PREFACE 



It is clear that Fishes liave been of great interest to mankind during 

 a long period, for in all lands thej' have been the theme of numberless 

 publications. Indeed, at the present time the student who seeks to 

 imderstand any phase of the knowledge of Fishes may well be confused 

 by the series of references which he must consult. Where he expected 

 a few pages of data he sometimes finds volumes! 



This treasury of knowledge is, unfortunately, not easily accessible 

 — its materials are widely scattered, ill digested, sometimes hiding in 

 unexpected places. Then, too, the literature has grown during the last 

 decades by leaps and bounds. The modern investigator is even embar- 

 rassed by the task of deciding where to begin his studies. But from 

 any point of \'iew he caimot afford to ignore the results of his predeces- 

 sors and to repeat work which already has been well done. So in the 

 end, like Cleanthes, he must be willing to work his way to bibliographi- 

 cal knowledge, ' ' hewing wood and drawing water. ' ' If he has no special 

 training in hunting references his struggle is apt to be painful and his 

 results imperfect. With the best will in the world he may well remain 

 ignorant of earlier work and in the end make lamentable and inexcus- 

 able mistakes. Many instances of these in publications of the past 

 generation make it clear that the time is fully ripe for a general review 

 of ichthyological literature. 



The present work is designed to bring together in convenient form 

 all published references to the Science of Fishes and to enable an in- 

 vestigator to find, at a minimal cost of time, what is known of a given 

 theme. These references deal with Fishes broadly (including Cyclo- 

 stomesand Amphioxus) their habits, structure, development, physiology, 

 pathology, their distribution and kinds — taking into account fossil 

 species as weU as recent. All titles are for present purposes grouped 

 under the headings of Authors in Volumes I and II, and Subjects in 

 Volume III, the last volume serving conveniently as the index to the 

 others, for by reason of economy it has seemed expedient not to repeat 

 the separate titles in the index volume, but merely to refer back to 

 them under the captions of their respective authors. Thus, "Jordan, 

 1891.4" means consult the fourth paper published by David Starr 

 Jordan in 1891. The index, it should further be noted, does not 

 include detailed references to species, genera or even, in many cases, 

 to families of Fishes. This would entail many years' additional listing. 



