I believe M. Homberg to have been alive somewhat later: Audouin and
Milne Edwards referred to him in their overview. The publication dates of
Savigny is a complicated story, since the MS sat around in Paris for at
least ten years before it was published. Savigny presented the paper in
the Academy in 1809, and the plates are dated 1812. Both Cuvier and
Lamarck used the MS mercilessly and pre-published most of Savigny's
new taxa with nary a thankyou. The paper was issued in 1820, I
believe, but the illustrations were not issued until 1826 if I remember
correctly. It is a mess. The taxa published by Cuvier and Lamarck
cannot be listed as having Savigny as sole author, if the dates are given
as 1816, 1817 or 1818. The Savigny MS is listed in the synonymy-lists in
most cases, and one could quote it as Savigny in Cuvier etc., The text of
the published descriptions are in most cases NOT the same as those
issued by Savigny later, and some of the synonyms are also different.
The two very famous gentlemen used the MS, published what they
wanted out of it, rewriting as they saw fit etc. We have had a tendency
to be kind, but this is getting to be difficult. Before computers we all
"knew" that when somebody said Savigny 1817, we were supposed to
look for a book published by Lamarck, but unfortunately computers don't
make that kind of jump and we are going to have to quote them correctly
or reasonably correctly.
Have fun Nechama!
Kristian Fauchald
NHB MRC 163
Smithsonian Institution
Washington, DC 20560 USA
Tel. (202)357-4757; FAX (202)357-3043
e-mail Fauchald.Kristian at nmnh.ic.si.edu
