}4* CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



CHAP. III. 



A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY AN'D BIBLIOGRAPHY OF ICHTHTO- 

 LOGY, WITH SOME REMARKS ON COLLECTING AND PRESERV- 

 ING FISH. 



(55.) A lengthened exposition of the rise and progress 

 of ichthyology is not suited to the present publication, and 

 would occupy more space than we could devote to this 

 department of zoology ; but a few general remarks on 

 this subject cannot well be dispensed with. Like all 

 other sciences, its progress has been unequally progres- 

 sive, according to the degree of attention or of neglect it 

 has received in different periods. 



(56.) The ancients appear to have paid more attention 

 to this class of animals than any other, and have left us 

 thenamesof nearly 200 different species, chiefly inhabiting 

 the shores of the Mediterranean — the majority of which 

 were then, as now, in request as food for the highest as 

 well as the lowest ranks. After the revival of learning, 

 and in the middle of the sixteenth century, ichthyology, 

 as a science, first began to assume a new birth in the 

 writings of Belon, Salviani, and, more especially, Ron- 

 dclet, better known under the name of Rondeletius. It 

 is a most fortunate circumstance that these early writers 

 bestowed so much labour in determining the names by 

 which the Mediterranean fishes were known to the an- 

 cients, which they justly considered of much import- 

 ance. Immense labour, research, and doubtful disput- 

 ation- have thus been saved to the moderns; while, on the 

 other hand, had they attempted to describe, in greater 

 detail, the internal and external structure, the proba- 

 bility is, considering the age in which they wrote, that 

 their books would have been utterly useless to modern 

 science. As it is, however, they are actually useful, and 

 often essential, not only as high authorities for the no- 



