250 



SCIENCE. 



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



A new edition of this work has been long 

 in contemplation, and in 1898 the first 

 volume of it, covering the percoid fishes, 

 was published by Dr. George Albert Bou- 

 lenger. This volume is one of the most 

 satisfactory in the history of ichthyology. 

 It is based on ample material. Its ac- 

 cepted species have been subject to thor- 

 ough criticism and in its classification every 

 use has been made of the teachings of mor- 

 phology and especially of osteology. Its 

 classification is distinctly modern, and with 

 the writings of the contemporary ichthy- 

 ologists of Europe and America, it is fully 

 representative of the scientific era ushered 

 in by the researches of Darwin. The chief 

 criticism which one may apply to this work 

 concerns most of the publications of the 

 British Museum. It is the frequent as- 

 sumption that those species not found in 

 the greatest museum of the world do not 

 really exist at all. There are stiU many 

 forms of life, very many, outside the sei'ies 

 gathered in any or all collections. 



We may now turn from the universal 

 catalogues to the work on special groups, 

 on local faunas or on particular branches 

 of the subject of ichthyology. These lines 

 of study were made possible by the work of 

 Cuvier and Valenciennes and especially by 

 that of Dr. Giinther. 



Before taking up the students of fauna! 

 groups, we may, out of chronological order, 

 consider the researches of three great tax- 

 onomists, who have greatly contributed to 

 the modern system of the classification of 

 fishes. 



Louis Agassiz (born in western Switzer- 

 land in 1807; died at Cambridge, Massa- 

 chusetts, in 1873) was a man of wonderful 

 insight in zoological matters and possessed 

 varied range of scientific information, 

 scarcely excelled in any age— intellectually 

 a lineal descendant of Aristotle. His first 

 work on fishes was the large folio on the 

 fishes collected by Jean Baptiste Spix in 



Brazil, published at Munich in 1827. After 

 his establishment in America in 1846, at 

 which time he became a professor in Har- 

 vard University, Agassiz published a num- 

 ber of illuminating papers on the fresh- 

 water fishes of North America. He was the 

 first to recognize the necessity of the mod- 

 ern idea of genera among fishes, and almost 

 all of the groups so designated by him are 

 retained by later writers. He was also the 

 first to investigate the structure of the sin- 

 gular viviparous surf-fishes of California, 

 the names Embiotoca and Holconoti ap- 

 plied to these fishes being chosen by him. 



His earlier work, ' Recherches sur les 

 Poissons des Baux Douces, ' published in 

 Europe, gave a great impetus to our knowl- 

 edge of the anatomy and especially of the 

 embryology of the fresh-water fishes. Most 

 important of all his zoological publications 

 was the ' Recherches sur les Poissons Pos- 

 siles,' published at Neufchatel from 1833 

 to 1843. This work laid the foundation of 

 the systematic study of the extinct groups 

 of fishes. The relations of sharks were first 

 appreciated by Agassiz, and the first segre- 

 gation of the ganoids was due to him. Al' 

 though he included in this group many 

 forms not truly related either to the gan- 

 oids or even to the extinct arthrognaths, 

 yet the definition of this order marked a 

 great step in advance. 



The great, genial, hopeful personality of 

 Agassiz and his remarkable skill as a teach- 

 er made him the 'best friend that ever stu- 

 dent had ' and gave him a large following 

 as a teacher. Among his pupils in ichthy- 

 ology were Charles Girard, Frederick 

 Ward Putnam, Alexander Agassiz, Samuel 

 Garman, Samuel H. Seudder and the pres- 

 ent writer. 



Johannes Miiller (1808-1858), of Berlin, 

 was one of the greatest of comparative 

 anatomists. In his revision of Cuvier 's 

 ' System of Classification ' he corrected 

 many errors in grouping, and laid founda- 



