64 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



of America, about this time, began to excite the zealous 

 attention of several of our transatlantic brethren ; and 

 the various essays and papers by Dr. Mitchell, Le 

 Sueur*, Harwood, and Rafinesque, have accumulated 

 such valuable materials, that we trust they may be soon 

 augmented^ and condensed into a general work devoted 

 to this branch of American zoology. 



(60.) But we must not depart from the chrono- 

 logical order of our rapid survey. The year 1817 

 saw the publication of the first edition of the tC Regne 

 Animal/' — a work replete with profound anatomical 

 science, and with many just and admirable improve- 

 ments in scientific arrangement. Having already spoken 

 so fully of these celebrated volumes, on a former occa- 

 sion, we have only to look to its ichthyological portion. 

 Besides the genera that had previously been named and 

 defined by Rafinesque, but unknown, and therefore 

 unacknowledged by M. Cuvier, there are a great number 

 of others really new ; and the whole, being well 

 digested, give us the most finished and popular system 

 that had appeared since the days of Lacepede. It must 

 not be supposed, however, as some have imagined, that 

 there was any thing sudden or astonishing in the ad- 

 vance which was thus made. Ichthyology, like all 

 other branches of natural history, and, indeed, all other 

 sciences, had been advancing gradually and progressively. 

 Since the decline of the Linnaan school, the first, and 

 therefore the most signal, reformation in the genera 

 was undoubtedly effected by Lacepede : the new groups 

 pointed out by Rafinesque, materially advanced this 



* It is scarcely possible to praise too highly the delicate and masterly 

 delineations which so peculiarly characterise every subject which comes 

 from the pencil or the graver of Le Sueur, whom I have ever looked upon 

 as the first zoological artist of the age. His are the only delineations I 

 have seen, where the delicacy, the accuracy, and the high finish of the 

 French school are united with the freedom, grace, and decision of the 

 English style : the ease and ingenuity with which he can comprise large 

 subjects within a small compass, without the least confusion of the parts, 

 is seen in many of the exquisite outline plates, drawn and etched by him- 

 self, in the early volumes of the American Transactions. Science and the 

 fine arts must ever deplore that the noble work on the Medus<v, long con- 

 templated by this prince of zoological painters, has never been given to 

 the world. Surely a sufficient number of subscribers might be found to 

 protect the author from pecuniary lots I 



