June 26, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



915 



only a peculiar family (^Palceospondylidce) , 

 but a distinct order whicli may be called 

 Cyclic. 



Only one other feature of Dr. Dean's 

 work can be noticed. The volume is grace- 

 fully introduced and its scope indicated in 

 the words of Aristotle — "TSy S'huSpw^ '^wwj to 



zmv lyObuii/ yino? iv d.~b -ui'j d)J.w^ aiprnpiarat. "* 



— and it is supplemented with a ' list of 

 derivations of proper names.' There is, 

 however, evidence of misconception of 

 many etymologies, and corrected forms are 

 here given of some of the names, leaving 

 aside those that are substantially correct. 

 Nevertheless it may be well to remark that 

 the author need not have added ad- 

 jective terminations for such words as ' fin- 

 (ned),' 'taii(ed),' 'tooth(ed),' 'bone(d),' 

 ' spine(d),' and the like ; they were correct 

 without those endings and perfectly in har- 

 mony with such English words as Eediin, 

 Hardtail, Fantail, Dogtooth {Dentalium') , 

 Greenbone, Porcupine and Spineback and 

 such ancient Greek names as Sa<Tij-uu<;, 



TzspXi'.'UTrTspo^j 7—~<)0p<)<}j IJ.sXdynupo'Sj and aiyiJSw^. 



It is in this way that men naturally frame 

 new names for such subjects. 



The means for ascertaining or confirming 

 the etj'mologies of many scientific names are, 

 perhaps, not available for all who might de- 

 sire to ascertain them, and they are often 

 wrongly analyzed. To aid such inquirers 

 is the aim of the following lines. If a 

 scholarly man like Dr. Dean has found so 

 many obstacles to correct infoi'mation, less 

 accomplished men must find the way still 

 more difficult. 



Acipenser is not from ' d^-ijVioj, classic 

 name of Sturgeon,' but is the old Latin name 

 itself; both names were in use. According 

 to Athen?eus (VII., 44), "the accipesius, 

 the same as the acipenser, or sturio, is but 

 a small fish in comparison, and has a longer 



*The quotation from Aristotle occurs in the first 

 paragraph of the ninth chapter of the second book 

 of most editions of the IlEoi l,l>ij)v la-opia. 



nose, and is more triangular than the galeos 

 in his shape." 



Alopias is not, of course, a transliteration 

 of ' o2ojT:ez,{cK, classic name of the fox shark,' 

 and the name has been replaced with Alo- 

 p)ecias bymany zoologists(Miiller and Henle, 

 1838,* Eichardson, Giinther, and various 

 text-books). There is, however, no reason 

 why the veriest purists should not accept 

 Alojnas. Eafinesque might have preferred 

 to make the name directly from «/(«-«? 

 (^rV.ai-r/S) and the terminal element (a? (in 

 analogy with dliu-oypooi, fox-colored) and 

 had a perfect right to do so. 



Amia, it is too true, was misnamed after 

 ' dnia, classic name of tunny (?),' but, al- 

 though a tunny, the d,a{a was not the tunny. 

 There can be no doubt as to what the an- 

 cients meant by d,ata, and the old name was 

 correctly referred nearly three centuries and 

 a-half ago by Eondelet, while the correct- 

 ness of the identification was confirmed by 

 the most scholarly of later ichthyologists 

 (Cuvier). ISTevertheless, the fact appears 

 to have been frequently forgotten of late 

 and, therefore, reiteration with additional 

 evidence will not be superfluous. The 

 d/ila was unquestionably the bonito of 

 the books at least — the Sarda sarda of 

 scientific nomenclature. Only this could 

 have been the tunny-like form which had 

 strong teeth which it could use successfully 

 against sharks and in cutting the ropes of 

 nets, t and which had a gall bladder 

 stretched out upon the intestines and equal 

 to them in length. J 



It was the bonito which, according to 

 Archestratus. 



" Towards the end of autumn, when the 

 Pleiad 



" Has hidden its light " 



Was in season ; 



" then dress the amise 



* Mullet and Henle subsequently adojited Alopias. 

 t Aristotle, IX., xxv., 5. 

 t Aristotle, II., xi., 7. 



