Septembeb 7, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



229 



lations of early writers. After him A. Koraes 

 (or Coray), Johannes Miiller, Louis Agassiz, 

 Erhard, Lowe, and the various editors and 

 translators of Ai'istotle (Strack, Barthelemy, 

 J. G. Meyer, Ogle, Aubert and Wimmer) and 

 other ancient writers also rendered notable 

 services. Other commentaries of value re- 

 lating to the Greek fauna and its nomencla- 

 ture were made during the last century by 

 President Felton and Professor Sophocles of 

 Harvard, and by several native Greek students, 

 such as Nicolaos Cliristo Apostolides, D. 

 Bikelas and loannos Bouros. The last-named 

 was a professor at Athens, and published an 

 essay in Greek of which an abstract appeared 

 in Oken's Isis for 1841. Apostolides is author 

 of a catalogue of the fishes of Greece and also 

 of a list of the freshwater fishes of Thessaly. 



Johannes Miiller, in his elaborate memoir" 

 " TJeber den glatten Hai des Aristotelis," de- 

 votes a separate section to the attempts of 

 16th century ichthyologists to identify the 

 species of shark (Galeus l(Evis) referred to by 

 the " father of natural history." 



In point of fact nearly all of the 16th to 

 ISth century writers on fishes — Belon, Eon- 

 delet, Salviani, Gesner, "Willoughby, Aldro- 

 vandi, Artedi, Linnffius, Bloch and Schneider, 

 together with lesser lights, and not forgetting 

 Charles Estienne* — filled their works with 

 copious references to and annotations on the 

 numerous observations on fishes that have 

 come down from classical antiquity. Among 

 these " fathers of modern ichthyology " Aldro- 

 vandi is credited by Sundevall, in his intro- 



sAihandl. ATcad. Wiss. Berlin, 1840 (1842), pp. 

 187-258. 



■* Charles Estienne (Lat. Stephanus, b. 1504, d. 

 1564), a physician at Paris, was author of "La 

 maison rustique, ' ' which passed through thirty 

 editions. In 1537, and again in 1544 and 1546, he 

 published a commentary on classical names of 

 plants and animals entitled as follows: De Latinis 

 et Grfficis nominibus arborum, fruticum, herbarum, 

 piscium et avium liber; ex Aristotele, Theo- 

 phrasto, Dioscoride, Galeno, Nicandro, Athenaeo, 

 Oppiano, ^liano, Plinio, Hermolao Barbaro et 

 Johanne Eucllio, cum galUca eorum nominum ap- 

 peUatione. Lutetite, 1544. 84 p. 8°. 



ductiou to the " Thierarten des Aristoteles," 

 with having " fast alles gesammelt, was die 

 Alten iiber die Thiere gesagt haben." But 

 with respect to Aristotelian writings alone we 

 cannot do better than quote Professor Thomp- 

 son's remark, that " to annotate, illustrate, 

 and criticize Aristotle's knowledge of nattiral 

 history is a task without end." 



It will thus be seen that there has been a 

 steady succession of commentators upon the 

 etymology of ancient fish names from the be- 

 ginning of the modern science of ichthyology 

 down to the present day; nor are comment- 

 aries wanting upon early patristic and med- 

 iseval authors who have left memorials of the 

 knowledge of the times respecting natural his- 

 tory topics. Thus, there was published a 

 score of years ago, by Hosius, an annotated 

 edition of Decius Magnus Ausonius, a Roman 

 consul of the 4th century whose idyll on the 

 Moselle contains recognizable descriptions of 

 sixteen species of fish. Modem editions have 

 been published" also of Konrad von Megen- 

 berg's " Buch der ISTatur," written about the 

 middle of the 14th century, a work which in 

 itself is but a free rendering in the German 

 vernacular of " De Natura Rerum," by 

 Thomas of Cantimpre (b. 1201, d. 1272). A 

 similar service has been performed by H. 

 Stadler for the " Historia Animalium " of 

 Albertus Magnus (b. 1193, d. 1280). As an 

 illustration of Konrad's style of description 

 the following extract may be quoted from his 

 chapter on Fishes. It relates to the Remora 

 or Echeneis : 



Echeneis haizt ain ech. Der visch ist halpfuezig, 

 sam Jacobus und Isidorus sprechent, und ist s3 

 kreftig, daz er ain schef stil belt, daz ez sieh nindert 

 wegt, ez slaheu die wind in daz mer oder ez slahen 

 die linden, und wie ser die wazzerfluzz diezzen, 

 So mag daz schef weder fiir sich noch hinder sieh, 

 reht als ob ez da gruntvest hab und di gewurzelt 

 sei, niht dar umb, daz ez daz visehel wider ziehe, 

 neur dar umb, daz daz visehel dar an hanget. Daz 

 sprechent aueh Ambrosius, Jacobus [sic] Aquinas, 

 Aristotelis, Isidorus und der groz Basilius. Nu 

 spricht Albertus . . . Plinius, Eabannus, Alex- 



5 One by F. Pfeiffer in 1861, and another by H. 

 Schulz in 1897. 



