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. : Leptogardii. |
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 had he made use of a contribution published as early as 1871, but not referred to by him. As not even a passing allusion is made to it in the previous chapter, we must retrace our steps to make good this striking omission. Edward Drinker Cope (1840-1897) was a worker of great originality and relentless energy, who, in the sixties of the last century, inspired by the doctrine of evolution, was one of the first to apply its principles to the classification of vertebrates. Equally versed in recent and fossil zoology, and endowed with a marvellous gift, or “instinct” for perceiving the relationship of animals, he has done a great deal for the advance of our knowledge of mammals, reptiles and fishes. Although often careless in the working out of details and occasionally a little too bold in his deductions, Cope occupies a high rank among the zoologists of the 19th century, and much of his work has stood the test of time.
The following was Cope’s classification, 1871 (Tr. Amer. Philos. Soc. xiv. 449).