THE BROOKLYN INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
BROOKLYN MUSEUM 
SCIENCE BULLETIN 
VOL. 3, NO. 4. 
NOTES ON CERTAIN BOOKS OF UNUSUAL INTEREST IN THE 
BLACKFORD COLLECTION OF THE 
BROOKLYN MUSEUM. 
By E. W. Gudger, 
Editor, the Bibliography of Fishes, American Museum, New York City. 
Among the books in the Blackford Collection in the library of the 
Brooklyn Museum there is a number of works of rather more than usual 
interest, and in accordance with the request of Curator George P. Engel- 
hardt, I am pleased to submit for publication a few bibliographical 
comments on certain of these books. I have chosen first those books 
with which I am somewhat familiar, and in the second place those in 
which I thought that some of the readers of the Science Bulletin would 
find interest, and lastly I have sought for those books whose authors 
were men about whose lives there are points of interest. The list and 
comments are set under the authors arranged alphabetically. 
Balfour, F. M. (1851-1882): "Treatise on Comparative Embryology." 
2 vols., 1880. This consists to a considerable extent of Balfour's 
own collected embryological papers and its publication put the 
work at once in the front rank of text-books of embryology. Bal- 
four's early death, at the age of 3 1 from a fall while chmbing in the 
Alps while on a holiday, was one of the greatest losses to science that 
Great Britain has ever suffered. 
Barker, Thomas (flourished circa 165 1): "The Art' of Angling, etc." 
London, 1653. This is the second edition published without Barker's 
name, the first edition having appeared in 1651 with his name. It 
was later annexed to "The Countryman's Recreation" which ap- 
peared in 1654. In 1659, it appeared as "Barker's Delight," etc. 
The 1 65 1 edition was reprinted at London, 1820; and the 1653 
volume at Leeds, 181 7. It is an interesting old angling work. 
Bloch, Marc Elieser (1723-1799): " Ichthyologie ou Histoire Naturelle 
167 
