434 Scientific Reviews. 
which the knowledge of organization had thrown upon the natural 
relations of animals,—a knowledge which no man in the present 
day had studied more widely, or with more success than Cuvier 
himself,—that alone could lead to a perfection in the classification 
of any one tribe of animals, equal to that which the author hopes 
to attain in his arrangement of the fishes.. 
By his situation at the head of ene of the most splendid Mu- 
seums of Natural History,—by those relations which long and suc- 
cessful labours in the natural sciences have given him with philo- 
sophers at home and abroad,—and by the splendid voyages which 
have lately been undertaken through the liberality of the French 
government, whose treasures have also been poured into his lap,— 
independently of other circumstances, Cuvier was the only man, in 
the present day, adapted to lay the foundation of so splendid a sci- 
entific edifice. No matter how much or whence the assistance, 
whether the name of Valenciennes, or a host of others, stands on 
the title page of this work, it is not one of a kind that can be rap- 
pidly produced by the same individual, who, a few years back, was 
the author of the description of the fossil kingdom,—who has pen- 
ned the historical tribute to the most eminent naturalists for the 
last half century,—and who, after giving the first treatise that em- 
braced the organization of the whole animal kingdom, is now writ- 
ing the history of natural sciences. One man, it can only be re- 
membered, plans the temple, while hundreds of labourers are en- 
gaged in its erection. | 
Since the commencement of the work new sources of informa- 
tion have sprung up; and, in the fourth volume, we find that Mr. 
Valenciennes, in a journey made during the past year, (1829,) to 
London and to Berlin, received in both capitals an earnest proof 
of the interest which the friends of natural history take in the 
enterprise. The curators of the British Museum gave (?) to him 
the fish brought from the North Pacific Ocean by Mr. Collier, sur- 
geon to Captain Beechey’s expedition ; from Mr. Alexander John- 
ston he obtained permission to copy the paintings executed at 
Malacca, under the superintendance of Major Farquhar, and 
which belong to the Asiatic Society, and from Mr. Horsfield the 
drawings made by Dr. Finlayson, surgeon of the expedition to: 
Siam, and deposited in the Museum of the East India Company. 
Mr. Gray also showed him the numerous drawings belonging to 
General Hardwicke, and of which many, by the pencil of the late 
Dr. Buchanan, represent the species described in his work, but net 
figured. Mr. S. Bennett exhibited to him the fish from the seas 
of Sumatra and the Sandwich Islands, which are in the collection 
of the Zoological Society ; and, lastly, he obtained from Mr. Yar- 
rel interesting ebservations on the species frequenting the coasts of 
England. At Berlin he saw the fish sent from Mexico by Mr. 
Deppe; and the undetermined fish of Bloch were intrusted to 
him by Mr. Lichtenstein, to be again submitted to examinations 
and comparisons, in order to obtaim their true synonymes. 
