Bloch's Fische Deutschlands (1782-1784)
Marcus Bloch, Oeconomische Naturgeschichte der Fische Deutschlands. Berlin, 1782-1784). [Parts 1-3 of his Allgemeine Naturgeschichte der Fische]
Marcus Bloch (1723-1799) was a German physician from Berlin who spent the earlier part of his career studying intestinal worms. At the age of 57, Bloch turned to the study of fish, and set the task of providing full descriptions and illustrations, in a splendid style, of the species known to him. His first effort, shown here, centered on German fish and was entirely original, based on his own observations, reliable and thorough. His study of foreign fishes, however, which appeared in volumes 4-12 of Allgemeine Naturgeschichte, was based on the work of others. Thus it was subject to many of the misconceptions that filtered through the great body of travel literature during the 18th century-presenting a range of illustrations with exacting accuracy on one had or enticing imagination on the other.