40 
gians, maintained their ground for a long period with 
hardly any modification. By degrees, however, they 
were subdivided, as the knowledge of the science in- 
creased and numerous new forms were discovered. 
Nevertheless, as late as the year 1904, one of the most 
eminent of living ichthyologists, partly no doubt out 
of piety, has made use of the designation Malacoptery- 
gians for a Sub-order of osseous fishes containing a nu- 
cleus of those fishes ARTEDI placed in the Order of the 
same name, e. g. herrings and salmon. The above- 
mentioned author, has, furthermore, employed the name 
Acanthopterygians for a Sub-order, which in addition 
to a number of new forms of later discovery, contains 
all the genera that ARTEDI classified under his Order of 
that name, with the exception only of two, the mullet 
and stickleback genera. 
Among these four Orders of Fishes ARTEDI distrib- 
utes 45 Genera, which he also defines, shortly indeed in 
general, but at the same time clearly and distinctly. 
On the whole, these Genera, as classified by ARTEDI, ful- 
fil the demands he laid down for naturalness, for, al- 
though most of them have suffered subdivision into two 
or more new genera, owing to the great strides Ichthy- 
ology has made since that time, they nevertheless then 
represented natural groups of forms bearing affinity 
one to another. Hence it must be acknowledged that 
ARTEDI'S System of Fishes proved in practice to be of 
sound scientific conception; here and in the following 
section of his work opportunity was afforded him of 
putting into application the rules which he had drawn 
up for nomenclature, etc. 
The fourth part of ARTEDI'S "Ichthyologia" is called 
"Synonymia Nomium Piscium". In it, as GUNTHER truly 
remarks, references to all previous authors are arranged 
for every species, very much in the same manner as 
is adopted in the systematic works of the present day; 
these references and quotations are inserted under the 
diagnosis of each several species, entailing for the author 
a vast amount of labour, as LINNAEUS had occasion to 
