eS | 
Cuvier, in his writings, passed, to some 
extent, into the domain of fossil fishes, 
or paleoichthyology; he demonstrated 
the fact that the extinct Palaeoniscus was 
related to the existing gars and stur- 
geons, especially, in the first instance, to 
Lepidosteus. It remained for Louis 
Agassiz, however, to demonstrate to the 
world the value of the study of fossil 
form of fishes, and his work upon them 
—‘‘Recherches sur les Poissons Fossiles” 
—is still the grandest monument ever 
erected to that department of the science 
of fishes (1807-1873). It was published 
as an elephant folio, with an atlas, at 
Neuchatel, between the years 1833 and 
1843. 
Agassiz established the now well de- 
fined group of ganoids (Ganoidei) prin- 
cipally through his exhaustive studies of 
the scales of many species of fishes. 
This distinguished ichthyologist was 
totally unable te accept the law of organic 
evolution ; as a consequence, his name in 
science must ever remain an example of 
that type of naturalist who accepted the 
Biblical account of the origin of living 
form on this planet: by special creation, 
at the command of a creator. Therefore 
his elaborate classification of fishes, based 
upon the form of their scales, was a 
failure and of no value to science. 
Agassiz was followed by a broader 
ichthyologist, Johannes Muller (18o1- 
1858), who pointed out, in his classical 
work, “Ueber den Bau und die Grenzen 
der Ganoiden” (1846), the structural dif- 
ferences of those fishes. ‘This writer’s 
researches markedly advanced the science 
here, being considered in not a few im- 
at Ft Fa 
F 
(The 
| History of Ichthyology. Part 4 | 
MAJOR R. W. SHUFELDT, Medical Corps, U.S. A. 
ea 
portant particulars, additional light being 
thrown on the subject through the de- 
scription of the remarkable form, Cero- 
todus, by A. C. Gunther, of the British 
Museum (Phil. Trans., 1871, I1), and 
by Professor Huxley, establishing the 
correct place in the system for Lepido- 
siren. 
In 1880, Doctor Gunther also published 
his well-known work, “Introduction to 
the Study of Fishes,’ a copy of which 
he presented to the present writer, as 
well as a copy of the famous monograph 
on Ceratodus, with other papers on 
fishes. 
A number of years previous to this 
many important works on fishes had ap- 
peared, not only from the pens of writers 
in France, but in England as well, chief 
among the latter being those by Richard- 
son, by Jenyns, and by Gunther (Chal- 
lenger Reports “Fishes”). Indeed, as 
each year came and passed, the literature 
on this subject was ever on the increase, 
and a great many treatises and mono- 
graphs were added to it. Both Yarnell 
and Couch described the fishes of Great 
Britain, while Heckel, Kner and Siebold 
described those of Germany. In 1866 
Blanchard brought out his work on the 
fishes of France, while Steindachner 
worked up the fresh-water forms of Por- 
tugal and Spain, these being supple- 
mented by B. de Bocage and Capello. 
Schlegel, in 1850, paid considerable 
attention to the fishes of Japan (Fauna 
Japonica, 1850), while many writers 
worked up those of the East Indies, esve- 
cially Ruppell, Playfair, Gunther, Day 
and P. Blecker, the last being a most 
