242 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No. 398. 



were hardly 'set in order.' The number 

 of species he knew was small, about 115 in 

 all, and it did not occur to him that they 

 needed classification. His ideas of species 

 were those of the fishermen, and the chang- 

 ing vernacular supplied him with the neces- 

 sary names. 



As Dr. Giinther wisely observes, 'It is 

 less surprising that Aristotle should have 

 found so many truths as that none of his 

 followers should have added to them.' For 

 about 1,800 years the scholars of the times 

 copied the words of Aristotle, confusing 

 them by the addition of fabulous stories and 

 foolish superstitions, never going back to 

 nature herself, 'who leads us to absolute 

 truth whenever we wander.' A few ob- 

 servations were made by Caius Plinius, 

 Claudius ^5]lianus, Athenreus and others. 

 About 400 A.D. Decius Magnus Ausonius 

 wrote a pleasing little poem on the Moselle, 

 setting forth the merits of its various 

 fishes. It was not, however, until the mid- 

 dle of the seventeenth century that any 

 advance was made in the knowledge of 

 fishes. At that time the development of 

 scholarship among the nations of Europe 

 was such that a few wise men were able to 

 grasp the idea of species. 



In 1553, Pierre Belon published his little 

 book 'De Aquatilibus, ' in which niunerous 

 (110) species of fishes of the Mediterranean 

 were described, with tolerable figures, and 

 with these is a creditable attempt at classi- 

 fication. At about this time Ulysses Ald- 

 rovandus, of Bologna, founded the first 

 miiseiun of natural history and wrote on 

 the fishes it contained. In 1554, Salviani 

 (1514^1572), a physician at Rome, publish- 

 ed ' Aquatilium Animalium Historia, ' with 

 good figures of most of the species, together 

 with miieh general information as to the 

 value and habits of animals of the sea. 



]\Iore important than these, but almost 

 sunultaneous with them, is the great work 

 of Guillaume Rondelet (1507-1557), 'De 



Piscibus Marinis, ' later published in 

 French and enlarged under other titles. In 

 this work the different species, 244 in all, 

 chiefly from the Mediterranean, are fairly 

 described, and the various fables previously 

 current are subjected to severe scrutiny. 

 Recognizable woodcuts represent the differ- 

 ent species. Classification, Rondelet had 

 none, except as simple categories for pur- 

 poses of convenience. More than usual care 

 is given to the vernacular names, French and 

 Greek. He closes his book with these words. 



"Or s'il en i a qui prennent les choses 

 lant a la rigueur, qui ne veulent rien 

 apparouver qui ne soit du tout parfait, je 

 les prie de bien bon cueur de traitor telle, 

 ou quelque autre histoire parfaitement, 

 sans qu'il i ait chose quelconque a redire 

 et la receverons e haut louerons bien voul- 

 iintiers. Cependant je seal bien, et me con- 

 sole * * * avec grand travail * * * qu'on 

 pourra trouver plusieurs bones choses e 

 dignes de louange ou proufit e contentement 

 des homes studieux e a I'honneur e gran- 

 dissime admiration des tres excellens e 

 perfaits oeuvres de Dieu." 



And with the many 'bones choses' of the 

 work of Rondelet, men were long too well 

 satisfied, and it was not until the impulse 

 of commerce had brought men face to face 

 with the new series of animals not found in 

 the Mediterranean that the Avork of the 

 science of fishes was again resumed. About 

 1640 Prince Moritz (Maurice), of Nassau, 

 visited Brazil, taking with him two phy- 

 sicians, George Marcgrav and Wilhelm Pi- 

 so. In the great work 'Historia Naturalis 

 Brasilia;,' published at Leyden, 1648, 

 Marcgrav described about one hundred 

 species, all new to science, with a good deal 

 of spirit and accuracy. This work was 

 printed by Piso after Marcgrav 's death, 

 and his colored drawings— long afterwards 

 used by Bloch— are in the 'History of 

 Brazil' reduced to small and crude wood- 

 cuts. This is the first study of a localfish 



