30 ICHTHYOLOGIA OHIENSIS 



North- American Fishes." During the next two 

 years Rafinesque published nine additional papers, 

 all but two of which appeared in various American 

 periodicals of that day. The other two were pub- 

 lished, one in France and one in England. All of 

 these papers dealt solely with the fishes of the inte- 

 rior fresh waters of the United States, and were 

 mainly concerned with fishes inhabiting the Ohio 

 River or its tributaries. In a very definite sense, 

 therefore, prior to the publication of the Ichthyologia 

 which began in the year 1819, Rafinesque laid the 

 foundations of North American fresh-water ichthyol- 

 ogy. Some of the genera and species which he then 

 established in occasional publications are still recog- 

 nized by students in this special field; others he 

 himself changed, or dropped into synonymy, in the 

 one great work, the Ichthyologia. In this connection 

 it should be remembered that only a single paper 

 relating to American fresh- water fishes had as yet 

 appeared, and that one was written by the celebrated 

 and early naturalist Le Sueur, who had, in 1817, 

 published his Notice de quelques Poissons dicouverts dans 

 les lacs du Haut-Canada, durant V iti de 1816. 



There are certain facts of a bibliographic charac- 

 ter which the student may readily glean from the 

 Ichthyologia itself, and which will be passed over in 

 this place. Inasmuch as they relate mainly to the 

 dates and place of original publication they are, in 

 this connection, unimportant. But the nature of the 

 collections upon which the volume is based, the 

 localities at which Rafinesque collected, the fictitious 

 forms which he described on the authority of others, 

 the misapprehension of certain structural charac- 

 ters, — all are important, and must be understood, if 



