NOTE 



-♦o«- 



Feeling sure that such a book as Professor Haeckel's 

 " Schopfungsgeschichte " would do a great deal of good, if 

 placed in the hands of the English reading public, and of 

 commencing students of Natural History, I gladly under- 

 took to revise for the publishers the present translation, 

 which was made by a young lady. I have not attempted 

 to escape a difficulty by ignoring the German names made 

 use of by Professor Haeckel for classes, orders, and genera, 

 but have adopted English equivalents. I do not submit 

 these names as a maturely considered English nomenclature, 

 they appear here simply as necessary parts of a close ren- 

 dering of the German work. I do, however, hold that some 

 such series of English terms is both possible and useful, and 

 do not doubt — in spite of the pretended hostility of the 

 genius of our language, and the curious sentimental objec- 

 tion that English names are unscientific — that we shall 

 before long make use of plain English in speaking of the 

 various groups of plants and animals — much to the gain of 

 the larger public, and without detriment to the latinized 

 nomenclature established for the purposes of the professional 

 student. 



E. K. L. 



Oxfordf October, 1874. 



