1854.] 237 



ties in Europe and in this country ; and, when I have had in such part a memoir, 

 1 had two hundred and fifty copies printed for my own use, one hundred and 

 fifty of which I at once distributed at heme and abroad where I thought they 

 might be useful to science. When part second of the same volume may have 

 been printed, the same process took place, and when part third was ready, it took 

 the same course, with this addition, viz. a title page for the whole volume was 

 printed for the convenience of those who might choose to have their three parts 

 bound into a volume, and this title bore the date of the last part. Thus most 

 of these copies of my descriptions with figures, may have been in the hands of 

 the Zoologists of Europe and America for two or three years prior to the date 

 at which Mr. Conrad has stated them as being published. In addition, he usually 

 pays no regard to the dates of my descriptions printed in the Proceedings of the 

 American Philosophical Society or otherwise, prior to their subsequent issue in 

 the Transactions. Thus on the 18th August, 1843, I read a number of descrip- 

 tions before that Society and permission was granted to me to print them at 

 once. The following day, Aug. 19th, these descriptions were printed and circu- 

 lated. Now Mr. Conrad in his synopsis dates these as published in 1846 !* 

 three years aftar they were actually issued printed. The rule, however, which 

 the author says he will adopt of taking the date of the whole volume, when the 

 da f e of publication of each species cannot be otherwise obtained, is not always 

 followed, for the date in the title page of Vol. 3d is 1830, while the following 

 species described in this volume, U. occidens, U. rubiginosus, U. mulliradiaius, and U. 

 securis, he date3 in 1832, and U. helerodon,\ in the same memoir, he dates 1833; thus 

 species described and printed in (he same memoir, are by him often dated in different 

 years. 



The question as to fixing with precision the date of discovery of a new form, 

 has been one of anxiety and doubt among men of science. For myself I have 

 never felt satisfied that it was judicious to make any change in the long received 

 rule of permanently fixing the date of publication! to be that, when the paper 

 was read before and deposited with the officers of a learned Society, with a view 

 to printing. Receiving as authority the dates issued by individuals in publica- 

 tions is exceedingly dangerous. There may be antedates, and these can rarely 

 be detected. In the case of a deposit of a paper with a learned society, in- 

 tended for publication, and a record being made of it at the time, there cannot 

 be any probability by collusion of the officers to make a change. 



As much of Mr. Conrad's Synopsis involves the names and claims of Mr. Rafin- 

 esque, it becomes necessary to say something in explanation of my having in my 

 papers adopted but few of his names. It has been asserted that I wished to de- 

 prive this unfortunate naturalist of the credit of his labors. This I must deny. 

 I believe I was the very first writer who, coming into this field of inquiry, showed 

 a desire to do him justice. When I commenced, in 1827, the series of papers 

 which has grown since to many volumes, I did not find a single species credited 

 to Rafiuesque by Mr. Say or Mr. Barnes; but my friends, Dr. Griffith, Mr. Hyde, 

 Mr. Peale, Dr. Green and Mr. Stewart, all my predecessors, thought they could 

 recognise, probably, three or four of his species. In 1831. Professors Short and 

 ISaton, of Transylvania Medical College, Lexington, published in the Transylvania 

 Journal of Medicine a descriptive catalogue of the Naiades then known to them t 

 having collected quantities of them in Kentucky, Ohio, &c. As Mr. Rafiuesque 

 had been a professor in the same college, they very naturally desired to give him 

 all they could identify, and out of thirty-five species in their list, Mr. Rafinesque 



* These are U. Buckleyi, U. Buddianus, U. minor, U. amygdalus, U. fuscatus 

 and U. negUctus. 



f Read before the American Phil. Soc. Mar. Gth, 1829. 



\ Publication does not necessarily mean printing and issuing a notice of a fact 

 or a discovery. Dr. Webster says, that publication is a "notification either by 

 words, writing, or printing," and Johnson defines it "the act of notifying to the 

 wor;d." 



