Mat 12, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



735 



fisli of the ancients. There is really no eon- 

 fusion in Aristotle's book and his character- 

 izations of the several fishes are quite apt. 

 For instance, according to Hoffman, Aristotle 

 " says the a-n-apo-; (or <TKa.po<s, if we follow the 

 other reading) has many pyloric appendages," 

 {etc.] and that the o-wapos " has its stomach 

 shaped exactly like an intestine, seems to 

 ruminate just as the quadrupeds do," [etc.] ; 

 these characters differentiate the two almost 

 as well as a modem ichthyologist would do. 



But there is certainly often occasion for 

 emendation of the generally accepted text and 

 one striking example is the nomenclature of 

 certain fishes which are provided with caeca 

 to the intestines ; it occurs in book II. (p. 508" 

 17) of Thompson's translation. Probably 

 Aristotle's manuscript had become blurred and 

 illegible at this place and a copyist had in- 

 serted words that looked like those that were 

 indistinct or were of the same length. 



According to Thompson's version, " Fishes 

 have them [cseca] high up about [round] the 

 stomach, and sometimes numerous, as in the 

 goby, the galeos, the perch, the scorpagna, the 

 •citharus, the red mullet, and the sparus." 

 Now, assuming that Aristotle knew what he 

 was writing about, the present text is very 

 corrupt. 



The goby (KM;8to's) has no c£eca whatever 

 and consequently the name must have been 

 -substituted for some other. KoAias may have 

 been the original word and the species indi- 

 ■cated {Scomber colias) would to an eminent 

 degree fulfil the requisite (having very nu- 

 merous caeca) for the place. 



The galeos — " yoAeos or the dog-fish, a 

 selachian " — as Thompson notes — " has no 

 cseca. Sch. suggests yaXrj (cf. Ael. xv., 11), 

 mod. Gk. yaXia, Lota vulgaris, the burbot." 

 That fish has many caeca and therefore would 

 ■" fill the bill," but unfortunately there is no 

 recent evidence (in Apostolides, Hoffman, 

 ■Oarus or any other recent author) that the 

 ^fish or the name occurs in Greece. A species 

 that would well answer is the bonito (the /xai'd 

 of Aristotle, Sarda pelamys of recent system- 

 atists), which is next in relationship to the 

 Ikolias and whose intestines had elsewhere 



(506" 14, 15) been especially noticed by 

 Aristotle. 



The perch of Thompson (in this place) is 

 not the river perch but a serranid {8 err anus 

 scriba) still known in Greece as the TrepKa, 

 which has many caeca. 



The citharus does not fulfil the requisites 

 of the proposition in question and is out of 

 place; the name doubtless has been inter- 

 polated; KOLvOapos may have been the original 

 word. 



The names chromis and Tcorahinos have 

 been involved with slciaina to some extent. 

 Thus in book IV. (534° 9, 10) the " Chromis 

 or Sciaena " is reckoned among " fishes the 

 quickest of hearing," but in book VIII. (601'' 

 31) the two names appear for distinct species 

 which suffer " most in severe winters " be- 

 cause they " have a stone in their head, as 

 the chromis, the basse, the sciasna and the 

 braize." Thompson, in a note (IV., 534°), de- 

 clares that the chromis was " Sciwna aquila 

 (or some closely allied fish) said to be still 

 called Chro in Genoa and Marseilles." The 

 Coracinus has been variously identified. 

 " According to Cuvier and J. Miiller," it was, 

 says Thompson, " Chromis castanea (It. cora- 

 cino, corho, etc.), the allied fish from the Nile 

 (Athen. I. c. [viii., 312]) being 0. niloticus. 

 Umhrina cirrhosa and Oorvina nigra are 

 known as corvi, and are said to spawn in 

 brackish water, but these we identify with 

 o-Ki aiva or ^6p.ii." Giinther thought that 

 " the chromis of the ancients appears to be 

 some sciaenoid fish." Investigation of the vol- 

 uminous literature respecting the species in- 

 volved and the fishes themselves has led to the 

 following conclusions : 



The STciaina was probably primarily the 

 ScicBna umbra of Linnaeus {Oorvina nigra of 

 Cuvier), known now in Greece as the sMos., 

 as well as under other names. 



The Chromis was apparently the Umbrina 

 cirrhosa, to some extent at the present day 

 confounded with the former under the name 

 skios, umbrina, ombrella, etc. 



The korakinos, as Cuvier and J. Miiller 

 believed, may have been the Chromis chromis 

 {Heliastes chromis of Giinther). " The allied 



