o'meara, on diatom ace.«. 79 



In common witli many who have devoted their attention to 

 the study of the Diatoms, I entertain the opinion that the 

 system of classification requires and is capable of much im- 

 provement. Generic characters might be more satisfactorily 

 defined than they are at present, and more comprehensive 

 specific descriptions might be adopted ; and by this means 

 the existing nomenclature might be advantageously reduced. 

 I hope and expect that the promised work of Herr Th. 

 Eulenstein, whose extensive experience and sober judgment 

 eminently qualify him for the task, shall soon supply the 

 desideratum, and place the classification of the Diatoms on a 

 basis more simple and more satisfactory than the present. 



But Mr. Kitton, as it appears to me, would apply the knife 

 before the patient is prepared for the operation. Deep-seated 

 and long-standing maladies may be allayed, perhaps, by 

 superficial applications, but will certainly return unless the 

 remedy be of such a nature as to reach the seat of the disease. 

 That our department of science has been embarrassed by an 

 excessive nomenclature must be obvious to every experienced 

 observer. The evil is traceable in some considerable degree 

 to the fact that the descriptions of species are not as compre- 

 hensive as they might be. When, therefore, the student, in 

 the course of his investigations, discovers forms similar to 

 some he finds described, but at the same time exhibiting 

 constantly some peculiarities not noticed in the description, he 

 has no alternative but that of either adopting a defective 

 description or of marking the peculiarities he has noticed by 

 some distinctive name. By the adoption of the former course 

 he relieves his memory at the cost of exactness ; by choosing 

 the latter he secures precision, though it be at the expense of 

 a tax upon his memory. This latter method I regard as the 

 more scientific, and that which will eventually prove more 

 efficacious to remedy the evil and obviate its recurrence for 

 the future. 



Impressed with this conviction, and with this object in 

 view, I consider the proper coin-se for the student is to adopt 

 the existing descriptions of species, to note carefully all con- 

 stantly occurring deviations, and to mark them by a distinc- 

 tive name. By such means his labours will increase the 

 materials for the construction of a more satisfactory system of 

 classification ; and if this result be ultimately attained, they 

 whose observations have been conducted on this principle 

 will be amply consoled for the animadversions their method 

 may have occasionally provoked. 



