August 15, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



247 



cult to interpret of any in ichthyology. 

 Earlier than Risso and Eafinesque, Thomas 

 Pennant wrote of the British fishes, Oscar 

 Predrik Miiller of the fishes of Denmark, 

 J. E. Gunner, Bishop of Throndhjem, of 

 fishes of Norway, Duhamel du Monceau of 

 the fisheries of France, D. J. Cornide of the 

 fishes of Spain, and Meidinger of those of 

 Austria. Most of these writers knew little 

 of the Linnsean system, and their records 

 are generally in the vernacular. Most im- 

 portant of this class is the work of Antonio 

 Parra, 'Descripcion de Diferentes Piezas 

 de Historia Natural de la Isla de Cuba,' 

 published in Havana in 1787. In 1803, 

 Patrick Russell gave a valuable account of 

 'Two Hundred Fishes Collected at Vizag- 

 apatam and on the Coast of Coromandel. ' 

 Following this was a work on the fishes of 

 the Ganges, well illustrated, by Francis 

 Buchanan-Hamilton. 



Bering Sea and Japan were explored by 

 William Theophilus Tilesius (1775-1835), 

 whose papers are published in the transac- 

 tions of the early societies of Russia. 

 Stephan Krascheninikov (1786) wrote a 

 history of Russia in Asia, and other geo- 

 graphical writers, as Kriisenstern, contrib- 

 uted something to our knowledge of the 

 fishes in regions visited by them. 



Other notable names among the early 

 writers are those of Auguste Broussonet, of 

 Montpelier, whose work, too soon cut short, 

 showed marked promise, B. A. Buphras- 

 en, Fr. Faber, who wrote of the fishes of Ice- 

 land, Everard Home, B. Blyth, who studied 

 the fishes of the Andamans, J. T. Kolreuter, 

 J. Lepeehin, John Latham, W. E. Leach, 

 A. G. Desmarest, G. Montague, C. Quen- 

 sel, H. Storm and M. Vahl. 



The compilers who followed Linnaeus be- 

 longed to a wholly diflPerent class. These 

 were men of large learning, methodical 

 ways, sometimes brilliant, sometimes of 

 deep insight, but more often, on the whole, 

 dull, plodding and mechanical. 



Earliest of these is Antoine Goiian, 

 whose 'Historia Piscium' was published in 

 Paris in 1770. In this work, which is of 

 fair quality, only genera were included, and 

 the three new ones which he introduces into 

 the 'System' {Lepadog aster, Leindopus and 

 Trachypterus) are still retained with his 

 definition of them. 



Johann Friedrich Gmelin published in 

 1788 a thirteenth edition of the ' Systema 

 Naturas ' of Linneeus, adding to it the dis- 

 coveries of Forskal, Forster and others who 

 had written since Linnaaus' time. This 

 work was useful as bringing that of Lin- 

 nfeus to a later date, but it is not well done, 

 the compiler having little knowledge of the 

 animals described and little penetration in 

 matters of taxonomy. Very similar in 

 value, although more lucid in expression, 

 is the French compilation of the same date 

 (1788), ' Tableau Eneyclopedique et Metho- 

 dique des Trois Regnes de la Nature,' by 

 the Abbe J. P. Bonnaterre. Another ' En- 

 cyclopedie Methodique,' of still less merit, 

 was published as a dictionary in Paris in 

 1787, by Rene Just Haiiy. 



In 1792, Johann Julius Walbaum, a Ger- 

 man compiler of a little higher rank, gath- 

 ered together the records of all known spe- 

 cies, using the work of Artedi as a basis, 

 and giving binomial names in place of the 

 vernacular terms used by Schopf, Steller, 

 Pennant and Krascheninnikow. 



Far more pretentious and more generally 

 useful, as well as containing a large amount 

 of original material, is the ' Ichthyologia ' 

 of Mark Eliezer Bloch, published in Berlin 

 in varioiis parts from 1782 to 1795. It was 

 originally of two parts in German, ' OecO' 

 nomische Naturgeschichte der Fische 

 Deutschlands' and 'Naturgeschichte der 

 Auslandischen Fische. ' Bloch was a physi- 

 cian, born at Anspach in 1723, and at the 

 age of fifty-six began to devote himself to 

 ichthyology. In his great work is contained 

 every species which he had himself seen. 



