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APPENDIX. 



ANCIENT AND MODERN AUTHORS 

 ON ICHTHYOLOGY. 



The chapter on this subject, in Cuvier's Natural History of Fishes, forms 

 one of the most interesting in the whole of our great Author's works, 

 and we feel ourselves bound to present a slight sketch of his Cata- 

 logue of the men who, from the earliest times made fishes the subject 

 of their studies. We had intended to have arranged the following 

 list on an alphabetical plan, but as that would destroy the regular 

 chronological order, which is one of the most useful of its characters, 

 as we found in going through it, we are obliged to take it as we 

 find it. 



The name of Aristotle first occurs in the work ; and the wonderful 

 sagacity displayed by that man was never before put forth in such an 

 elaborate manner as it is by Cuvier. The reader, however, is only 

 acquainted by this work with what Aristotle did in the anatomy of 

 fishes, so that we feel it necessary, in order to do the Stagyrite justice, 

 to supply some notion of what he did in the other classes of Ani- 

 mated Nature. The whole of the scientific circles of Europe have 

 been put into the utmost astonishment by the recent proof of the fact, 

 that the descriptions of the Animal Kingdom now given by Cuvier, 

 after the most laborious investigation of animals that was ever made 

 by any one man, are actually identical with the descriptions of Aristotle, 

 as we read them now in his works. We, in common with the public, 

 have been favoured by Professor Kidd, of the University of Oxford, 

 with a most exact translation of Aristotle's descriptions, and we shall 

 give some specimens of the two authors upon the grand subjects of 

 the Animal Kingdom, written at an interval which embraces Two 

 thousand two hundred and eighteen years ! ! 



We beg to premise, that the translations from the Greek of Aris- 

 totle as well as of Cuvier, are the execution of that able naturalist. 

 It may also be proper to state, that what is given from Aristotle on 

 the subject of Fishes, was not translated by Dr. Kidd ; it was done by 

 ourselves. 



The article, then, which is given on Aristotle, is the longest of any, 

 but it is by far the most useful. Cuvier only considers him as an 

 Ichthyologist ; but we have ventured to extend the account of his 

 labours. 



We commence, then, with the list as given by Cuvier, and the only 

 addition made by us is in the account of Aristotle. 



Aristotle. — The history of Aristotle is generally pretty well known ; 

 we shall therefore only here recall the principal events of it. 



