1894- ON RANDOM PUBLISHING. 



343 



unless withdrawn by the consent of the contributors. One can easily 

 imagine that his experience would often enable him to point out with 

 convincing effect that a supposed novelty was not really new, that a 

 proposed name was pre-occupied, or that the proposed form of it was 

 something a little too horribly barbarous. 



Were the principle once admitted that new genera and species 

 could not be sprung upon the world from every obscure hole and 

 corner, but must be announced at some appointed and easily acces- 

 sible centre, it is not unreasonable to hope that naturalists of different 

 countries might consent to combine their forces for the common 

 benefit. It might be found convenient, for example, that all new 

 Mollusca should be published in France or in Germany, all new 

 Mammalia in Italy or in Denmark. As in that case the journals, 

 receiving contributions from all parts of the world, would be a patch- 

 work of many languages, it is probable that the original descriptions 

 would require to be accompanied by a rendering either into the 

 vernacular of the publishing country, or into Latin, or into some sort 

 of scientific Volapiik. Such details, however important, it would be 

 premature as yet to consider. It may be that scientific workers will 

 thmk absolute freedom preferable to the restraints imposed by 

 systematic combination. Yet it seems overwhelmingly obvious that 

 to every student of a ' special branch of natural history it must be of 

 the highest advantage to know at once where to turn for accredited 

 information on the most recent discoveries in the group which he is 

 studying. It may be at once conceded that the knowledge of new 

 species is only a small fraction of zoological science, but it is almost 

 certain that around the record of new species in a particular group 

 the reports of other investigations in that group will tend to cluster. 

 We are so accustomed to the process of harvesting a stack of wheat 

 from one spacious field, that probably a farmer could hardly think 

 with patience of a different system, by which his reapers would be 

 forced to tramp over half a county, obtaining a bundle of grain in 

 one place and a wisp of straw in another, and from here, there, and 

 everywhere collecting single ears of corn, happy if they chanced to 

 find a fair proportion not green and sour and meagre and mildewed. 

 Why should naturalists continue in a condition of affairs which a 

 rustic would consider almost inconceivably absurd ? However great 

 may be the intellectual and physical vigour enjoyed by men of science, 

 and however ample their prospect of life at the outset, they soon 

 have to realise that the work which they would fain do needs more 

 time and more strength than they can possibly hope to bestow upon 

 it. Often, like Alpine travellers, they reach what seemed to be the 

 longed-for summit, only to find that the true mountain-top is still far 

 away and far above them. Their limbs are wearied. The intervening 

 valley is dense with mist. The shadows lengthen. The night is near. 

 They can go no further. The exploration which they, perhaps of all 

 men, were best fitted to accomplish is left unfinished, because, not on 



