V. 



ON THE "PRODROMUS METHODI MAMMALIUM" 



OF STORR. 



By THEODORE GILL. 



(Read October, 1874.) 



In the year 1780, Dr. Gottlieb Conrad Christian Storr, at that 

 time prorector and a professor of the University of Tubingen, 

 published a memoir on the cUissificatiou of the mammals, under 

 the title "Procb-omvs Methodi Mainmalivm,''''^ which has attained 

 a certain degree of celebrity, and which at the same time is ex- 

 tremely rare. For nearly two years I endeavored in vain to 

 obtain this publication, and applied to, or examined the catalogues 

 of, the libraries of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution, and 

 the chief libraries of Philadelphia, Boston, and New York, and 

 also the Royal Society of London, the Zoological Society of 

 London, and the Linnsean Society of London, and in the cata- 

 logues of none was the work mentioned. Through the Agent of 

 the Smithsonian Institution in London, application was also made 

 at the British Museum in order to have it copied, but nothing 

 was known there of the publication. By a happy chance, how- 

 ever, a copy of the long desired work was recently procured by 

 the indefatigable officer in charge of the library of the Surgeon- 

 General's office. Dr. John S. Billings, in a lot of medical theses 

 purchased by him. It is to be at once noted that this disserta- 

 tion is a pamphlet of 43 pages and with four tables of classifica- 

 tion annexed, and it thus corresponds with a publication noticed 

 in several bibliographies under the title " Prodromvs Methodi 

 Mammalivm et Avivm ;" it is therefore probable that no other 

 work with the title just mentioned exists. If conjecture may be 

 hazarded, it is possible that the somewhat similar title of Illiger's 

 work has been confounded with and carried over to the work of 

 Storr. Storr's Prodromus is, however (with the limitations here- 

 after noted), exclusively confined to the mammals, the birds not 

 being at all considered. 



' Storr (Gottlieb Conrad Christian). Prodkomvs Methodi Mammalivm.— 

 — I Rectore Vniversitatis magnificentissimo | serenissimo atqve poteutis- 

 simo I dvce ac domiuo | Carolo | dvce Wvrtembergise ac Teccije regnante, 

 I rel. rel. | — | Ad institvendam | ex decreto gratiosse facvltatis medicse 

 I pro legitime conseqvendo | doctoris medicinae gradv | inavgvialem dis- 

 pvtationein | propositvs | prssside | Gottl. Conr. Christ. Stoi-r | inedicinse 

 doctore, hvivs, chemise et botaiiices | professore pvblico ordinario | vni- 

 versitatis H. T. pro-rectore, | respondnnte | Friderico WolflFer, | Bohnland- 

 ense. | — | Tvhingce, d. Jul. MDCCLXXX. \ — | Litteris Reissianis. 

 [4to, 43 pp., 4 tables.] 



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