An Introduction to the Study of Fishes

Abstract

A GENERAL work on Fishes could not have been undertaken by a more thoroughly qualified writer than Dr. Günther. Twenty years ago and more he commenced studying the collection of this ever interesting and most important group in the vaults of the British Museum, with what success let not only the present fine collection of fish in the National Museum declare, but also that truly wonderful work, to be the product of one man's labours, “The Catalogue of Fishes,” in eight volumes, published by order of the Trustees of the British Museum. Fishes have always been a subject of great interest to mankind; their commercial value interests some, others, as keen sportsmen, could not exist without their finny prey; from the earliest times, and among the earliest records, we find them of importance as articles of food. To the man of science, be he or be he not a specialist, fishes are of an ever-increasing interest, placed at the very beginning of vertebrate life, and by their study we seem to see more clearly into the evolution of that life which culminated in the production of ourselves.

An Introduction to the Study of Fishes.

By Albert C. L. G. Günther, Keeper of the Zoological Department in the British Museum. (Edinburgh: A. and C. Black, 1880.)