120 MEMOIRS OF 



prise, and is now charged with the continuation 

 of the task which his great master left unfi- 

 nished. Eight vohnnes were published 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, contain- 

 ing more than Five Thousand Species of these 

 Animals, described after Nature, and distributed 

 according to their Affinities, with Observations 

 on their Anatomy, and critical Researches on 

 their Nomenclature, antient as well as modern." 

 Linneeus determined 477 species, and De Lace- 

 p6de 1500; thus, without calculating on the 

 multiplication caused by the synonymes 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 



* This ninth vohune xvas half printed during the life of 

 M. Cuvier ; and he left, in manuscript of his own writing, 

 enough for three or four more volumes ; but this being in 

 detached pieces, it will be scattered through the rest of the 

 work, according to the progress of the subject. 



