1907.] ON THE DATES OF LINN^US'S ' SYSTEMA NATURiE.' 1035 6. Dates of Publication of the Separate Parts of Gmelin's Edition (13th) of the ' Systema Natnrse' of Liunseus. By John Hopkinson, F.L.S., F.Z.S., &c. [Received November 11, 1907.] In this edition of the ' Systema Naturae,' the first volumej which contains the Aiiimal Kingdom, is in seven parts, with a titlepage dated 1788 in the first part only, the other parts not being dated. In some of these, however, there is evidence of a later date of publication, for i"eferences are given to works pub-lished more recently than 1788, but without their dates being stated. Each part really forms a volume. The importance in questions of prioi-ity of a knowledge of the dates induced the writer to endeavour to ascertain them, and the method adopted was to search in the Catalogue of the Librai'v of the British Museum for bibliographical works published about the end of the 18th century, in order to get contemporary evidence. Eventually a work was found which gave the desired information, and also references to journals containing notices or reviews of one or more of the parts as they successively appeared*. Nearly all of these were found to be in the Library of the Museum, and have been searched, with other contem-poraneous journals, the resu.lt being that not only have the years of publication of all the parts of this edition of the ' Systema Naturae ' been ascertained, but it has been found possible in some cases to arrive at a still nearer approximation to the time of issue. For instance, the Index, forming Part 7, published in 1792, was noticed on the 2nd of July in that year, and therefore must have appeared in the first half of the year. In giving in a tabular form the result of this investigation, it has been thought advisable to add the dates of publication of the remaining volumes of this edition of the ' Systema ' (vol. ii. being in two pai-ts, the second part undated), although they are not zoological. The last column shows the earliest notice found ; there may be earlier ones. Some errors in contemporary records have been detected. In the ' AUgemeine deutsche Bibliotek,' 1790, the date for the second part of the first volume is given as 1788 instead of 1789, but in reviewing the third part the Editor, doubtless warned by this error, wisely refrained from giving it a date. He correctly dated subsequent parts, except the Index, for which no date is given. In the ' Efemeridi litterarie di Roma ' for the 2nd of July, 1791, the first five parts were reviewed, and owing to the misleading-titlepage the date for all was given as 1788. * ' Systematisches Verzeicliniss,' 1785-1790 (Jena, 1795) ; 1791-1795 (Weimar, 1799). [Entered under Catalogues.] Proc. Zool. Soc— 1907, No. LXIX. 69
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