T(^6 The History of Ichthyology 



elementary principles of accuracy. Always eager for novelties, 

 restless and credulous, his writings have been among the most 

 difficult to interpret of any in ichthyology. 



Earlier than Risso and Rafinesquc, Thomas Pennant (1726- 

 58) wrote of the British fishes; Otto Fredrik Muller of the 

 fishes of Denmark; J. E. Gunner, Bishop of Throndhjem, of 

 fishes of Norway; Francis Valentijn (1660-17 30), Jan Nieuhof 

 '11600-1671), Renard, and Castour of the fishes of the Dutch 

 East Indies; Duhamel du Monceau of the fisheries of France; 

 I'rancesco Cette of the fishes of Sicily; Jose Comide of the 

 fishes of Spain ; Ignacio Molina of the fishes of Chile ; and J\Iei- 

 dinger of those of Austria. Some of these writers liA^ed before 

 Linnaeus. Others knew little of the Linnaean system, and their 

 records are generally in the vernacular. ]\Iost important of 

 this class is the work of Antonio Parra, " Descripcion de Difer- 

 cntes Piezas de Historia Natural de la Isla de Cuba," published 

 in Havana in 1787. In 1803, Patrick Russell gaA'e a valuable 

 account, non-binomial, of "Two Hundred Fishes Collected at 

 \'izagapatam and on the Coast of Coromandel." 



Papers on the fishes of Bering Sea and Japan by Wilhelm 

 Theophilus Tilesius (i 775-1835), are published in the trans- 

 actions of the early societies of Russia. The collections of 

 the traveler Krusenstern were recorded by Tilesius. Stephen 

 Krascheninnikov (1786) wrote a history of Russia in Asia. 



Other notable names among the early writers are those of 

 Pierre ilarie Auguste Broussonet, of ilontpelier, whose work 

 (1780), too soon cut short, showed marked promise; Fr. Faber, 

 who wrote of the fishes of Iceland; E. Blyth, who studied the 

 fishes of the Andamans; A. G. Desmarest, who made excellent 

 studies of the fishes of Cuba; J. T. Kdlreuter and Everard 

 Home in the East Indies ; Geoffrey Saint-Hilaire, who recorded 

 the fishes of Egypt at the command of Napoleon. Others 

 equally notable were B. A. Euphrasen, Iwan Lepechin (1750- 

 1802), John Latham, W. E. Leach, George Montagu, C. Quen- 

 sel, Jean-Antoine Scopoli, Peter Ascanius, Francois Etienne de 

 la Roche (i 789-1812), Hans Strom, M. Vahl and Zuieuw. 



The compilers who followed Linns?us belonged to a wholly 

 different class. These were men of extensive learning, methodi- 



