 4 p. 43. 



