Volume 1
The history of British fishes / [Robert Hamilton].
- Hamilton, Robert, M.D.
- Date:
- [1876]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The history of British fishes / [Robert Hamilton]. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![they inhabit, kind of food, &c.; 2d, On the parts, substance, figure, size, taste, smell, colour, &c. of fishes; 3d, On the particular ])arts of fishes and their difiercnces, such as the head, eyes, ears, mouth, rostrum, jaws, teeth, branchia?, heart, &c.; 4th, Action, and its difi'erent kinds; generation, respira- tion, See. See. It is asserted by Cuvier that lionde- let made little addition to what was previously known of the anatomy of fishes, and no one can ])eruse the four books of his work just spoken of, without readily assenting to this statement. Indeed, this portion is the least valuable of the whole, and comparatively little of it seems to bo derived from his owji observation, although he states, oftener than once, that tiie number of fishes he dissected was very great Having discussed their generalities, he ])roceeds in the fifth book to treat briefly of the order which he designs to observe in describing the sjjecies, and then enters upon the descriptions. In the first four book.s, he informs us, he followed the steps of Aristotle and Theophrastus; but in giving the descriptions and figures of individual sjvecies, it wiis a matter of long and serious consideration what order he shonld adopt. He was long in doubt whether he should commence with the mugil, a:) tialrnus has dotie, or by some other which might be considered as a type among its kind, as the scarus among those that live among rocks, or such os are considered delicious articles of food, as the sole and stvirgcon. At la.st he came to the conclu- sion that it would be most convenient to begin with 0](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29002151_0001_0039.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
