162 TRANSACTIONS LIVERPOOL BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Pitfeild that it had become very scarce even in the 

 seventeenth century, and in recent times only one copy 

 has come into the market for many years. 



At the risk of obscuring the main issue in a cloud of 

 detail, I am tempted to give a brief history of the 

 publications of the Parisians, the bibliography of which 

 beguiled the leisure of several weeks. Their first venture 

 was the anonymous issue of a small tract of 27 pages and 

 two plates, published at Paris in 166T. They had 

 dissected a "large fish" [Alopias vulpes] on June 24, 

 1667, and a Lion on June 28 of the same year, and the 

 tract contains a description of their results. Two years 

 later they published a larger work of 120 pages and five 

 plates, dealing with the anatomy of a Chameleon, a 

 Beaver, a Dromedary, a Bear and a Gazelle. They were 

 now definitely committed to a more ambitious enterprise, 

 and, encouraged by the interest which these papers had 

 aroused, they projected an extensive work on comparative 

 anatomy on a scale not hitherto attempted. This was 

 published anonymously, at the expense of the King, in 

 two sections in 1671 and 1676, but in the latter year both 

 sections were issued together with Perrault's name on 

 the new title page. The preparation of the work was 

 begun by Perrault, Pecquet and Gayant, and the material 

 they employed had died of sickness in the Royal 

 Menagerie mostly during the winter months. Gayant 

 died in 1673 and Pecquet in the following year, but the 

 work not being completed, Duverney was happily invited 

 to assist in the final stages, and his services are specially 

 commended by Perrault. In 1680 the ' ( Essais de 

 Physique" were published by Perrault — a work which 

 passed through several editions, and which includes 

 numerous observations on comparative anatomy. 



The death of Perrault, which occurred in 1688, left 



