5. Finally, in the “Synonymia Piscium” references to all previous authors are arranged for every species, very much in the same manner which is adopted in the systematic works of the present day.
Linnæus.
Artedi has been justly called the Father of Ichthyology. So perfect was his treatment of the subject, that even Linnæus could no more improve it, only modify and add to it; and as far as Ichthyology is concerned, Linnæus has scarcely done anything beyond applying binominal terms to the species properly described and classified by Artedi.
Artedi had divided the fishes proper into four orders, viz. Malacopterygii, Acanthopterygii, Branchiostegi, and Chondropterygii, of which the third only, according to our present knowledge, appears to be singularly heterogeneous, as it comprises Balistes, Ostracion, Cyclopterus, and Lophius. Linnæus, besides separating the Cetaceans entirely from the class of fishes (at least since the 10th edition of the “Systema Naturæ”) abandoned Artedi’s order of Branchiostegi, but substituted a scarcely more natural combination by joining it with Artedi’s Chondropterygians, under the name of “Amphibia nantes.”
His classification of the genera appears in the 12th edition of the “Systema,” thus—
Amphibia Nantes.
Spiraculis compositis.
- Petromyzon.
- Raia.
- Squalus.
- Chimæra.
Spiraculis solitariis.
- Lophius.
- Acipenser.
- Cyclopterus.
- Balistes.
- Ostracion.
- Tetrodon.
- Diodon.
- Centriscus.
- Syngnathus.
- Pegasus.