i8 95 . A PASSAGE-AT-ARMS OVER THE AMPHIPODA. 267 



But, on examining a second specimen, he found that the conclusion 

 grounded upon the first must be relinquished. Hereupon, the new 

 suborder would have died of inanition but for a great piece of luck, 

 which needs to be recorded and explained. 



Considering how long and generally the scientific world has been 

 contented with three main divisions or suborders of the Amphipoda, 

 the institution of a fourth is a kind of epoch. To the Gammaridea, 

 Caprellidea, and Hyperidea, we are now invited to add the Sub- 

 hyperidea. The earlier three comprise an immense number of genera 

 and species. In some of these the animals attain a very respectable size. 

 Some, by their astonishing multitudes, are of considerable economic 

 importance. By comparison, it may be a little surprising to find that 

 a single genus, a single species, an animal of a fifth of an inch in 

 length, is the sole representative of the new suborder. The author of 

 it might well imitate the Greek father, who, on seeing a great crowd 

 of people at the funeral of his small infant, could not refrain from 

 expressing his regret that the corpse was not a bigger one. It is 

 true that Nature is able to pack into the tiniest compass the most 

 marvellous and singular characters. It is not to be forgotten that 

 Darwin has established an order of cirripedes for a single genus, a 

 single species, and an animal a tenth of an inch long. But anyone 

 who studies the well-known work in which this performance occurs 

 will see that Darwin ventures upon it with great diffidence, and that 

 in an elaborate discussion he shows himself to be left without an alter- 

 native by the singularities of the form with which he is dealing. On 

 the contrary, the form on which Delia Valle bases his new suborder 

 has not one single character which is not also found in other Gamma- 

 ridea. It is a question of the fusion of two little plates in the 

 maxillipeds. In most Gammaridea these inner laminae are separate. 

 In a few they are coalesced nearly to the tip. In the new suborder 

 they are coalesced quite to the tip. But between the nearly and the 

 quite the difference is nearly or quite inappreciable. Complete 

 coalescence is the rule in the Hyperidea, yet even there it is not 

 without exception, so that the classificatory importance attributed to 

 this character breaks down on both sides. In short, the new suborder 

 must be regarded as a mere vagary, a freak which, on the part of 

 almost any other writer, or in a work of less merit and importance, 

 might have passed without comment. The absurdity of the thing 

 " leaps to the eyes," only because it is committed in the very volume 

 which sets itself stringently to pare away every superfluity, to 

 simplify the whole nomenclature of the subject, and to make an index 

 expurgatorius of all divisions and subdivisions that have been 

 obscurely defined or needlessly established. 



It should be clearly understood that the protest here raised is not 

 directed against Professor Delia Valle's principle, but against his 

 practice. He would have rendered a very solid service had he with 



discreet judgment cleared away the rubbish of all badly founded and 



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