30 



the subject he remarks that it is of little moment whether 

 the Orders be few in number or not, but that one ad- 

 vantage will accrue from their being few, in that the 

 difficulties of drawing the natural boundary-lines be- 

 tween the Genera vary directly with the number of the 

 Orders. 



It was in very truth a great step forwards in the 

 development of science that Artedi had herewith taken. 

 Fully grasping the state of confusion that prevailed in 

 natural history systematics and nomenclature as he 

 found them, he made bold to urge the necessity of a 

 thoroughly systematic classification, demanding at one 

 and the same time "classes naturales", "ordines natu- 

 rales", and "manipulos naturales"; this he did, it is 

 true, primarily for fishes, because his whole work deals 

 with them, but, as pointed out above, he repeatedly as- 

 serts that the same thing holds good "etiam in reliqua 

 Historia natural i". He goes, indeed, still further, for 

 he also desires to obtain "genera naturalia"; the correct 

 determination of these, moreover, he seems to have re- 

 garded as of the utmost importance, speaking of it as 

 the chief aim and object of the whole science of Ich- 

 thyology. 



The discussion that Artedi then proceeds to enter 

 into as to what is to be understood by Genus, was by 

 no means out of place at the time he was writing, for 

 the genus-notion, though not wholly unknown, had 

 never been clearly grasped or defined. Artedi says about 

 it: — u Genus in Historia naturali est Analogia qusedam 

 Specierum certarum, quse in Figura, Situ, Numero vel 

 Proportione Partium ita conveniunt, ut ab omnibus ali- 

 orum generum speciebus in aliqua minimum parte dif- 

 ferant." This definition, which has general application 

 in Natural History as a whole, is followed by one spe- 

 cially adapted to Ichthyology: 1 u Genus Ichthyologiae est 

 convenientia qusedam certarum specierum, seu simili- 



1 There exists a certain similarity in wording between this de- 

 finition and that given in § 167 of Linnaeus' "Fundamenta Botanica"; 

 hence L., in editing A.'s work, added a reference to his own. 



