22 PALUDINA VIVIPARA. 



in the appropriating system;) but injustice should not be 

 sanctioned on any authority. 



Could the good old Swede have foreseen the havoc 

 destined to be made among his species, he would certainly 

 have placed the founders of the modern credit system 

 among his Damnati. Thus in the dismemberment of the 

 Simiadae, not a single genus was left under his appropriate 

 name, Simia; and all the species were transferred, as a 

 matter of course.* 



The original spirit of all this is a desire to be credited 

 with something, however trifling; and as original research 

 is difficult, some method had to be devised to abstract from 

 the well filled stores of the older authors; and in such a 

 manner as not to excite suspicion; just as influential crimi- 

 nals who undergo a regular trial, are sometimes set free 

 by a preconcerted "flaw in the indictment." The pro- 

 ceedings, in both cases, have an appearance of justice, but 

 nothing more. The original author loses his species, 

 whilst the act of his successor is about as creditable as the 

 productions of those painters who, according to Reynolds, 

 "if they have a history or a family piece to paint, the first 

 thing they do is to look over their common-place book, 

 containing sketches which they have stolen from various 

 pictures; then they search their prints over and pilfer one 



* It is conceded by all, that the Nerita urcea of Miiller, (subse- 

 quently named Ampullaria rugosa by Lamarck,) should be called 

 Ampullaria urcea; and as Lamarck cites Midler's name as a 

 synonym, no one can claim the discovery of the identity of the 

 two: we accordingly find that no author has ventured to give him- 

 self as authority for the species. 



