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The discovery (in the year 1871) of a living representative of a genus hitherto believed to be long extinct, Ceratodus, threw a new light on the affinities of fishes. The writer of the present article, who had the good fortune to examine this fish, was enabled to show that, on the one hand, it was a form most closely allied to Lepidosiren, and, on the other, that it could not be separated from the Ganoid fishes, and therefore that Lepidosiren also was a Ganoid,—a relation already indicated by Huxley in a previous paper on “Devonian Fishes.”

Having followed the development of the ichthyological system down to this period, we now enumerate the most important contributions to ichthyology which appeared contemporaneously with or subsequently to the publication of the great work of Cuvier and Valenciennes. For the sake of convenience we may arrange these works under two heads.

I. Voyages, containing general accounts of Zoological Collections

A. French.—1. Voyage autour du monde sur les corvettes de S. M. l’Uranie et la Physicienne, sous le commandement de M. Freycinet, “Zoologie—Poissons,” par Quoy et Gaimard (Paris, 1824). 2. Voyage de la Coquille, “Zoologie,” par Lesson (Paris, 1826–1830). 3. Voyage de l’Astrolabe, sous le commandement de M. J. Dumont d’Urville, “Poissons,” par Quoy et Gaimard (Paris, 1834). 4. Voyage au Pôle Sud par M. J. Dumont d’Urville, “Poissons,” par Hombron et Jacquinot (Paris, 1853–1854).

B. English.—1. Voyage of H.M.S. Sulphur, “Fishes,” by J. Richardson (Lond., 1844–1845). 2. Voyage of H.M.SS. Erebus and Terror, “Fishes,” by J. Richardson (Lond., 1846). 3. Voyage of H.M.S. Beagle, “Fishes,” by L. Jenyns (Lond., 1842).

C. German.—1. Reise der österreichischen Fregatte Novara, “Fische,” von R. Kner (Vienna, 1865).

II. Faunae

A. Great Britain.—1. R. Parnell, The Natural History of the Fishes of the Firth of Forth (Edin., 1838). 2. W. Yarrell, A History of British Fishes (3rd ed., Lond., 1859). 3. J. Couch, History of the Fishes of the British Islands (Lond., 1862–1865).

B. Denmark and Scandinavia.—1. H. Kröyer, Danmark’s Fiske (Copenhagen, 1838–1853). 2. S. Nilsson, Skandinavisk Fauna, vol. iv. “Fiskarna” (Lund, 1855). 3. Fries och Ekström, Skandinaviens Fiskar (Stockh., 1836).

C. Russia.—1. Nordmann, “Ichthyologie pontique,” in Demidoff’s Voyage dans la Russie méridionale, tome iii. (Paris, 1840).

D. Germany.—1. Heckel und Kner, Die Süsswasserfische der österreichischen Monarchie (Leipz., 1858). 2. C. T. E. Siebold, Die Süsswasserfische von Mitteleuropa (Leipz., 1863).

E. Italy and Mediterranean.—1. Bonaparte, Iconografia della fauna italica, tom iii., “Pesci” (Rome, 1832–1841). 2. Costa, Fauna del regno di Napoli, “Pesci” (Naples, about 1850).

F. France.—1. E. Blanchard, Les Poissons des eaux douces de la France (Paris, 1866).

G. Spanish Peninsula.—The fresh-water fish fauna of Spain and Portugal was almost unknown, until F. Steindachner paid some visits to those countries for the purpose of exploring the principal rivers. His discoveries are described in several papers in the Sitzungsberichte der Akademie zu Wien. B. du Bocage and F. de B. Capello made contributions to our knowledge of the marine fishes on the coast of Portugal (Jorn. Scienc. Acad. Lisb.).

H. North America.—1. J. Richardson, Fauna Boreali-Americana, part iii., “Fishes” (Lond., 1836). The species described in this work are nearly all from the British possessions in the north. 2. Dekay, Zoology of New York, part iv., “Fishes” (New York, 1842). 3. Reports of the U.S. Comm. of Fish and Fisheries (5 vols., Washington, 1873–1879) and Reports and special publications of the U.S. Bureau of Fisheries contain valuable information. Numerous descriptions of North American fresh-water fishes have been published in the reports of the various U.S. Government expeditions, and in North American scientific journals, by D. H. Storer, S. F. Baird, C. Girard, W. O. Ayres, E. D. Cope, D. S. Jordan, G. Brown Goode, &c.

I. Japan.—1. Fauna Japonica, “Poissons,” par H. Schlegel, (Leiden, 1850).

J. East Indies; Tropical parts of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.—1. E. Rüppell, Atlas zu der Reise im nördlichen Afrika (Frankf., 1828). 2. E. Rüppell, Neue Wirbelthiere, “Fische” (Frankf., 1837). 3. R. L. Playfair and A. Günther, The Fishes of Zanzibar (Lond., 1876). 4. C. B. Klunzinger, Synopsis der Fische des Rothen Meers (Vienna, 1870–1871). 5. F. Day, The Fishes of India (Lond., 1865, 4to) contains an account of the fresh-water and marine species. 6. A. Günther, Die Fische der Südsee (Hamburg, 4to), from 1873 (in progress). 7. Unsurpassed in activity, as regards the exploration of the fish fauna of the East Indian archipelago, is P. Bleeker (1819–1878), a surgeon in the service of the Dutch East Indian Government, who, from the year 1840, for nearly thirty years, amassed immense collections of the fishes of the various islands, and described them in extremely numerous papers, published chiefly in the journals of the Batavian Society. Soon after his return to Europe (1860) Bleeker commenced to collect the final results of his labours in a grand work, illustrated by coloured plates, Atlas ichthyologique des Indes Orientales Néerlandaises (Amsterd., fol., 1862), the publication of which was interrupted by the author’s death in 1878.

K. Africa.—1. A. Günther, “The Fishes of the Nile,” in Petherick’s Travels in Central Africa (Lond., 1869). 2. W. Peters, Naturwissenschaftliche Reise nach Mossambique, iv., “Flussfische” (Berl., 1868, 4to).

L. West Indies and South America.—1. L. Agassiz, Selecta genera et species piscium, quae in itinere per Brasiliam, collegit J. B. de Spix (Munich, 1829, fol.). 2. F. de Castelnau, Animaux nouveaux ou rares, recueillis pendant l’expédition dans les parties centrales de l’Amérique du Sud, “Poissons” (Paris, 1855). 3. L. Vaillant and F. Bocourt, Mission scientifique au Mexique et dans l’Amérique centrale, “Poissons” (Paris, 1874). 4. F. Poey, the celebrated naturalist of Havana, devoted many years of study to the fishes of Cuba. His papers and memoirs are published partly in two periodicals, issued by himself, under the title of Memorias sobre la historia natural de la isla de Cuba (from 1851), and Repertorio fisico-natural de la isla de Cuba (from 1865), partly in North American scientific journals. And, finally, F. Steindachner and A. Günther have published many contributions, accompanied by excellent figures, to our knowledge of the fishes of Central and South America.

M. New Zealand.—1. F. W. Hutton and J. Hector, Fishes of New Zealand (Wellington, 1872).

N. Arctic Regions.—1. C. Lütken, “A Revised Catalogue of the Fishes of Greenland,” in Manual of the Natural History, Geology and Physics of Greenland (Lond., 1875, 8vo). 2. The fishes of Spitzbergen were examined by A. J. Malmgren (1865).  (A. C. G.) 

II. History and Literature from 1880

In the systematic account which followed the above chapter in the 9th edition of the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the following classification, which is the same as that given in the author’s Introduction to the Study of Fishes (London, 1880) was adopted by Albert Günther:—

Subclass I.: Palaeichthyes.

Order I.: Chondropterygii.

With two suborders: Plagiostomata and Holocephala.

Order II.: Ganoidei.

With eight suborders: Placodermi, Acanthodini, Dipnoi, Chondrostei, Polypteroidei, Pycnodontoidei, Lepidosteoidei, Amioidei.

Subclass II.: Teleostei.

Order I.: Acanthopterygii.

With the divisions Perciformes, Beryciformes, Kurtiformes, Polynemiformes, Sciaeniformes, Xiphiiformes, Trichiuriformes,
 Cotto-Scombriformes, Gobiiformes, Blenniformes, Mugiliformes, Gastrosteiformes, Centrisciformes, Gobiesociformes,
 Channiformes, Labyrinthibranchii, Lophotiformes, Taeniiformes and Notacanthiformes.

Order II.: Acanthopterygii Pharyngognathi.

Order III.: Anacanthini.

With two divisions: Gadoidei and Pleuronectoidei.

Order IV.: Physostomi.

Order V.: Lophobranchii.

Order VI.: Plectognathi.

Subclass III.: Cyclostomata.

Subclass IV.: Leptocardii.

It was an artificial system, in which the most obvious relationships of the higher groups were lost sight of, and the results of the already fairly advanced study of the fossil forms to a great extent discarded. This system gave rise to much adverse criticism; as T. H. Huxley forcibly put it in a paper published soon after (1883), opposing the division of the main groups into Palaeichthyes and Teleostei: “Assuredly, if there is any such distinction to be drawn on the basis of our present knowledge among the higher fishes, it is between the Ganoids and the Plagiostomes, and not between the Ganoids and the Teleosteans”; at the same time expressing his conviction, “first, that there are no two large groups of animals for which the evidence of a direct genetic connexion is better than in the case of the Ganoids and the Teleosteans; and secondly, that the proposal to separate the Elasmobranchii (Chondropterygii of Günther), Ganoidei and Dipnoi of Müller into a group apart from, and equivalent to, the Teleostei appears to be inconsistent with the plainest relations of these fishes.” This verdict has been endorsed by all subsequent workers at the classification of fishes.

Günther’s classification would have been vastly improved