Inquiries into the philosophy of zoology / by R. Knox.

  • Robert Knox
Date:
[1855]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Inquiries into the philosophy of zoology / by R. Knox. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    living on the globe, form three distinct subfamilies or genera to be clearly and always distinguished by their dentition. To these three genera or subfamilies he appropriates the names of, 1st, Salrao, 2nd, Forelle or Fario, and 3rd, Salmo Trutta or Trout, names not new to naturalists, though new, perhaps, in their strict application to the three subfamilies of the Salmonidae, long known and distinguished in Britain as salmon, salmon or sea trout, and trout. These sub- families then correspond with the arrangement of many European naturalists who know them by the names of salmon, salmon-trout and trout: the salesman, on the other hand, speaks of the Salmonidae as of two kinds only, — with him what is not salmon is trout,—regard- less of affiliations with species higher or lower in the scale, he looks only to the market-value of the fish. To understand the question at issue between M. Valenciennes and myself, I may first remark that the text of my friend is not clear; the engravings inaccurate and unworthy the high character of the work. It is difficult, as I have experienced, to get artists to copy exactly what is placed before them. The errors in the engravings alluded to must be ascribed to the artists employed; the obscurity in the text M. Valenciennes, no doubt, will himself explain.* Proceeding on principles directly opposed to those of M. Valenciennes, I select, as the starting-point of the inquiry, the dentition of the young of the Sal- monidae ; one of the objects held in view being to ascertain whether it be correct to say, in all cases, that the adult salmon is to be charac- terized by the persistence of certain vomerine teeth only ; the forelle by the presence of others superadded to those of the salmon; the Salmo Trutta by the presence of a dentition wholly distinct from both. The whole of my researches are opposed to this view, which, although seemingly practical, is really not so. It may further facilitate the clear apprehension of the object and results of these inquiries, and their bearing on some important points in the Philosophy of Zoology, if I, in the first place, lay before my readers the dental for- mula arrived at by M. Valenciennes and subsequently the results of the inquiries I have made into this matter, from which I think it will be manifest to the scientific naturalist that the natural-history arrangement of the Salmonidre adopted by M. Valenciennes is inadmissible. 1st. The true salmon, observes this distinguished naturalist, is cha- * Whilst occupied with the correction of the proofs of this memoir, I have just been informed of the death of my most amiable and esteemed friend.
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