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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 five/Cinquième partie. Collection Building/La constitution de collections

15. Anatomical and Physiological Contributions of the Early Nineteenth Century

Texte intégral

1If the philosophy of nature did not contribute much to improving our knowledge of the natural history of fishes with regard to classification, it did encourage anatomical research that brought useful results.

  • 1 Johann Heinrich Ferdinand von Autenrieth [1772-1835] was professor [of anatomy] and chancellor of t (...)
  • 2 [Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (see chap. 13, note 18), on the bones of the pectoral fins of fishe (...)
  • 3 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, on the “os furculaire,” one of the parts of the pectoral fin] Annales du M (...)
  • 4 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, on the general form of the sternum] Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle(...)
  • 5 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, reflections on the parts of the bony head of vertebrates, and in particula (...)

2The osteology of fishes had scarcely been touched by the beginning of the nineteenth century. It was in 1800 that Autenrieth, in his anatomy of the plaice (plie), began to examine the analogy between the skeletal parts of fishes and those of the higher classes ;1 on the hyoid apparatus in particular he offered ideas that were later presented by others as new. In 1807 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire compared the bones that support the pectoral fin with those of the shoulder, the upper arm, the lower arm, and the wrist bones of the higher animals2 and brought to light the varieties and different uses of the thin bone behind the shoulder [scapula].3 He also studied the apparatus that carries the branchial membrane and thought it was formed by the union of certain parts of the hyoid apparatus, the sternum, and the rib cartilages.4 He regarded the opercula as parietals separated from the cranium.5

  • 6 [Friedrich Christian Rosenthal (1780-1829), on the skeleton of fishes], Archiv für die Physiologie (...)
  • 7 Rosenthal, Ichthyotomical Tafeln, in German, Berlin, 1812- 1822, [four parts] in quarto.

3In 1811 Rosenthal began his works on the osteology of fishes with a memoir in which he described the bones in the head with great accuracy, but he was not so fortunate in understanding their analogy.6 Since then (1812-1822) he has published four collections of ichthyotomical plates in which he has carefully represented the skeletons of a fair number of fishes for which no osteology had until then been published.7

  • 8 [Cuvier, on the composition of the cranium of vertebrates], Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (...)
  • 9 [Cuvier, on the elements of the upper jaw of fishes], Mémoires du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Pari (...)
  • 10 In the plates of my animal kingdom [Cuvier’s osteological illustrations of fishes in Règne animal, (...)

4At that time, I had also done much work on this subject and had gathered more than three hundred skeletons of fishes. I published in 1812,8 1815,9 and 181610 my ideas on the osteology of this class, as well as various examples taken from individual species.

  • 11 [Burtin is probably François Xavier de Burtin, 1743-1818. On the relationship between the cranium a (...)
  • 12 [Oken, see chap. 14, note 8] on the importance of the bones of the head, Jena, 1807 [Oken (Lorenz), (...)
  • 13 [Johann Baptist von] Spix of the Academy of Sciences of Munich [born at Höchstädt in 1781, particip (...)

5Some years before, Burtin and Duméril explained the relationship between the cranium and the vertebrae.11 In 1807 Oken tried to apply this idea to the structure of the head of animals according to the principles of his philosophy of nature; he thought it was formed of three vertebrae, but he examined it only in the quadrupeds.12 Spix developed these views and modified the details in his great work Cephalogenesis, printed in 1815.13 He represented the crania of several fishes and provided separate drawings of the bones composing them. He was the first to advance the idea that the opercular elements correspond to the ossicles of the middle ear.

Frogfishes and their skeletons
Illustration from Cuvier (Georges) “Sur le genre Chironectes”, Mémoires du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 1817, vol. 3, plate 18.
Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN

  • 14 Philosophie anatomique: the determination and identification of the bony parts of the respiratory o (...)

6Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, who arrived at essentially the same theory on the opercular bones, published his hypothesis in 1818 in his Philosophie anatomique. In the same publication, he developed his earlier ideas on the derivation of the branchial apparatus, which he regarded as analogous to the sternum, the hyoid bone, the larynx, and the trachea and its bronchi. In particular, he gave an exact description and enumeration of the parts composing this apparatus.14

  • 15 Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus [1776-1827], author of an excellent monograph on the European turtle [1819- (...)
  • 16 C. W. H. Fenner, on the cranium of fishes, Jena, 1820 [Fenner (C. W. H.), De anatomia comparata et (...)
  • 17 [Eduard Arendt, born 1790] on the structure of the cranium of the pike (esocis lucci), Regiomonti, (...)

7In the same year (1818), Bojanus published some determinations on the bones of the head of fishes that were rather different from mine and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s.15 Others appeared in 1820 by Fenner,16 and in 1822 by Arendt; the latter proposed these theories in a special treatise on the cranium of the pike (brochet).17

  • 18 Carl Gustav Carus [1789-1869], professor at the surgical academy of Dresden, [published his] anatom (...)

8In 1818 Carus published his Lehrbuch der Zootomy, including a general description of the fish skeleton and some of his own ideas on the branchial apparatus, which he considered to be the only analogue of the thorax.18 He did not discuss the nature of the opercular elements.

  • 19 [Carl August Sigmund Schultze (1795-1877) published his studies on the development of the vertebrae (...)

9Also in that year, Schultze included many interesting facts on the osteology of fishes, particularly their vertebrae, in a memoir on the osteogenesis and subsequent development of the vertebral column in general.19

  • 20 [Ernst Heinrich] Weber [1795-1878], professor of comparative anatomy, Leipzig; his De aure animaliu (...)
  • 21 [Bojanus, see note 15 above], Isis, vol. 8, 1821 [Bojanus (Ludwig Heinrich), “Gehorknocken im Fisch (...)

10In 1820 Weber, in his treatise on the ears of various animals,20 proposed the idea that the bony ossicles of the middle ear are those that in the common carp (carpe), the catfish (silure), and others, are placed between the cranium and the top of the swimbladder and that in fact communicate with the cavity that contains the labyrinth. The following year, Bojanus published a memoir in favor of this new theory.21

  • 22 See the memoirs of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire on the vertebra, Mémoires du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (...)

11But in 1822 and 1824 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire again took up the whole subject of the composition of the head and reiterated his opinion on the opercula. He preceded his work with a general theory on the composition of the vertebra, which he regarded as composed of nine pieces, or rather twelve; the head itself is a series of seven vertebrae and consequently contains eighty-four bones. The author made a special application of this theory to the head of the seabass (Serranus gigas).22

  • 23 Jan van der Hoeven [1801-1868], professor of philosophy at Leiden University, in a dissertation on (...)
  • 24 Gerbrand Bakker [1771-1828], professor at Gröningen, in his Osteographia piscium, Gröningen, 1822, (...)

12The fish skeleton as a whole was the subject of two works published in Holland in 1822: Van der Hoeven’s dissertation23 and Bakker’s osteography.24 The latter work is accompanied by handsome lithographed illustrations representing various bony parts of several fishes. These two authors considered the opercular apparatus to be peculiar to fishes, but as regards the hyoid and branchial apparatus, they agree with Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire.

  • 25 [Johann Friedrich] Meckel [1781-1833], professor at Halle, System der vergleichenden Anatomie; so f (...)

13The second volume of System der vergleichenden Anatomie by Meckel, printed in 1824, also contains a well-written summary of fish osteology, and one hopes to find summaries as instructive on the other parts of their organization in the volumes to come. The author does not adopt the idea of the fusion of the sternum with the hyoid bone, or the dividing of the lower jaw to form the opercula, or other hypotheses of this kind, and in general does not feel obliged to find, bone for bone, the same elements in all animals; he even gives evidence that this concordance does not exist.25 Thus it is that fish osteology, in some ways born during the present time, has been brought to a high level of perfection.

Skeletons
of various vertebrate animals from Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), Philosophie anatomique. Des organes respiratoires sous le rapport de la détermination et de l’identité de leurs pièces osseuses, avec figures de 116 nouvelles préparations d’anatomie, Paris: Méquignon-Marvis, 1818, plate 10.

Osteology of a seabass
Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s osteology of the head of a seabass identified as
Serranus gigas. Mémoires du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 1824, vol. 11, plate 21.
Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN

14Fish myology has not been nearly so well researched and is virtually limited to what I have said in my classes on comparative anatomy and what Carus has published more recently in his Lehrbuch der Zootomy; but I have conducted many studies on this subject for my comparative anatomy, from which I shall give an excerpt in the present work.

  • 26 [Weber, see note 20 above], Anatomia comparata nervi sympathici, Leipzig, 1817 in octavo.
  • 27 [Apostolos Arsakis (1792-1874), a Greek physician, who wrote a dissertation on the brain of fishes] (...)
  • 28 [Heinrich Kuhl, 1797-1821], Beiträge zur Zoologie und vergleichenden Anatomie, Frankfurt am Main, 1 (...)
  • 29 [Antoine Étienne Renaud Augustin Serres, 1786-1868] comparative anatomy of the brain in the four cl (...)
  • 30 [Louis Antoine Desmoulins (1794-1828) and François Magendie (1783-1855)] anatomy of the nervous sys (...)

15There has been more research on fish neurology. Weber published a comparative anatomy of the sympathetic nerves and showed an illustration of the encephalon of the common carp (carpe).26 A dissertation on the fish brain by Apostolos Arsakis appeared at Halle in 1813, in which the encephala of several species are described and illustrated and new ideas are proposed on the analogy of their tubercles.27 The late Kuhl also described and illustrated several fish encephala in his materials for a comparative anatomy, printed in 1820.28 That same year, the fish brain was also discussed in Fenner’s thesis cited above. The work by Serres on the brain published from 1824 to 182729 and that by Desmoulins and Magendie on the nervous system in 182530 also discussed the encephala of many fishes, the latter containing research on the distribution of the nerves.

  • 31 [Detmar Wilhelm Soemmerring, 1793-1871], descriptions of cross sections through the eyes of animals (...)
  • 32 [Ferdinandus Christophilus Massalien (born 1789), in a] dissertation on the eyes of the mackerel, t (...)
  • 33 [Louis Jurine, 1751-1819] on some details of the eye of the tuna, Mémoires de la Société de Physiqu (...)
  • 34 [Everhard Home (1756-1832), in his] Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, vol. 3, pp. 246-248, 1823.

16Fish sense organs were also the object of interesting observations. Soemmerring the Younger, in his work on the eye of animals, provided instructive cross sections of the fish eye.31 Massalien32 and Jurine33 described the eye of the tuna (thon); Sir Everhard Home, that of Squalus maximus.34

  • 35 [Weber, see note 20 above], De aure animalium aquatilium, Leipzig, 1820, in quarto.
  • 36 [Adolph Wilhelm Otto (1786-1845), on the organ of hearing in fishes, 1826.]
  • 37 [Carl Friedrich von Heusinger (1792-1883), on the organ of hearing in fishes], Archiv für Anatomie (...)

17Weber in the work cited above brought forth new and precise details on the fish inner ear and its relation to the exterior ear35 Detailed arrangements of this organ have been observed in a grenadier (lépidoléprus) by Otto,36 and in an elephantfish (mormyre), a long-whiskered catfish (pimélode), and a freshwater hatchetfish (serpe) by Heusinger.37

  • 38 [Christian Eduard] Pohl [1785-1840], in a dissertation on the organs of hearing in animals, Vienna, (...)
  • 39 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (see chap. 13, note 18), on the composition of the cranium of man and anima (...)
  • 40 [André Marie Constant Duméril, see chap. 12, note 16], his memoir [on olfaction in fishes], read at (...)
  • 41 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (see chap. 13, note 18), on the structure and function of the olfactory app (...)

18Observations and drawings of the ear of some species are to be found in the dissertation on hearing by Pohl.38 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire has given us his own ideas on the otoliths of the auricular sac.39 Duméril has advanced his views on the source of their sense of smell.40 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire later proposed rather different ones,41 and also wrote on the analogy of the bones surrounding the nares.

  • 42 [Étienne Marin Bailly (1796-1837) on the fishing apparatus of the anglerfish], Annales des Sciences (...)
  • 43 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, see chap. 13, note 18], Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vo (...)

19Bailly examined the nature and mechanism of the thin dorsal-fin spines that the anglerfish (baudroie) carries on its head.42 Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire discussed in particular the branchial sac in the anglerfish (baudroie).43

  • 44 [Duméril (see chap. 12, note 16), in a] dissertation on fishes most closely related to invertebrate (...)
  • 45 [Martin Heinrich Rathke, 1793-1860] on the internal anatomy of the “pricka” or river lamprey, in Ge (...)
  • 46 [Home (see note 34 above), an] anatomical description of Squalus maximus Linnaeus, in the Phil. Tra (...)
  • 47 [Rathke (see note 45 above) on the anatomy of Cyclopterus lumpus] Deutsches Archiv für die Physiolo (...)

20As for studies of fish thoracic and abdominal splanchnology, one is more likely to find them reported in anatomical monographs than in special treatises. There are many of these particular descriptions. Duméril wrote about the splanchnology of lampreys (lamproies) in general,44 and Rathke wrote about that of the river lamprey (lamproie de rivière) in such a way as to leave nothing more to be desired on the subject of this curious genus.45 Sir Everhard Home and de Blainville wrote about the splanchnology of the great sharks (squales) of northern seas.46 Rathke wrote on that of the lumpfish (lump).47

  • 48 [Home, see note 34 above] Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, London, six volumes, large in quarto, 18 (...)

21Sir Everhard Home, in his magnificent work titled Lectures on Comparative Anatomy48 described and illustrated the stomachs and intestines of about thirty species, both European and foreign. He also discussed the heart, the gills, and the reproductive organs of some of them; his observations on the lamprey (lamproie), the hagfish (myxine), and various sharks (squales) are particularly worthy of attention.

  • 49 [Rathke (see note 45 above) on the abdominal viscera of fishes], Newste Schriften der Naturforschen (...)
  • 50 [Rathke, on the chambers of the heart of fishes], Deutsches Archiv für die Physiologie (Meckel), vo (...)
  • 51 [On the reproductive organs of fishes, see Rathke (Martin Heinrich), “Beiträge zur Geschichte der T (...)

22But the most important treatise on the abdominal viscera of fishes that has appeared recently is by Rathke, of Danzig, on the intestinal canal and reproductive organs. He described the visceral parts of fifty-six species, all from the Baltic Sea.49 The same author published interesting memoirs on the liver, the portal vein system, and the auricle of the fish heart50 and a series of fine observations on their genital organs and the way they develop.51

  • 52 [Friedrich Tiedemann (1781-1861) on the] anatomy of the fish heart, in German, Landshut, 1809, in q (...)
  • 53 [Ignaz Doellinger (1770-1841) on the anatomy of the fish heart, in German], Annalen der Wetterauisc (...)

23Tiedemann and Doellinger have discussed the heart. The former showed this organ in thirty-one species ;52 the latter wrote about the heart from a more general point of view and believed he had found a cavity similar to the right ventricle in birds but that plays no part in the circulation.53

  • 54 [Vincent] Fohmann [1794-1837], the first part of a larger work on the lymphatic system of vertebrat (...)

24Quite recently (1827), Fohmann54 discussed in great detail the lymphatic vessels in fishes and their relation to the veins.

  • 55 [Hunter (see chap. 11, notes 20, 44), anatomical observations on the torpedo and on Gymnotus electr (...)
  • 56 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (see chap. 13, note 18) on the electric organs of the electric ray, the kni (...)
  • 57 [Karl Asmund Rudolphi (1771-1832) on electric fishes, in part 2, pp. 137-144, of his collected anat (...)
  • 58 [Alexander von Humboldt on the electric eel, in part 2 (pp. 49-92) of Voyage aux régions equinoxial (...)

25The secretions and secretory organs of fishes have been studied with great care. To the information already given by Hunter55 and others on the electric organs of the electric ray (torpille) and the knifefish (gymnote), Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire added information on the same organs in the catfish (silure),56 and Rudolphi soon after gave a more detailed description.57 Von Humboldt has performed extensive and valuable experiments on the knifefish (gymnote).58

Swimbladders of drums
Various swimbladders of drums, family Sciaenidae.
Illustration from Cuvier (Georges) & Valenciennes (Achille), Histoire naturelle des poissons, Paris; Strasbourg: F.G. Levrault, 1828-1849, vol. 5, plate 139.
Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN

  • 59 [Delaroche (see chap. 12, note 17) on the swimbladder of fishes], Annales du Museum d’Histoire natu (...)
  • 60 [Cuvier, comments on Delaroche’s studies of the swimbladder of fishes], Annales du Museum d’Histoir (...)
  • 61 [Jean Baptiste Biot (1774-1862) on the nature of the gases found in the swimbladder of fishes], Mém (...)
  • 62 [Pietro Configliachi, 1779-1844] on the gases found in the swimbladder of fishes, Pavia, in quarto, (...)
  • 63 [Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (1776-1837) on the function of the swimbladder of fishes] in vol. 2  (...)
  • 64 [Provençal (probably Jean Michel Provençal, 1781-1845) and von Humboldt (see note 58 above), studie (...)
  • 65 [Paul Erman (1764-1851) on respiration in the loach, Annalen der Physik (Gilbert, Leipzig), vol. 30 (...)

26On the swimbladder, there are the observations of Delaroche59 and my own;60 on the air in the swimbladder, the experiments of Biot61 and Configliachi ;62 and on its functions, a special memoir by Treviranus, who attributed to it the faculty of warning of changes in the weather.63 Provençal and von Humboldt have also examined the air in the swimbladder and combined their observations with a very close investigation of the effect of fishes on the air they breathe.64 Erman revealed very interesting experiments on the decomposition of atmospheric air in the intestines of the loach (misgurn) and the kind of respiration that results from it.65

  • 66 [Antoine François de Fourcroy (1755-1809) and Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (1763-1829) on the chemical c (...)
  • 67 [Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889) on the chemical composition of the cartilage and intervertebral (...)

27Also, tests have been conducted on the chemical composition of various organs in these animals. Fourcroy and Vauquelin performed a chemical analysis of carp milt66 Chevreul analyzed their bones, their cartilage (1811), and even the liquid contained in their intervertebral cavities (1811).67

Notes

1 Johann Heinrich Ferdinand von Autenrieth [1772-1835] was professor [of anatomy] and chancellor of the University of Tübingen. [His anatomy of the flatfish, Pleuronectes platessa, was] published in Archiv für Zoologie und Zootomie, Wiedemann, vol. 1 [1800].

2 [Étienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (see chap. 13, note 18), on the bones of the pectoral fins of fishes compared with those of the forelimbs of other vertebrates], Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 9 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), “Premier Mémoire sur les poissons, où l’on compare les pièces osseuses de leurs nageoires pectorales avec les os de l’extrémité antérieure des autres animaux à vertèbres,” Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle, vol. 9, 1807, pp. 357-372, pl. 29].

3 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, on the “os furculaire,” one of the parts of the pectoral fin] Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 9 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), “Second Mémoire sur les poissons. Considérations sur l’os furculaire, une des pièces de la nageoire pectorale,” Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle, vol. 9, 1807, pp. 413-427].

4 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, on the general form of the sternum] Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 10 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), “Troisième Mémoire sur les poissons, où l’on traite de leur sternum sous le point de vue de sa détermination et de ses formes générales,” Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle, vol. 10, 1807, pp. 87-104, pl. 4].

5 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, reflections on the parts of the bony head of vertebrates, and in particular on those of the cranium of birds] Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 10 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), “Considérations sur les pièces de la tête osseuse des animaux vertébrés, et particulièrement sur celles du crâne des oiseaux,” Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle, vol. 10, 1807, pp. 342-365, pl. 27].

6 [Friedrich Christian Rosenthal (1780-1829), on the skeleton of fishes], Archiv für die Physiologie (Reil), vol. 10 [1811].

7 Rosenthal, Ichthyotomical Tafeln, in German, Berlin, 1812- 1822, [four parts] in quarto.

8 [Cuvier, on the composition of the cranium of vertebrates], Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 19 [Cuvier (Georges), “Sur la composition de la tête osseuse dans les animaux vertébres,” Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle, vol. 19, 1812, pp. 123-128].

9 [Cuvier, on the elements of the upper jaw of fishes], Mémoires du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 1 [Cuvier (Georges), “Mémoire sur la composition de la mâchoire supérieure des poissons, et sur le parti que l’on peut en tirer pour la distribution méthodique de ces animaux,” Mémoires du Museum d’Histoire naturelle, vol. 1, 1815, pp. 102-132].

10 In the plates of my animal kingdom [Cuvier’s osteological illustrations of fishes in Règne animal, vol. 2, 1816].

11 [Burtin is probably François Xavier de Burtin, 1743-1818. On the relationship between the cranium and the vertebrae, I have been unable to locate a publication either by Burtin and Duméril or by Burtin alone. On Duméril, see chap. 12, note 16.]

12 [Oken, see chap. 14, note 8] on the importance of the bones of the head, Jena, 1807 [Oken (Lorenz), Über die Bedeutung der Schädelknochen: ein Programm beim Antritt der Professur an der Gesammt-Universität zu Jena, Jena: Johann Christian Gottfried Göpferdt, 1807, 18 p.]

13 [Johann Baptist von] Spix of the Academy of Sciences of Munich [born at Höchstädt in 1781, participated in an expedition to South America and later, from 1817 to 1820, explored the various provinces of Brazil, from which he brought back representatives of 116 species of fishes; his drawings of the fishes were later donated to the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris. His great work, titled] Cephalogenesis [on the bones of the cranium, was published in] 1815, Munich, large in folio. [He died at Munich in 1826 of an illness contracted in Brazil. For more on Spix, see Adler (Kraig) (ed.), Contributions to the history of herpetology, Oxford (Ohio): Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 1989, p. 23.]

14 Philosophie anatomique: the determination and identification of the bony parts of the respiratory organs, by Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, Paris, 1818 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), Philosophie anatomique. Des organes respiratoires sous le rapport de la détermination et de l’identité de leurs pièces osseuses, avec figures de 116 nouvelles préparations d’anatomie, Paris: Méquignon-Marvis, 1818, xxxix + 517 p. + atlas (10 pls)].

15 Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus [1776-1827], author of an excellent monograph on the European turtle [1819-1821], was a member of the Academy of Sciences of St. Petersburg; formerly professor at Vilna, he died in 1827. [His work on the elements of the cranium of fishes appeared in] Isis, vol. 2, 1818; later, in vol. 9 of the same journal, he published a second note on this subject [Bojanus (Ludwig Heinrich), “Abermals ein Wort zur Deutung der Kopfknocken,” Isis, vol. 9, no 12, 1821, pp. 1145-1158, pl. 8]. [For more on Bojanus, see Adler (Kraig) (ed.), Contributions to the history of herpetology, Oxford (Ohio): Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, 1989, pp. 20-21.]

16 C. W. H. Fenner, on the cranium of fishes, Jena, 1820 [Fenner (C. W. H.), De anatomia comparata et naturali philosophia commentatio sistens descriptionem et significationem cranii, encephali et nervorum encephali in piscibus, Jena: Schmid & Schreiberi, 1820, xii + 56 p., ills].

17 [Eduard Arendt, born 1790] on the structure of the cranium of the pike (esocis lucci), Regiomonti, 1822.

18 Carl Gustav Carus [1789-1869], professor at the surgical academy of Dresden, [published his] anatomical treatise in German [Carus (Carl Gustav), Lehrbuch der Zootomy, mit stäter hinsicht auf Physiologie ausgearbeitet, und durch zwanzig Kupferntaflen erlautert, Leipzig: Gerhard Fleischer dem Jüngern, 1818, 702 p.]

19 [Carl August Sigmund Schultze (1795-1877) published his studies on the development of the vertebrae of fishes in] Deutsches Archiv für die Physiologie (Meckel), vol. 4, 1818 [Schultze (Carl August Sigmund), “Ueber die ersten Spuren des Knochensystems und die Entwickelung der Wirbelsäule in den Thieren,” Deutsches Archiv für die Physiologie, vol. 4, no. 3, 1818, pp. 329-402, pl. 4].

20 [Ernst Heinrich] Weber [1795-1878], professor of comparative anatomy, Leipzig; his De aure animalium aquatilium [was published at Leipzig in 1820, see Weber (Ernst Heinrich), De aure et auditu hominis et animalium. Pars I. De aure animalium aquatilium, Leipzig: Gerhard Fleischer, 1820, 134 p., ills, in-4°].

21 [Bojanus, see note 15 above], Isis, vol. 8, 1821 [Bojanus (Ludwig Heinrich), “Gehorknocken im Fische,” Isis, vol. 8, no. 3, 1821, pp. 272-277, pl. 4].

22 See the memoirs of Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire on the vertebra, Mémoires du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 9 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), “Considérations générales sur la vertèbre,” Mémoires du Museum d’Histoire naturelle, vol. 9, 1822, pp. 89-119, pls 5-7]; on the opercular elements of fishes, Mémoires du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 11 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), “De l’aile operculaire ou auriculaire des poissons, considérée comme un principal pivot, sur lequel doit rouler toute recherche de détermination des pièces composant le crâne des animaux; suivi de tableaux synoptiques donnant le nombre et expliquant la composition de ces pièces,” Mémoires du Museum d’Histoire naturelle, vol. 11, 1824, pp. 420-444, pl. 21]; and on the composition of the cranium of man and fishes, Annales des Sciences naturelles (Paris), vol. 3, [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), “Composition de la tête osseuse de l’homme et des animaux,” Annales des Sciences naturelles, vol. 3, 1824, pp. 173-192, 245-299, pl. 16].

23 Jan van der Hoeven [1801-1868], professor of philosophy at Leiden University, in a dissertation on the fish skeleton, Leiden, 1822, in octavo.

24 Gerbrand Bakker [1771-1828], professor at Gröningen, in his Osteographia piscium, Gröningen, 1822, in octavo, with a collection of eleven plates in quarto.

25 [Johann Friedrich] Meckel [1781-1833], professor at Halle, System der vergleichenden Anatomie; so far, only two volumes have appeared, Halle, 1821 and 1824 [but four more volumes were published from 1828 to 1833, also at Halle]. Riester and Alphonse Sanson have just published a French translation [in ten volumes], Paris, 1828-1838].

26 [Weber, see note 20 above], Anatomia comparata nervi sympathici, Leipzig, 1817 in octavo.

27 [Apostolos Arsakis (1792-1874), a Greek physician, who wrote a dissertation on the brain of fishes], Commentatio de piscium cerebro et medulla spinali, Halle, 1813 [a second edition was published at Leipzig, 1836].

28 [Heinrich Kuhl, 1797-1821], Beiträge zur Zoologie und vergleichenden Anatomie, Frankfurt am Main, 1820, [two parts] in quarto [pt. 2 was coauthored by Jan Coenraad van Hasselt (see chap. 16, note 45)].

29 [Antoine Étienne Renaud Augustin Serres, 1786-1868] comparative anatomy of the brain in the four classes of vertebrates, Paris, two volumes of text in octavo, 1827 with an atlas [of sixteen plates printed in 1824].

30 [Louis Antoine Desmoulins (1794-1828) and François Magendie (1783-1855)] anatomy of the nervous system of vertebrate animals, Paris, 1825, two volumes in octavo, with an atlas [of thirteen plates].

31 [Detmar Wilhelm Soemmerring, 1793-1871], descriptions of cross sections through the eyes of animals, Göttingen, 1818, in folio.

32 [Ferdinandus Christophilus Massalien (born 1789), in a] dissertation on the eyes of the mackerel, the tuna, and the cuttlefish, Berlin, 1815, in quarto.

33 [Louis Jurine, 1751-1819] on some details of the eye of the tuna, Mémoires de la Société de Physique et d’Histoire Naturelle de Genève, vol. 1, 1821.

34 [Everhard Home (1756-1832), in his] Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, vol. 3, pp. 246-248, 1823.

35 [Weber, see note 20 above], De aure animalium aquatilium, Leipzig, 1820, in quarto.

36 [Adolph Wilhelm Otto (1786-1845), on the organ of hearing in fishes, 1826.]

37 [Carl Friedrich von Heusinger (1792-1883), on the organ of hearing in fishes], Archiv für Anatomie und Physiologie (Meckel), vol. 9, 1826.

38 [Christian Eduard] Pohl [1785-1840], in a dissertation on the organs of hearing in animals, Vienna, 1818, in quarto.

39 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (see chap. 13, note 18), on the composition of the cranium of man and animals, see Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), “Composition de la tête osseuse de l’homme et des animaux,” Annales des Sciences naturelles, vol. 3, 1824, pp. 173-192, 245-299, pl. 16.]

40 [André Marie Constant Duméril, see chap. 12, note 16], his memoir [on olfaction in fishes], read at the Institut de France in 1807 was published [that same year] along with the author’s collected works on [zoology and] comparative anatomy [Duméril (André Marie Constant), Mémoires de zoologie et d’anatomie comparée, Paris: J.B. Sajou, 1807, 146 p.]

41 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (see chap. 13, note 18), on the structure and function of the olfactory apparatus of fishes], Annales des Sciences naturelles (Paris), vol. 6, 1825.

42 [Étienne Marin Bailly (1796-1837) on the fishing apparatus of the anglerfish], Annales des Sciences naturelles (Paris), vol. 2 [1824].

43 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, see chap. 13, note 18], Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 10 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), “Sur le sac branchial de la baudroie, et l’usage qu’elle en fait pour pêcher,” Annales du Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, vol. 10, 1807, pp. 480-481].

44 [Duméril (see chap. 12, note 16), in a] dissertation on fishes most closely related to invertebrate animals, Paris, 1812, in quarto, and in his collected memoirs on [zoology and] comparative anatomy [Duméril (André Marie Constant), Mémoires de zoologie et d’anatomie comparée, Paris: J. B. Sajou, 1807, 146 p.]

45 [Martin Heinrich Rathke, 1793-1860] on the internal anatomy of the “pricka” or river lamprey, in German, [Rathke (Martin Heinrich), Bemerkungen über den innern Bau der Pricke Oder des Petromyzon fluviatilis des Linnaeus, Danzig: Wilhelm Theodor Lohde, 1825, 100 p.], in-4°.

46 [Home (see note 34 above), an] anatomical description of Squalus maximus Linnaeus, in the Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. Lond., 1809. [Originally published in English, this paper was later translated into French and augmented] with notes by de Blainville in Journal de Physique (Paris), 1810. [See also de Blainville’s] memoir on the basking shark (squale pélerin), Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 18 [1811].

47 [Rathke (see note 45 above) on the anatomy of Cyclopterus lumpus] Deutsches Archiv für die Physiologie (Meckel), vol. 7 [1822].

48 [Home, see note 34 above] Lectures on Comparative Anatomy, London, six volumes, large in quarto, 1814-1828.

49 [Rathke (see note 45 above) on the abdominal viscera of fishes], Newste Schriften der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Danzig (Halle), vol. 1, 1824.

50 [Rathke, on the chambers of the heart of fishes], Deutsches Archiv für die Physiologie (Meckel), vol. 9, 1826.

51 [On the reproductive organs of fishes, see Rathke (Martin Heinrich), “Beiträge zur Geschichte der Thierwelt. Pt. 1. Über die Entwickelung der Geschlechtstheile bei den Fische,” Newste Schriften der Naturforschenden Gesellschaft in Danzig (Halle), vol. 1, no. 4, 1825, pp. 1-18, pl. 1, figs 1-7.]

52 [Friedrich Tiedemann (1781-1861) on the] anatomy of the fish heart, in German, Landshut, 1809, in quarto.

53 [Ignaz Doellinger (1770-1841) on the anatomy of the fish heart, in German], Annalen der Wetterauischen Gesellschaft für die gesammte Naturkunde (Frankfurt), vol. 2, 1811.

54 [Vincent] Fohmann [1794-1837], the first part of a larger work on the lymphatic system of vertebrates, Leipzig and Heidelberg, 1827, in folio, with sixteen lithographed plates.

55 [Hunter (see chap. 11, notes 20, 44), anatomical observations on the torpedo and on Gymnotus electricus, 1774, 1775.]

56 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (see chap. 13, note 18) on the electric organs of the electric ray, the knifefish, and a catfish], Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 1 [Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), “Mémoire sur l’anatomie comparée des organes électriques de la raie torpille, du gymnote engourdissant, et du silure trembleur,” Annales du Museum d’Histoire Naturelle, vol. 1, 1802, pp. 392-407, pl. 26].

57 [Karl Asmund Rudolphi (1771-1832) on electric fishes, in part 2, pp. 137-144, of his collected anatomical works, published by the] Royal Academy of Sciences of Berlin, 1826.

58 [Alexander von Humboldt on the electric eel, in part 2 (pp. 49-92) of Voyage aux régions equinoxiales du nouveau continent, fait en 1799-1804, by von Humboldt and Bonpland (see Humboldt (Alexander von), “Observations sur l’anguille électrique (Gymnotus electricus, Lin.) du nouveau continent,” in Humboldt (Alexander von) & Bonpland (Aimé Jacques Goujaud) (eds), Voyage aux régions équinoxiales du nouveau continent, fait en 1799-1804, vol. 1: Recueil d’observations de zoologie et d’anatomie comparée, Paris: F. Schoell & G. Dufour, 1811, pp. 49-92, pl. 10). Baron Friedrich Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt was born at Berlin in 1769. After studying at the University of Frankfurt, then at Göttingen, where he learned anatomy, anthropology, and archaeology, he traveled throughout Europe. Inheriting a large fortune at the death of his mother in 1796, he went to Paris, where at the Jardin des plantes he met Bougainville, Cuvier, and Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, and he was named correspondent of the Muséum in 1798. In that same year, with Aimé Jacques Alexandre Goujaud Bonpland (1773-1858), a naval surgeon who became his traveling companion, he sailed from Marseilles to Spain, and through the good offices of the Saxon ambassador in Madrid, Baron Forell, they had an audience with King Charles IV of Spain, who took an interest in their plan to explore the Spanish possessions in South America. Under the sponsorship of the king, they embarked on the Pizarro in May 1799 and for five years explored Venezuela, Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Mexico, making observations and extensive collections of the flora and fauna. Earning the respect and gratitude of all for his encyclopedic knowledge and his diplomacy in the service of science, he died in Berlin in 1859.]

59 [Delaroche (see chap. 12, note 17) on the swimbladder of fishes], Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 14 [see Delaroche (François Étienne), “Observations sur la vessie aérienne des poissons,” Annales du Muséum d’Histoire Naturelle, vol. 14, 1809, pp. 184-217].

60 [Cuvier, comments on Delaroche’s studies of the swimbladder of fishes], Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 14 [see Cuvier (Georges), “Rapport fait à la classe des sciences physiques et mathématiques, sur le mémoire de M. Delaroche, relatif à la vessie aérienne des poissons,” Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle, vol. 14, 1809, pp. 165-183].

61 [Jean Baptiste Biot (1774-1862) on the nature of the gases found in the swimbladder of fishes], Mémoires de physique et de chimie de la Société d’Arcueil (Paris), vols 1 and 2 [see Biot (Jean-Baptiste), “Mémoire sur la nature de l’air contenu dans la vessie natatoire des poissons,” Mémoires de physique et de chimie de la Société d’Arcueil, 1807, vol. 1, pp. 252-281, vol. 2, pp. 487-491]; he found nitrogen and oxygen in all proportions, from nitrogen alone to 87 % oxygen.

62 [Pietro Configliachi, 1779-1844] on the gases found in the swimbladder of fishes, Pavia, in quarto, 1809.

63 [Gottfried Reinhold Treviranus (1776-1837) on the function of the swimbladder of fishes] in vol. 2 [of a much larger collection] of miscellaneous works by Treviranus on anatomy and physiology, Göttingen, [four volumes bound in two], in quarto, 1816-1821.

64 [Provençal (probably Jean Michel Provençal, 1781-1845) and von Humboldt (see note 58 above), studies on the respiration of fishes, Journal de Physique (Paris), vol. 69 (1809).]

65 [Paul Erman (1764-1851) on respiration in the loach, Annalen der Physik (Gilbert, Leipzig), vol. 30 (1808).]

66 [Antoine François de Fourcroy (1755-1809) and Louis Nicolas Vauquelin (1763-1829) on the chemical composition of carp milt], Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 10 [1807].

67 [Michel Eugène Chevreul (1786-1889) on the chemical composition of the cartilage and intervertebral fluid of a shark, Squalus peregrinus], Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle (Paris), vol. 18 [see Chevreul (Michel-Eugène), “Expériences chimiques sur le cartilage du Squalus peregrinus,” Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle, vol. 18, 1811, pp. 136-153, 154; “Sur la liqueur contenue dans les cavités intervertébrales du Squalus peregrinus,” Annales du Museum d’Histoire naturelle, vol. 18, 1811, pp. 154-155].

Table des illustrations

Légende Frogfishes and their skeletonsIllustration from Cuvier (Georges) “Sur le genre Chironectes”, Mémoires du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 1817, vol. 3, plate 18.Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN
URL http://books.openedition.org/mnhn/docannexe/image/6434/img-1.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 159k
Légende Skeletonsof various vertebrate animals from Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire (Étienne), Philosophie anatomique. Des organes respiratoires sous le rapport de la détermination et de l’identité de leurs pièces osseuses, avec figures de 116 nouvelles préparations d’anatomie, Paris: Méquignon-Marvis, 1818, plate 10.
URL http://books.openedition.org/mnhn/docannexe/image/6434/img-2.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 239k
Légende Osteology of a seabassÉtienne Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire’s osteology of the head of a seabass identified as Serranus gigas. Mémoires du Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle, 1824, vol. 11, plate 21.Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN
URL http://books.openedition.org/mnhn/docannexe/image/6434/img-3.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 165k
Légende Swimbladders of drumsVarious swimbladders of drums, family Sciaenidae. Illustration from Cuvier (Georges) & Valenciennes (Achille), Histoire naturelle des poissons, Paris; Strasbourg: F.G. Levrault, 1828-1849, vol. 5, plate 139.Cliché Bibliothèque centrale, MNHN
URL http://books.openedition.org/mnhn/docannexe/image/6434/img-4.jpg
Fichier image/jpeg, 91k

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