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Historical Portrait of the Progress of Ichthyology / Tableau historique des progrès de l’ichtyologie

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Georges Cuvier

Part two/Deuxième partie. The Sixteenth-Century Revival/La renaissance au seizième siècle

5. Anatomical Contributions of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries

Texte intégral

  • 1 See [Albrecht von] Haller, Bibliotheca anatomica, vol. 1 [1774].
  • 2 Hieronymus Fabricius [Fabricius d’Aquapendente], born at Aquapendente [1533-1619], student of [Gabr (...)
  • 3 Jules Casserius (Giulio Casseri) of Placentia [born 1552], died in 1616, successor to Fabricius at (...)
  • 4 Marcus Aurelius Severinus (Marco Aurelio Severino), born at Tarsia in Calabria in 1580, professor a (...)
  • 5 Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, born at Naples in 1608, professor at Pisa and Florence, died in Rome in 1 (...)
  • 6 Marcello Malpighi, born near Bologna in 1628, professor at Bologna, Pisa, and Messina and first phy (...)
  • 7 Nicolaus Steno [originally Niels Steensen], born at Copenhagen in 1638, became a Roman Catholic at (...)
  • 8 [Steno], in a dissertation following his Elementorum myologiae specimen, Florence, 1667, in quarto; (...)
  • 9 [Steno], in “De anatome rajae epistola,” attached to his De musculis et glandulis observationum spe (...)
  • 10 [Steno], in Acta Medica et Philosophica Hafniensia, vol. 2, obser. 89 [1675].
  • 11 Stefano Lorenzini, Osservazioni intorno alle torpedini, Florence, 1678, in quarto, and in Latin [in (...)

1Especially important in laying new foundations in fish science were the observations by the anatomical school, founded in Italy by such men as Vesalius, Eustachius, and Fallopius, which flourished in the sixteenth century and, during the seventeenth, was brought by a happy necessity to the study of animal anatomy.1 One of its cleverest masters, Fabricius d’Aquapendente, studied fish reproduction and scales in some detail and published an anatomical description of the houndshark (émissole).2 Casserius, his pupil and successor, made known many interesting facts about the brain and sense organs of these animals, particularly their nares, eyes, membranous labyrinth, and otoliths.3 Severinus, in his Zootomia democritea, while laying the foundations of a general anatomy of animals, also laid those of fish anatomy.4 In his Antiperipatias he sought to prove that fishes breathe the air contained in water, and relying on his ideas on the uniformity of structure in all animals, he even maintained that they have a lung independent of their gills; but he mistook the kidney for this organ. Borelli, in his De motu animalium, explained the mechanism of swimming and made known the use of the swimbladder.5 Malpighi described the singular fold in the medullary substance of the optic nerve, which he observed particularly in the swordfish (xiphias).6 Steno7 wrote about the brain, eye, and teeth of the shark (squale)8 and gave a good description of the viscera of the ray (raie)9 and the electric ray (torpille),10 which were also described by Lorenzini.11

Mechanism of swimming
Giovanni Alfonso Borelli’s illustrations of the mechanism of swimming and swimbladder function in fishes from his
De motu animalium (1743), plate 14.
Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN

  • 12 William Harvey, born at Folkestone, Kent, in 1578, died in London in 1657, physician to James I and (...)
  • 13 Volcher Coiter, physician [and anatomist] at Nuremberg, was born at Gröningen in 1534 and died in 1 (...)
  • 14 The Bartholin family, to which the study of anatomy owes many works, was Danish. Caspar Bartholin, (...)

2The spirit of this school was brought to England by Harvey,12 to Germany by Coiter,13 to the north of Europe by the Bartholin family,14 and before long, it spread throughout Europe. The anatomy of fishes profited from it.

  • 15 Gerard Blasius, born in Amsterdam in 1627, died [in 1682] at Amsterdam, where he practiced medicine (...)
  • 16 Jan Swammerdam, the celebrated author of Biblia naturae, was born at Amsterdam in 1637 and after tr (...)
  • 17 These facts and several others are to be found in two small [anonymous] books, one titled Observati (...)
  • 18 August Quirinus Rivinus [1652-1723], “Observatio anatomica circa poros in piscium cute notandos”, A (...)
  • 19 Joseph Guichard Duverney, born at Feurs in 1648, professor of anatomy in the Jardin du Roi in 1679, (...)

3A group of young physicians from Amsterdam, among them Blasius15 and the immortal Swammerdam,16 addressed themselves to the viscera of fishes and made known those numerous appendages that take the place of a pancreas in most species, and the canal that in several species joins the swimbladder to the stomach.17 Even the pores of their skin became the object of a dissertation by Rivinus.18 Finally Duverney, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, revealed in detail their respiratory organs and the whole mechanism of respiration as well as their branchial circulation and thus completed to a certain point our knowledge of their organization.19

  • 20 Paolo Sylvio Boccone [Italian naturalist] of Palermo, where he was born in 1633, traveled to France (...)
  • 21 Antonio Vallisneri, born in 1661 in the state of Modena, student of Malpighi, professor at Padua in (...)
  • 22 Walter Needham, physician in London [born 1631?], died 1691, was the author of De formato fœtu, Ams (...)
  • 23 Günther Christoph Schelhammer, born at Jena in 1649, professor at Helmstedt, Jena, and Kiel, died i (...)
  • 24 Another dissertation by Schelhammer [1707; “Lumpus anglorum piscis” is found on pp. 20-23; “Ophidio (...)

4Specialized descriptions, in the form of monographs, became very numerous. Boccone wrote his observations on sharks (squales) ;20 Vallisneri, on the freshwater eel (anguille).21 Needham dissected the pike (brochet), the common carp (carpe), and the shad (alose) and discoursed on the respiration of fishes and their organs, as well as their swimbladder.22 Schelhammer and Thomas Bartholin published the anatomy of the swordfish (xiphias);23 the former also described the anatomy of the lumpfish (lump) and the cuskeel (donzelle).24

Head and teeth of a shark
Illustration from Steno (Nicolai),
Elementorum myologiae specimen, seu Musculi descriptio geometrica, cui accedunt canis carchariae dissectum caput, et dissectus piscis ex canum genere, Florence: Stella, 1667, plate 4.
Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN

Dissection of a swordfish
Xiphias gladius, engraving from Hartmann (Philipp Jacob), “Descriptio anatomico-physica xiphiae, sive Gladii piscis”, Miscellanea Curiosa Medico-Physica, decur. 3, vol. 2 (appendix), 1695, pp. 1-22, plate 1.
Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN

  • 25 The “Imperial Academy of Inquiring Naturalists,” whose members were scattered about Germany, was fo (...)
  • 26 Miscellanea Curiosa Medico-Physica, decur. 2, vol. 1, obser. 85 [Johann Conrad Peyer (1653-1712), S (...)
  • 27 [Ibid.], decur. 2, vol. 1, obser. 47 [Johann von Muralt (1645- 1733), professor of medicine at Zuri (...)
  • 28 [Ibid.], decur. 2, vol. 1, obser. 46 [Muralt, on the anatomy of the freshwater burbot, Muralt (Joha (...)
  • 29 [Ibid.], decur. 2, vol. 7, obser. 40; decur. 3, vol. 2, appendix [Philipp Jacob Hartmann (1648-1707 (...)
  • 30 [Ibid.], decur. 3, vol. 2, obser. 139 [Emanuel König (1658- 1731), on the anatomy of the anglerfish (...)
  • 31 [Ibid.], decur. 3, vols 5-6, obser. 231 [Wilhelm Ulrich Waldschmidt (1669-1731), on the anatomy of (...)
  • 32 [Ibid.], decur. 2, vol. 5, obser. 100 [König, on the stomach of the mullet, 1687].

5In particular, a rather large number of anatomical descriptions of species are to be found in the memoirs of connoisseur-naturalists,25 including that of the salmon (saumon) by Peyer,26 of the trout (truit)27 and the freshwater burbot (lote)28 by Muralt, the catfish (silure) and the swordfish (xiphias) by Hartmann,29 the anglerfish (baudroie) by König,30 and the lamprey (lamproie) by Waldschmidt.31 König also described the unusual stomach of the mullet (muges).32

  • 33 Acta medica et philosophica Hafniensia, a collection of observations produced by Thomas Bartholin a (...)
  • 34 Olaus Borrichius, born at Borchen in Denmark in 1626, professor at Copenhagen, chemist and naturali (...)
  • 35 Oliger Jacobaeus, Danish naturalist, born at Århus in 1650, married into the Bartholin family, prof (...)

6In the memoirs of the physicians at Copenhagen33 appeared the anatomy of the needlefish (orphie) by Borrichius34 and those of the freshwater eel (anguille), the angular rough shark (squale centrina), the electric ray (torpille), and the lamprey (lamproie) by Jacobaeus.35

  • 36 “Mémoires pour servir à 1’histoire naturelle des animaux” (vol. 3 of Mémoires de l’Académie Royale (...)
  • 37 [Perrault, “Description anatomique d’un renard marin,” 1733], reprinted by Valentini [1720], pt. 2, (...)
  • 38 Blasius, professor at Amsterdam, mentioned above [note 15], Anatome animalium, terrestrium variorum (...)
  • 39 Michael Bernhard Valentini, professor at Giessen, was born in that city in 1657 and died in 1729. H (...)
  • 40 Samuel Collins [1618-1710], English physician, attached for a time to the czar of Russia, then to t (...)
  • 41 [The twenty species represented in the work of Collins (see note 40 above) include] the dory (dorée(...)

7The Académie Royale des Sciences, Paris, which in the beginning intended to describe and dissect the animals in the menagerie at Versailles, and which in fact went rather far in carrying out this enterprise in its “Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire des animaux,”36 included in this publication anatomical observations on the thresher shark (squale faux).37 Some of these monographs were included in the collections of Blasius38 and Valentini.39 But the most valuable observations at the time on this subject are to be found in the anatomical work of Collins,40 wherein are seen, in twenty-eight well-engraved plates, the viscera and brains of some twenty fishes.41 The illustrations of the brains were especially important and had no equal for a long time.

Joannes Jonstonus’s Historiae naturalis
Various fishes from Jonstonus (Joannes), Historiæ naturalis de quadrupedibus… (1650-1653), vol. 3, plate 11. Engravings by Matthäus Merian.
Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN

  • 42 Joannes Jonstonus, born at Lessno or Lissa, in the palatinate of Posen in 1603, of a family origina (...)
  • 43 Hendrik Ruysch [c. 1663-1727], editor of the third edition of Jonstonus, published at Amsterdam by (...)

8It was desired that all this material be united in one body of work. Toward the middle of the seventeenth century a physician from Silesia, Jonstonus, undertook this task for the whole animal kingdom ;42 but he did it as a simple compiler, without personal knowledge of things and, moreover, completely neglecting anatomy. His volume on fishes in particular is actually nothing more than a rather elegant abridgment of Aldrovandi and the authors who came before Aldrovandi; the sixth book, on the subject of foreign fishes, is based only on Marcgrave and Nieremberg. Also, he copied the plates of these various authors and of Schonevelde, but to the edition of 1718, titled Theatrum animalium,43 have been added some drawings of fishes of the East Indies, which will be discussed later.

9Jonstonus tried to arrange fishes according to a method, but it was a very ill-conceived one. He mingled distinctions based on their habitats with those based on their structure, the latter being ill chosen and inconsistently followed in detail. The fishes ranked under each chapter do not by any means have all the characteristics indicated in the title.

Notes

1 See [Albrecht von] Haller, Bibliotheca anatomica, vol. 1 [1774].

2 Hieronymus Fabricius [Fabricius d’Aquapendente], born at Aquapendente [1533-1619], student of [Gabriello] Fallopio [1523-1562], master of [William] Harvey [see note 12 below], professor at Padua from 1565 to 1609. [His anatomical description of the houndshark appeared in De formato foetu, published in Venice in 1600 (see especially his pls 31- 32). For a facsimile edition, a biography, and commentary on the embryological treatises of Hieronymus Fabricius, see Adelmann (Howard B.), The embryological treatises of Hieronymus Fabricius of Aquapendente: The formation of the egg and of the chick [De formatione ovi et pulli], The formed fetus [De formato foetu], [a facsimile edition, with an introduction, a translation, and a commentary], Ithaca (New York): Cornell University Press, 1942, 2 vols. On Fabricius as an anatomist, see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 99-112.]

3 Jules Casserius (Giulio Casseri) of Placentia [born 1552], died in 1616, successor to Fabricius at Padua, published two works quite remarkable for their time: De vocis auditusque organis historia anatomica, Ferrara, 1600, one volume in folio; and Pentaestheseion, hoc est de quinque sensibus liber, 1610, in folio. In the first he describes and illustrates on pp. 94-95 the brain, ears, and nares of the pike (brochet); in the second [on p. 292], he shows the eye, but with less exactitude. [For more on Casserius, see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 112-125, fig. 53.]

4 Marcus Aurelius Severinus (Marco Aurelio Severino), born at Tarsia in Calabria in 1580, professor at Naples in 1610, died in that city in 1656. His Zootomia democritea, published at Nuremberg under the auspices of Volkamer, 1645, one small volume in quarto, is the first general philosophical treatise on comparative anatomy. It includes notes on the anatomy of a dozen fishes and rough woodcut illustrations of viscera. His Antiperipatias, seu De respiratione piscium did not appear until 1661, at Amsterdam, in one small volume in folio without illustrations. [For more on Severinus, see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 132-149, fig. 54.]

5 Giovanni Alfonso Borelli, born at Naples in 1608, professor at Pisa and Florence, died in Rome in 1679, was one of the founders of the school of Iatromathematicians [the application of mathematics and mechanics to medicine], who sought to apply exact calculations to physiological phenomena. His De motu animalium was published posthumously, Rome, 1680-1681, two volumes in quarto. [For more on Borelli and his research on fish locomotion, see Videler (John J.), Fish swimming, London: Chapman & Hall, 1993, pp. 94-95, fig. 5.1.]

6 Marcello Malpighi, born near Bologna in 1628, professor at Bologna, Pisa, and Messina and first physician to Pope Innocent XII, died at Rome in 1694, includes among his numerous anatomical discoveries the folds in the optic nerve of fishes, which he described in 1664 in the swordfish (xiphias) in a letter addressed to Fracastor; it was reprinted in his Opera omnia botanico-medico-anatomica, Leiden, 1687, one volume in folio [see Malpighi (Marcello), Opera omnia botanico-medico-anatomica, Leiden: Petrus van der Aa, 1687, p. 120]. [For more on Malpighi, see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 177-197.]

7 Nicolaus Steno [originally Niels Steensen], born at Copenhagen in 1638, became a Roman Catholic at Florence in 1667, tutor of the grand duke’s son, professor of anatomy, bishop in partibus infidelium [i.e., appointed over a territory not yet erected into a see], and died at Schwerin in 1686. He was the author of several writings on physiological anatomy published in Denmark, France, and Italy [e.g., see notes 8-10 below], [For an account of Steno’s life and works, see Maar (Vilhelm), Nicolai Stenonis opera philosophia, Copenhagen: V. Tryde, 1910, vol. 1, pp. i-xxviii; vol. 2, pp. 351-359.]

8 [Steno], in a dissertation following his Elementorum myologiae specimen, Florence, 1667, in quarto; reprinted by Blasius [1681], 263-272. [For a facsimile of Steno’s “Canis carchariae dissectum caput,” see Maar (Vilhelm), Nicolai Stenonis opera philosophia, Copenhagen: V. Tryde, 1910, vol. 2, pp. 113-139.]

9 [Steno], in “De anatome rajae epistola,” attached to his De musculis et glandulis observationum specimen [1664]; reprinted by Blasius [1681], 298-302.

10 [Steno], in Acta Medica et Philosophica Hafniensia, vol. 2, obser. 89 [1675].

11 Stefano Lorenzini, Osservazioni intorno alle torpedini, Florence, 1678, in quarto, and in Latin [in 1680] in Misc. Curio. Medico-Physica [see note 25 below]; reprinted by Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 110-115.

12 William Harvey, born at Folkestone, Kent, in 1578, died in London in 1657, physician to James I and Charles I, illustrious discoverer of the general circulation of the blood, was a student of Fabricius d’Aquapendente [see note 2 above]. One can see that his discoveries are a continuation of his master’s ideas. [For more on Harvey, see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 126- 131.]

13 Volcher Coiter, physician [and anatomist] at Nuremberg, was born at Gröningen in 1534 and died in 1576 in France, where he had come as physician with the Germany army. He published a treatise on [bone and] cartilage, Bologna, 1566, and later wrote Diversorum animalium sceletorum explicationes, Nuremberg, 1575, in folio. [For more on Coiter, see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 73-83; Allen (Elsa Guerdrum), “The history of American ornithology before Audubon”, Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, new series, vol. 41, no. 3, 1951, pp. 405-406.]

14 The Bartholin family, to which the study of anatomy owes many works, was Danish. Caspar Bartholin, born at Malmo in Scania in 1585, died in 1629, was author of Institutiones anatomicae [1632] and De unicornu [Padua, 1645, followed by a second edition at Amsterdam, 1678]. Five of his sons produced works. Erasmus (1625-1698) wrote on the mineral “Iceland spar” (cristal d’Islande) [1669] and on other physico-mathematical subjects. Thomas (1616- 1680), discoverer of the lymphatic system, is the one who interests us most. In his essay De luce animalium, Leiden, 1647 and Copenhagen, 1669; in his Historiarum anatomicarum et medicarum variorum centuriae V. et VI. (Copenhagen, 1661); and in Acta medica et philosophica Hafniensia (1673-1680, five volumes in quarto) he has given several facts about the anatomy of fishes —for example, in his “Centuriae V et VI,” a note by [Joannes] Rhodius [1661, pp. 15-17] describes the color, sometimes red, sometimes green, of the liver of the lamprey (lamproie). Caspar II [1655- 1738], son of Thomas, published a dissertation [on shark’s teeth], De glossopetris, Copenhagen, 1704, in quarto, and in 1706 in duodecimo [I have been unable to find a 1706 edition of De glossopetris].

15 Gerard Blasius, born in Amsterdam in 1627, died [in 1682] at Amsterdam, where he practiced medicine, was the author of numerous works on anatomy [e.g., see Blasius (Gerardus Leonardus), Anatome animalium, terrestrium variorum, volatilium, aquatilium, serpentum, insectorum, ovorumque, structuram naturalem ex veterum, recentiorum, propriisque observationibus proponens, figuris variis illustrata, Amsterdam: Joannnis à Someren, Henricus & Vidua Theodorus Boom, 1681, 494 + [2] p., LX pls]. [For more on Blasius, see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 150-155.]

16 Jan Swammerdam, the celebrated author of Biblia naturae, was born at Amsterdam in 1637 and after traveling to France and Germany, died in his home country in 1680. His papers passed through several hands and were finally purchased by [the Dutch physician and chemist Hermann] Boerhaave [born at Voorhout in 1668, died at Leiden in 1738], who published this great work in 1737-1738 [there is also a London edition of 1758]. [For more on Swammerdam, see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 270-305; Schierbeek (Abraham), Jan Swammerdam (12 February 1637-17 February 1680), his life and works, Amsterdam: Swets en Zeitlinger, 1967, 202 p., ills.]

17 These facts and several others are to be found in two small [anonymous] books, one titled Observationes anatomicae selectiores collegii privati Amstelodamensis, Amsterdam, 1667, in duodecimo; the other, Observationum anatomicarum collegii privati Amstelodamensis, pars altera, in quibus praecipue de piscium pancreate ejusque succo agitur, Amsterdam, 1673, in duodecimo [see Amsterdammers, Collegium Privatum, 1667, 1673; for a facsimile edition with introduction, see Cole (Francis Joseph), Observations anatomicae selectiores Amstelodamensium, 1667-1673 [edited with an introduction by F.J. Cole, F.R.S.], Reading: University of Reading, 1938, xi p. [reprint], ills.; see also Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 330-341].

18 August Quirinus Rivinus [1652-1723], “Observatio anatomica circa poros in piscium cute notandos”, Acta Eruditorum (Leipzig), 1687, pp. 160-162.

19 Joseph Guichard Duverney, born at Feurs in 1648, professor of anatomy in the Jardin du Roi in 1679, died in 1730, was the author of several memoirs on human and comparative anatomy collected in two volumes in quarto, Paris, 1761. He also published, with Claude Perrault [1613-1688], “Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire naturelle des animaux,” 1733-1734 [see note 36 below]. His memoir [on respiration and the branchial circulation of fishes] is published in Hist. Mém. Acad. Roy. Sci. (Paris) for 1701 [see Duverney (Joseph Guichard), “Sur la circulation du sang des poissons qui ont des ouyes, et sur leur respiration”, Mémoires de l’Académie Royale des Sciences (Paris), no. 1701, 1743, pp. 226-241] and reprinted in the second volume (vol. 2, pp. 496-510) of his Œuvres anatomiques [1761]. [Johann Julius] Walbaum [1724-1799] had it reprinted in his Artedius renovatus [1789], pt. 2, pp. 167-183 [see Duverney (Joseph Guichard), “Mémoire sur la circulation du sang des poissons qui ont des ouïes”, in Walbaum (Johann Julius) (ed.), Petri Artedi renovati, Grypeswaldia: Ant. Ferdin. Roese, 1789, vol. 1, pt. 2, pp. 167-183].

20 Paolo Sylvio Boccone [Italian naturalist] of Palermo, where he was born in 1633, traveled to France and England, and published at Amsterdam in 1674 his Recherches et observations naturelles, one volume, in duodecimo, in which he gives illustrations of the swordfish (xiphias), the sand lance (ammodite), and observations on sharks (squales) and their teeth; reprinted by Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 118-119. In his Museo di fisica, Venice, 1697 in quarto, he illustrates the lake whitefish (lavaret). He entered the Cistercian order in 1682 and died in 1704.

21 Antonio Vallisneri, born in 1661 in the state of Modena, student of Malpighi, professor at Padua in 1700, died in 1730, was a great observer who wrote on the reproduction of insects, of animals in general, on the chameleon, the ostrich, and so on [see Vallisneri (Antonio), Opere fisico-mediche stampate e manoscritte del kavalier Antonio Vallisneri raccolte da Antonio suo Figliuolo, corredate d’una prefazione in genere sopra tutte, e d’una in particolare sopra il vocabolario della storia naturale, Venice: Sebastiano Coleti, 1733, vol. 1, pp. 385-455]. [His observations on the eel are found in the second volume of his collected works (1733), vol. 2, pp. 89-95, and reprinted by Valentini (1720), pt. 2, pp. 126-130.]

22 Walter Needham, physician in London [born 1631?], died 1691, was the author of De formato fœtu, Amsterdam, 1668, in duodecimo, in which he writes about these subjects in a digression on respiration. The work is titled “De biolychnio & ingressu aeris in sanguinem, item de sanguificatione” [see Needham, 1668, chap. 6, pp. 147-201], because he lent credence to the analogy of respiration with combustion, then generally held by the English and also in our day by [A.] Crawford [1748-1795] and [Antoine Laurent] Lavoisier [1743-1794]. His Disquisitio anatomica de formato fœtu is reprinted in the Bibliotheca anatomica of [Jacob] Manget [1699], vol. 1, pp. 687-723; and an excerpt from it on fishes is reprinted by Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 123-124.

23 Günther Christoph Schelhammer, born at Jena in 1649, professor at Helmstedt, Jena, and Kiel, died in Kiel in 1716. It was at Kiel that he dissected the swordfish and the other fishes mentioned in the text [see Schelhammer (Günther Christoph), Anatomes xiphiae piscis oceani incolae cultro anatomico, A.MDCCIV Accedit lumpi et ophidii ejusdem generis examen, Hamburg: Reumannianis, 1707, pp. 3-17]. The dissertation of Bartholin is reprinted by Blasius [1681], pp. 307-308; that of Schelhammer, by Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 102-108.

24 Another dissertation by Schelhammer [1707; “Lumpus anglorum piscis” is found on pp. 20-23; “Ophidion,” on pp. 23-24)], reprinted by Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 108- 109.

25 The “Imperial Academy of Inquiring Naturalists,” whose members were scattered about Germany, was founded in 1652 by [Johann Laurentius] Bausch [1605-1665], a physician at Schweinfurt. The first volume of its Miscellanea Curiosa Medico-Physica Academiae Naturae Curiosorum, sive Ephemeridum Medico-Physicarum appeared in 1670 [see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 341-369].

26 Miscellanea Curiosa Medico-Physica, decur. 2, vol. 1, obser. 85 [Johann Conrad Peyer (1653-1712), Swiss physiologist, on the internal anatomy of the salmon, 1683]; reprinted by Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 120-121.

27 [Ibid.], decur. 2, vol. 1, obser. 47 [Johann von Muralt (1645- 1733), professor of medicine at Zurich, on the anatomy of the trout, Muralt (Johann von), “Examen anatomicum truttae magnae”, Miscellanea Curiosa Medico-Physica, decur, vol. 2, 1, no. 47, 1683, pp. 128-129]; Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 121-122.

28 [Ibid.], decur. 2, vol. 1, obser. 46 [Muralt, on the anatomy of the freshwater burbot, Muralt (Johann von), “Examen anatomicum mustelae fluviatilis”, Miscellanea Curiosa Medico-Physica, decur, vol. 2, 1, no. 46, 1683, pp. 124-128]; Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 132-133.

29 [Ibid.], decur. 2, vol. 7, obser. 40; decur. 3, vol. 2, appendix [Philipp Jacob Hartmann (1648-1707), on the anatomy of the catfish, 1689, and the swordfish, 1695]; Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 101-102.

30 [Ibid.], decur. 3, vol. 2, obser. 139 [Emanuel König (1658- 1731), on the anatomy of the anglerfish, 1695]; Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 134-135.

31 [Ibid.], decur. 3, vols 5-6, obser. 231 [Wilhelm Ulrich Waldschmidt (1669-1731), on the anatomy of the lamprey, 1700]; Valentini [1720], pt. 2, p. 131.

32 [Ibid.], decur. 2, vol. 5, obser. 100 [König, on the stomach of the mullet, 1687].

33 Acta medica et philosophica Hafniensia, a collection of observations produced by Thomas Bartholin and some of his friends; there are five volumes, published from 1673 to 1680 [see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 369-393].

34 Olaus Borrichius, born at Borchen in Denmark in 1626, professor at Copenhagen, chemist and naturalist, died in 1690. [His anatomy of the needlefish (orphie) appeared in 1675, in Acta medica et philosophica Hafniensia], vol. 2, pp. 149-151; reprinted by Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 119- 120.

35 Oliger Jacobaeus, Danish naturalist, born at Århus in 1650, married into the Bartholin family, professor at Copenhagen, died in 1701. [In addition to his various anatomical works on fishes (see Jacobaeus (Oliger), “Ana tome piscis centrines Italis pesce porco”, in Bartholin (Thomas) (ed.), Acta medica et philosophica Hafniensia, Copenhagen: Petrus Hauboldus, 1680, vol. 5, pp. 251-253; “Anatome piscis torpedinis motusq; tremuli examen”, vol. 5, pp. 253-259; “De lampetra ejusq; pulmonibus, et anguilla”, vol. 5, pp. 259- 262], he described the collections of the Royal Museum of Copenhagen.

36 “Mémoires pour servir à 1’histoire naturelle des animaux” (vol. 3 of Mémoires de l’Académie Royale des Sciences, Paris, 1699, in three parts) is the work of Perrault and Duverney [see Perrault (Claude), Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire naturelle des animaux [Mémoires de l’Académie Royale des Sciences depuis 1666 jusqu’à 1699, t. III], Paris: Compagnie des libraires, 1733-1734, 3 vols (XXVI + 231 p.; 294 p.; IV + 215 p.), in-4°]. The editor, Claude Perrault, physician and famous architect of the colonnade at the Louvre, was born in Paris in 1613, and died in 1688.

37 [Perrault, “Description anatomique d’un renard marin,” 1733], reprinted by Valentini [1720], pt. 2, pp. 82-84.

38 Blasius, professor at Amsterdam, mentioned above [note 15], Anatome animalium, terrestrium variorum, volatilium, aquatilium, serpentum, insectorum, ovorumque, structuram naturalem ex veterum, recentiorum, propriisque observationibus proponens, figuris variis illustrata, Amsterdam, 1681, in quarto.

39 Michael Bernhard Valentini, professor at Giessen, was born in that city in 1657 and died in 1729. His Amphitheatrum zootomicum, tabulis aeneis quamplurimis exhibens historiam animalium anatomicam, was published at Frankfurt am Main, 1720, two parts in one folio volume. [For more on Valentini, see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 175-176.]

40 Samuel Collins [1618-1710], English physician, attached for a time to the czar of Russia, then to the queen, wife of Charles II of England [Catherine of Braganza, daughter of the king of Portugal]. His work, titled ASystem of Anatomy, Treating of the Body of Man, Beasts, Birds, Fish…, two volumes in folio, seventy-four plates, London, 1685, is remarkable for its many handsome illustrations of the anatomy of animals. [For more on Collins, see Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 156-174.]

41 [The twenty species represented in the work of Collins (see note 40 above) include] the dory (dorée), angel shark or monkfish (ange), stingray (pastenague), ray (raie), houndshark (émissole), freshwater burbot (lote), common bream (brème), perch (perche), smelt (éperlan), gudgeon (goujon), mullet (muge), red mullet (surmulet), common eel (anguille), gurnard (grondin), whiting (merlan), plaice (plie), flounder (flet), lamprey (lamproie), Gadus virescens, tench (tanche), common carp (carpe), and anglerfish (baudroie).

42 Joannes Jonstonus, born at Lessno or Lissa, in the palatinate of Posen in 1603, of a family originally from Scotland, died in 1675, was an assiduous compiler and published numerous works. His Historiae naturalis appeared in installments at Frankfurt am Main [1649-1662]: the fishes and cetaceans in 1649, [other aquatic animals in 1650], the birds in 1651, quadrupeds in 1652, insects and snakes in 1653, [and plants in 1662], [seven parts] in folio. It was reprinted in its entirety at Amsterdam in 1657.

43 Hendrik Ruysch [c. 1663-1727], editor of the third edition of Jonstonus, published at Amsterdam by the Wetsteins [see Jonstonus, 1718], was the son of the famous physician and anatomist Frederik Ruysch [1638-1731], who outlived his son by some four years. [Anatomy, both human and comparative, was Frederik Ruysch’s primary interest, but he spared nothing to add additional objects of nature to his collection. He was especially well known for his collection of injected human bodies, which he was able to maintain in a fresh state for long periods; his museum in Amsterdam displayed entire bodies of infants and adults in a state of mummification, all arranged to express dramatic gestures: a “perfect necropolis, all the inhabitants of which were asleep and ready to speak as soon as they were awakened,” as described by one visitor (Gonzalez-Crussi (Frank), “Anatomy and old lace: An eighteenth-century attitude toward death”, The Sciences (New York Academy of Science), vol. 28, no. 1, 1988, p. 48). For more on Ruysch and his embalming techniques, see Scheltema (Pieter), Het leven van Frederik Ruijsch. Academisch proefschrift ter verkrijging van den graad van doctor in de geneeskunde, aan de Rijksuniversiteit te Leiden, op gezag van den rector magnificus Dr. J. P. N. Land, hoogleeraar in defaculteit der letteren en Wijsbegeerte, voor defaculteit te verdedigen op Vrijday 16 April 1886, des Namiddags te 3 Uren, door Pieter Scheltema, geboren te Gouda, arts te Sliedrecht, Leiden: Sliedrecht, Gebroeders Luijt, 1886, 6 + 121 p.; Hazen (Allen T.), “Johnson’s life of Frederic Ruysch”, Bulletin of the History of Medicine, vol. 7, 1939, pp. 324-334.; Cole (Francis Joseph), A history of comparative anatomy: from Aristotle to the eighteenth century, London: Macmillan, 1949, pp. 305-311, 448, 458; Engel (Hendrik), Alphabetical list of Dutch zoological cabinets and ménageries [2nd ed. prepared by Smit Pieter], Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1986, pp. 234-236.]

Table des illustrations

Légende Mechanism of swimmingGiovanni Alfonso Borelli’s illustrations of the mechanism of swimming and swimbladder function in fishes from his De motu animalium (1743), plate 14.Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN
URL http://books.openedition.org/mnhn/docannexe/image/6319/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 124k
Légende Head and teeth of a sharkIllustration from Steno (Nicolai), Elementorum myologiae specimen, seu Musculi descriptio geometrica, cui accedunt canis carchariae dissectum caput, et dissectus piscis ex canum genere, Florence: Stella, 1667, plate 4.Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN
URL http://books.openedition.org/mnhn/docannexe/image/6319/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 157k
Légende Dissection of a swordfishXiphias gladius, engraving from Hartmann (Philipp Jacob), “Descriptio anatomico-physica xiphiae, sive Gladii piscis”, Miscellanea Curiosa Medico-Physica, decur. 3, vol. 2 (appendix), 1695, pp. 1-22, plate 1.Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN
URL http://books.openedition.org/mnhn/docannexe/image/6319/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 96k
Légende Joannes Jonstonus’s Historiae naturalisVarious fishes from Jonstonus (Joannes), Historiæ naturalis de quadrupedibus… (1650-1653), vol. 3, plate 11. Engravings by Matthäus Merian.Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN
URL http://books.openedition.org/mnhn/docannexe/image/6319/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 243k

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