332 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 506. 



later published as separate works and with 

 independent pagination, and doubtless are 

 in such form constantly referred to at 

 Woods Hole, as they are still the largest 

 complete works that refer avowedly to the 

 region in question. 



The report of 1839 was a useful com- 

 pilation of existing knowledge respecting 

 the subject-matter, and for the first time 

 brought together descriptions which could 

 only have been found previously in scat- 

 tered publications. The classification of 

 Cuvier, then almost universally accepted, 

 was adopted. 



"William Yarrell, the author of 'A His- 

 tory of British Fishes,' not long before 

 descriptions, however, are mostly inaptly compiled 

 and insufficient. 



' A Synopsis of the Fishes of North America.' 



By David Humphreys Storer, M.D., A.A.S. 

 Cambridge: Metcalf and Company, printers to 

 the university. 1846. [4to, 1 p. 1. (= title), 

 298 pp.] 



A reprint, ■with separate pagination, title-page 

 and index, of the preceding. 

 ■ ' A History of the Fishes of Massachusetts.' 



By David Humphreys Storer. < Memoirs of 



the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 



(Boston), new series, viz: 



1. v., pp. 49-92, pi. 1-8, 1853. 



2. v., pp. 122-168, pi. 9-16, 1853. 



3. v., pp. 257-296, pi. 17-23, 1855. 



4. VI., pp. 309-372, pi. 24-29, 1858. 



5. VIII., pp. 389-434, pi. 30-35, 1863. 



6. IX., pp. 217-263, pi. 36-39, 1867. 



134 species are described and (except one^the 

 Pholis suhiifurcatus = Eumesogrammus subhi- 

 furcatus) illustrated, and, in an appendix, a 

 nominal list (by Mr. Frederick Putnam, of Salem) 

 of 21 additional species is published. Of the 134 

 species, 116 are salt- or brackish-water, and 18 

 fresh-water. 



A History of the Fishes of Massachusetts. 



■ By David Humphrey's Storer, M.D., A.A.S. * * * 



(Reprinted from the Memoirs of the American 

 Academy of Arts and Sciences. ) — Cambridge 

 and Boston: Welch & Bigelow and Dakin & 

 Metcalf. 1867. 



As indicated on the title-page, a reprint of the 

 preceding, or rather a collection of extras of the 

 several parts separately and consecutively paged, 

 and with an independent title-page and index. 



published (1836), was an exemplar for 

 the report, and as Storer acknowledges, 

 'the generic characters are generally given 

 in the language of Yarrell.' The genera 

 not represented in Britain are defined after 

 the same pattern. 



'For many years,' according to his 

 obituarian biographer, 'it was the stand- 

 ard work on our fishes and was only sup- 

 planted in New England esteem by the 

 revised, extended and fully illustrated 

 work completed in 1867.' 



The history is really an amplified edition 

 of the report with some of the species that 

 had been discovered in the meanwhile in- 

 corporated and with plates illustrating all 

 the species described in it but one — the so- 

 called Blennius suhbifurcatus, which is a 

 typical Stichseid. 



Storer claims to have 'carefully rede- 

 scribed all the species' for his history, and 

 it has been declared by an eulogist that 

 ' it would be difficult to point out a work of 

 greater accuracy, in detail.' Consequently 

 it has been proclaimed to be 'a classic in 

 North American ichthyology that must 

 serve as a basis for the future histories of 

 the New England fishes.' Naturally such 

 a work calls for examination. If some 

 discrepancy shall be found to exist be- 

 tween the estimate of the eulogist and that 

 now to be presented, it must be remem- 

 bered that the former was hampered by the 

 demands of a memorial celebration, while, 

 on the present occasion, only the facts need 

 be considered. 



In the sixth decade of the past century, 

 the classification proposed for the fishes by 

 Cuvier, in 1829, in the second edition of 

 the 'Regne Animal,' was still regnant. 

 Naturally, then, Storer adopted it for his 

 'History' as he had previously for his 

 'Report.' He added diagnoses of the 

 families which were in almost all cases 

 translations of the essential characteristics 

 assigned to them by Cuvier. In the au- 



