58 CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES. 



was not until the year 1785 that the first work of this 

 sort, expressly devoted to fishes, was commenced by the 

 celebrated Bloch. He was a Jewish physician settled 

 in Berlin ; and his ichthyology, in twelve folio parts, 

 contains no less than 452 coloured plates: of these, 21 6 

 belong to the first six parts, and comprise nearly all 

 the European fish ; the other six, more especially de- 

 voted to the exotic tribes, are now very rare, in conse- 

 quence of a fire having destroyed the greater portion of 

 the copies. The figures, however recognisable, in most 

 instances are very inaccurate both in their drawing and 

 colouring, particularly those in the latter volumes; so 

 that they fall short, in every respect, to those of Grono- 

 vius and the original plates of Willughby : neverthe- 

 less, Bloch must always be classed among the highest 

 ichthyologists : his descriptions are generally very good^, 

 and he refrained from incorporating in his work a great 

 number of species loosely described, and still worse 

 figured, in former publications. This judicious plan, 

 however, was not followed by Schneider, his commen- 

 tator and continuator, who published two additional 

 volumes with 110 plates, so late as the year 1801.* The 

 admirable volume on the anatomy of fish, by Dr. Munro, 

 was also published in 1785.t It is gratifying to our 

 national character that the labours of our distinguished 

 countryman should thus have laid the most permanent 

 foundation for all that has been subsequently achieved 

 in this department. The great work on the natural 

 history of fiish, by the count Lacepede [f:, was the next 

 publication after that of Bloch upon general Ichthyology. 

 As it embraced an account of all recorded species, whe- 

 ther examined by the author himself or knov/n only from 

 the descriptions of others, it became, in some degree, a 

 compilation, as all general systems so constructed must 

 be ; when, therefore, we make allowance for this, and 

 for the very little attention that was then paid to cha- 



* Schneider, Systema Ichthyologia. Berlin, 2 vols. Svo. 1801. 

 t This is omitted by some oversight in the Jists of the Regiie Animal. 

 j Lacepede, Comte de. Hist. Nat. gencrale et particuliere des Poissons. 

 Paris, 5 vols. 4to. 1798—1803. 



