1907.] ON THE DATES OF LINN^US'S ' SYSTEMA NATURiE.' 1035 



6. Dates of Publication of the Separate Parts of Gmelin's 

 Edition (13th) of the ' Systema Natnrse' of Liunseus. 

 By John Hopkinson, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. 



[Received November 11, 1907.] 



In this edition of the ' Systema Naturae,' the first volumej 

 which contains the Aiiimal Kingdom, is in seven parts, with a 

 titlepage dated 1788 in the first part only, the other parts not 

 being dated. In some of these, however, there is evidence of a 

 later date of publication, for i"eferences are given to works pub- 

 lished more recently than 1788, but without their dates being 

 stated. Each part really forms a volume. 



The importance in questions of prioi-ity of a knowledge of the 

 dates induced the writer to endeavour to ascertain them, and the 

 method adopted was to search in the Catalogue of the Librai'v 

 of the British Museum for bibliographical works published about 

 the end of the 18th century, in order to get contemporary 

 evidence. Eventually a work was found which gave the desired 

 information, and also references to journals containing notices 

 or reviews of one or more of the parts as they successively 

 appeared*. Nearly all of these were found to be in the Library 

 of the Museum, and have been searched, with other contem- 

 poraneous journals, the resu.lt being that not only have the 

 years of publication of all the parts of this edition of the 

 ' Systema Naturae ' been ascertained, but it has been found 

 possible in some cases to arrive at a still nearer approximation to 

 the time of issue. 



For instance, the Index, forming Part 7, published in 1792, 

 was noticed on the 2nd of July in that year, and therefore must 

 have appeared in the first half of the year. 



In giving in a tabular form the result of this investigation, it 

 has been thought advisable to add the dates of publication of the 

 remaining volumes of this edition of the ' Systema ' (vol. ii. being 

 in two pai-ts, the second part undated), although they are not 

 zoological. The last column shows the earliest notice found ; 

 there may be earlier ones. 



Some errors in contemporary records have been detected. In 

 the ' AUgemeine deutsche Bibliotek,' 1790, the date for the second 

 part of the first volume is given as 1788 instead of 1789, but in 

 reviewing the third part the Editor, doubtless warned by this 

 error, wisely refrained from giving it a date. He correctly dated 

 subsequent parts, except the Index, for which no date is given. 

 In the ' Efemeridi litterarie di Roma ' for the 2nd of July, 1791, 

 the first five parts were reviewed, and owing to the misleading- 

 titlepage the date for all was given as 1788. 



* ' Systematisches Verzeicliniss,' 1785-1790 (Jena, 1795) ; 1791-1795 (Weimar, 

 1799). [Entered under Catalogues.] 



Proc. Zool. Soc— 1907, No. LXIX. 69 



