The San Francisco call., 1896-10-16
Consists of Three Massive Vol.
umes and Cost Years
of Toll.
FIRST COPIES ARE JUST OUT.
Tie Doctor Assisted in the Vast I'm
dertaking by an Eminent
thyologist.

STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CAL, Oct.
15.-The great work on fishes which mas
occupied Dr. Jordan's attention for several
years. and Is the greatest work of its kind
ever attem pied, is just in print and DR..
Jordan is in receipt of the first copies.
The work is entitled "Fishes of North and
Middle America" and was prepared by
DR.. David Starr Jordan of Stanford Uni
versity and Barton Warren Evermann,
Ph.D., ichthyoiogist of the United States
Fish Commission. The work was pub
lished by the Smithsonian Institution
National Museum, and consists OF three
massive yolumes-the first alone nun ber-
ing 1910 pages of close print-descriptions
of the various fish forms found in America
from Panama north. In brief form the
authors have brought together in carefully
classified shape description OF the fish
like vertebrates found in all the waters OF
North America.
The dedication is, "To the memory OF
those ichthyologists of the past who have
studied American fishes in America, in
token of the cnly reward they asked-a
grateful remembrance of their work. "
Then follows list of these men from
George Marcgraf, 1610-1644. to Marshall
NJ cDonald, 1836-1895.
In the preface of the work the authors
have the following to say:
In scope the work includes all the species
known to exist in North America, Central
America, the West Indies, the Caribbean Sea,
the Galapagos Archipelago; with the offshore
banks aud continental slopes of both oceans
included as well as the waters of the Gulf
Stream. All marine species known to occur
north of the equator, and all fresh-water spe-
cies north OF the Isthmus of Panama. are in
cluded.
The classification and sequence of groups
adopted by US is essentially that of DR.. Theo-
dore Gill, freely modified to suit our present
purposes. This system in many OF its details
is purely tentative, to be confirmed or changed
when the anatomy of the various forms is bet
ter known.
The rules of nomenclature recently formu-
lated by the American Ornithologists Union.
and now adopted by nearly all American nat
uralists, have Deen followed in this work.
An effort has been made to show in the Sc
quence OF forms something of our knowledge
of the line of evolution OF different groups of
fishes.
Some idea of the vastness of the work
may be estimated when 1T requires nearly
fifty pages for tue table of contents of the
first part only. One hundred and forty
eight family groups of fishes are taken up,
composed of 522 genuses and 1927 SUBJ
genuses.
DR.. Jordan says that in the preparation
of the work he was busted directly for four
years, and indirectly for many years more.
Typewriting of descriptions alone has
cost DR.. Jordan over $1,000, yet all he gets
for the work is fifty copies. which il lus-
trates the fact that as rule scientific works
are far from a source of revenue to their
authors. The author further states that
the preparation of his notes and their
transcription on typewriters gave three
students employment for year. 1t is
possible to obtain copies of the work
through the members of Congress or
through the secretary of the National
Museum.