74 INTRODUCTION. 



books, and from intercourse with a numerous and well- 

 informed body of naturalists, are now nearly as great 

 in this comitry as in Europe. 



There are, however, other causes tending to the 

 continual introduction of spurious species, independent 

 of the selection of a secondary class of characters 

 on which to establish them, and these arise from the 

 usages of the science itself, and from opinions which 

 are held by some of its authors. We shall briefly 

 mention two of them. The custom of appending the 

 name of the carhest describer of a species to that of 

 the species itself, although it is, in the present state of 

 zoology, necessary and proper, has in this connection 

 inconvenient results. It is certainly a standing evidence 

 of progress, but the working zoologist is apt to attach 

 too much importance to it, and to imagine that his 

 own dihgence, and perhaps his scientific reputation, 

 are measured by the number of species which he dis- 

 covers and describes. At the present time, when 

 every subject of science is attracting the attention of 

 many minds, and the competition is particularly active 

 in zoology, he is justified in supposing that delay may 

 deprive him of the priority of his discovery. Influ- 

 enced at once by a praiseworthy desire of estabhshing 

 his own claims, and by the fear of being anticipated, 

 he hastens to bring forward his description, often with- 

 out giving himself sufiicient time to verify the certainty 

 of his discovery. The result in such a case is fre- 

 quently a supposititious species. The proper correctioa 



