230 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1184 



ander, Solinus, Jeronymus, Auguatinus, Adelinus, 

 Haimo, Ambrosius, Maister Jorach. ' ' s 



Although Konrad von Megenberg's " Buch 

 der ISTatur" has been properly recognized as 

 the earliest natural history compendium in 

 the German language, we must go back two 

 centuries earlier before meeting the first Ger- 

 man naturalist. This distinction belongs to 

 the remarkable personage known as Saint 

 Hildegard (in Latin Hildegarde de Pinguia, 

 b. 1098, d. 1179), abbess of Bingen. Her orig- 

 inal observations on natural history are con- 

 tained in nine books called the " Physica," the 

 first printed edition of which appeared in 1533, 

 and the second in 1536. Book V. of this 

 work, in 37 chapters, treats of fishes, and the 

 descriptions of them are given in such terms 

 that all of the species are identifiable.^ 



Concerning media3val fish names it will be 

 sufilcient to refer to biit two or three other 

 publications, all by German philologists. 

 One is an essay of 35 pages by Friedrich 

 Schmidt, entitled "Die mittelenglische Ver- 

 sion des Elucidarius des Honorius Augusto- 

 dunensis," published in 1909. Another is J. 

 J. Koehler's work of 87 pages devoted exclus- 

 ively to old English fish names, published as 

 Heft 21 of Anglistische Porschungen, Heidel- 

 berg, 1906. Lastly, mention should be made 

 of Professor Karl Krumbacher's publication 

 of " Das mittelgriechisches Pischbuch," a 



8 Concerning the last-named auttority, ' ' Jorach ' ' 

 or Jorath, little is known except that he was an 

 eastern, perhaps Persian writer, whose work "Be 

 Animalibus" is quoted by the thirteenth century 

 encyclopedists, Vincent de Beauvais, Albertus Mag- 

 nus and Bartholomseua Anglicus. Bartholomew's 

 encyclopedia, "On the Properties of Things," was 

 written originally in Latin some years prior to 

 1260, and was translated into English by John 

 Trevisa in 1397. An epitome of it, under the title 

 of "Mediaeval Lore," was published by Eobert 

 Steele in 1893. 



■? See in particular L. Geisenheyner, ' ' Ueber die 

 Physica der heiligen Hildegard von Bingen, etc. ' ' 

 Sitzber. Naturli. Ver. Preussen, Zheinlande u. West- 

 falens, 1911 (1912), E, pp. 49-72. Also E. Was- 

 mann, Hildegard von Bingen als alteste deutsche 

 Naturforscherin. Biol. Centralhl., Vol. 33, 1913, 

 pp. 278-288. 



Byzantine work dating from about the twelfth 

 century. 



Returning to our own times, a long list 

 might be given of articles dealing with the 

 vernacular names of fishes in nearly all mod- 

 ern languages, including Chinese and Japan- 

 ese. We will, however, content ourselves with 

 citing but two useful works, the first of which 

 contains a bibliography of 31 pages. These 

 are, first, Emile Belloc, " ISToms scientifiques et 

 vulgaires des principaux poissons, etc.," Paris, 

 1899, 200 p. 8°. And second, P. P. C. Hoek, 

 " Catalogue des poissons du Nord de I'Europe 

 avec les ncms vulgaires dont on se sert dans 

 les langues de cette region " (Conseil Perm. 

 Int. Explor. Mer, Pub. de Circonstance, no. 

 12, 1904). 



EARLY PORTRAYAL? OF FISHES 



A special bibliography would be required 

 to enumerate all of the articles that have been 

 written on such subjects as prehistoric effigies 

 of fishes, their representation in Egyptian 

 monuments, ancient Greek vase paintings, 

 Pompeian frescoes, the catacombs of Rome, 

 and in the plastic and textile arts of pre-Co- 

 lumbian inhabitants of the western world. 

 There is even a special group of articles deal- 

 ing with the fish as a religious symbol in the 

 early church, and with the fish motive in 

 Christian art. But in the present note we 

 wish to consider a more modern phase of fish 

 portrayals. 



Fishes and " sea-monsters " figured fre- 

 quently in popular medissval legends and 

 bestiaries, and grotesque drawings of them 

 were taken over into printed books from 

 manuscript works which had been in circula- 

 tion prior to the invention of printing. 

 Among the various Herbals, or household 

 recipe-books for medicines, which contained 

 accounts of animals as well as plants and 

 their uses in medicine, one that passed 

 through ntmierous editions and translations 

 was the " Hortus Sanitatis " of an author or 

 compiler who styles himself Johannes von 

 Cube. This soubriquet has been supposed by 

 some to be a punning pseudonym for Dr. 

 Johann Wonnecken, town physician of Frank- 



