NOMENCLATURE. 29 



species, and the natural history of the species. The last plays hut an insig- 

 nificant part too often, while the history and bibliography encroach upon the 

 natural history, and to an alarming degree are believed to be substitutes for it- 

 Zoological monographs must hereafter depend, to a great extent, upon the 

 examination of authentic specimens, and no one has any claim to ask his 

 peers to spend their time in testing the accuracy of his guesses. When he 

 has examined large materials or original collections, his opinions are to be 

 considered and criticised on other than personal grounds, " sine ira ct studio." 

 All appeals to unprejudiced people on questions of nomenclature and per- 

 sonal criticisms, in discussing guesses on questions based most frequently 

 upon myths, do not increase our knowledge one iota ; and if careful study of 

 materials at my command has compelled me to differ from the views gener- 

 ally adopted by most writers on Echinoderms, I am expressing an opinion 

 based upon extensive materials, and I trust no one of the many friends to 

 whom I owe the information I have been able to collect will receive my 

 work in any but the most impersonal manner. 



An attempt to carry out these views has been made in this memoir. I 

 shall consider myself fortunate if I can succeed in persuading others to sim- 

 plify their work by getting rid, to a great extent at least, of the bete noire 

 of Zoologists, and apply their time to better things. We can do this without 

 sacrificing accuracy, or losing our hold upon the past, which is certainly an 

 important point, but should not be maintained at the cost of preventing all 

 future progress. 



Systematic Zoology, viewed, as it should be, as the connecting link be- 

 tween the different departments constituting Biology, has a totally different 

 meaning from mere nomenclature. It becomes an epitome of years of study, 

 the concise expression of the thoughts of a writer on the affinities of the 

 animals he is discussing. Systematic Zoologists have, until lately, laid claim 

 to be exclusively recognized as Zoologists ; they should remember, now at 

 least, that Physiology, Comparative Anatomy, Morphology, Embryology, 

 Palaeontology, Histology, Psychology, and Geographical Distribution are as 

 much a part of Zoology as the mere questions of classification and of no- 

 menclature. Great as have been the benefits derived by following the pre- 

 cepts of Linnaeus, we must nowadays return to old Aristotle and take him 

 for our guide. The Aristotelian view of the whole knowledge of the life of 

 an animal is the true conception of what Zoology should be ; the conver- 

 gence towards this broad base of Zoology, by workers in the different fields 



