1896. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 5 



poor zincotypes illustrate two new species of Cistella, and a few other 

 miscellaneous fossils. It is useless for us to hope that Professor 

 Clark and his assistant, Dr. R. M. Bagg, teach their students how 

 to produce in a proper manner the best kind of scientific work, for 

 however eloquent their precepts may be, they in this case certainly do 

 not better them by their example. 



We are ready to praise those who are breaking new ground in 

 American palaeontology, and we are willing to admit that the active 

 geologists of Johns Hopkins University are not the only hawkers of 

 nomina nuda et synonyma ; but it is time that this particular method ot 

 retarding the progress of science was put a stop to, and if that task 

 is not undertaken by the enlightened universities of Europe and of 

 America, we fail to see what hope is left for the overwhelmed syste- 

 matist. It seems to us, after many years' experience of systematic 

 work both good and bad, that the great desideratum at the present 

 time is, not the multiplication of species whether good or bad, but 

 the re-description, in the light of modern science, of the species 

 that have already been named (we will not say diagnosed), and the 

 arrangement of all species under their proper and finally determined 

 names in the genera to which they are thus shown to belong. 



We cannot sufficiently commend such work as is being done by 

 Hall and Clarke in their revision of the Brachiopoda, by Hyatt, 

 Beecher, and Jackson in studying the development of various fossils, 

 by Wachsmuth and Springer in their monograph of palaeozoic 

 crinoids, and by Whitfield in figuring species described long ago but 

 never yet figured. Men like this are bridge-builders and road- 

 makers for science, the others only raise obstacles in her path. 



On Nomenclature: A True Word in Jest. 



Under the title of " Heresies Taxinomistes," Professor A. L. 

 Herrera has sent us an amusing pamphlet, published in Mcmorias de la 

 Sociedad "Alzate" de Mexico, vol. ix. Professor Herrera begins by a 

 series of quotations, of which the^ following are the best : — 



" La Botanique est I'art de dessecher des plantes dans des feuilles 

 de papier brouillard et de les injurier en grec et en latin. — Karr." 



" Les auteurs, une fois plonges dans les etudes speciales, ont la 

 rage des noms nouveaux et pompeux pour designer des choses de 

 minime importance scientifique. — Kennel." 



He would show that nomenclature, as it exists, is a nuisance, 

 unsatisfactory, and often absurd, and urges on authors the advisability 

 of imposing on newly-discovered forms names descriptive rather of 

 their peculiarities than of the persons to whom the author is indebted. 

 To emphasise this matter, he writes as follows : "In order that we may 

 see the superiority of the common names bestowed on humming-birds, 

 we give a synoptical table. In the first column are the names given 

 by the collectors of birds, who are, for the most part, natives little 



