Abh. Akad. Wiss. Berlin 1804-1811: 39-159. 5 tabs. Read Feb. 28, 1811.

–Allen 544. Sirs., 53, 61, 64, 68, 70, 75, 79, 87, 91, 99, 103, 105, 110, 122; tabs. 1-5. The Family Sirenia is included with the Family Cete in the Order Natantia. Eight species are recognized: Manatus australis, M. Americanus, M. fluviatilis, M. sphaerurus, M.? Simia, Rytina borealis, R. cetacea, and Halicore cetacea. "M. australis" is placed in the Indian Ocean and Australia together with "H. cetacea", based on the testimony of Dampier. M. Americanus and M. fluviatilis are both attributed to South America; one of them (it is not specified which) is said to be found in large rivers and estuaries. M. sphaerurus is Adanson's Senegalese manatee. "M.? Simia" is Steller's "sea-ape". "R. borealis" and "R. cetacea" are used interchangeably. The name Trichechus appears in Tab. 5, together with Manatus, Halicore, and Rytina. Allen pungently comments of this work that "The lists are, so far at least as the Cete and Sirenia are concerned, worthless conglomerations, which, as in the case of other groups treated in the same connection, appear to contain some names coined for the occasion, without descriptions or textual references. The paper may be safely ignored so far as Cetology is concerned." See also I. von Olfers (1818).