ARTIFICIAL DEVICES 27 



In fact, lack of settled rules as to the formation of genera, families 

 and even classes, exposes these artificial devices to all the vagaries 

 of arbitrary judgment ; nomenclature undergoes a continuous succession 

 of changes. It never can be fixed so long as this lack of rules con- 

 tinues ; and synonymy, already immense, will continue to grow and 

 become more and more incapable of repairing a confusion which 

 annihilates all the advantages of science. 



This would never have happened if it had been recognised that 

 all the lines of demarcation in the series of objects composing a king- 

 dom of living bodies are really artificial, except those which result 

 from gaps to be filled. But this was not perceived : there was not 

 even a suspicion of it. Almost to the present day naturalists have 

 had no further object in view than that of setting up distinctions. 

 Here is evidence of what I mean : 



" In fact, in order to procure and keep for ourselves the services of 

 all natural bodies within our reach, that we can subordinate to our 

 needs, it was felt that an exact and precise determination of the 

 characters of each body was necessary, and consequently that the 

 details of organisation, structure, form, proportion, etc., etc., should 

 be sought out and determined, so that they could for all time be 

 recognised and distinguished from one another. This is what 

 naturalists are now doing up to a certain point. 



" This part of the work of naturalists has made the most advance. 

 Immense efforts have rightly been made for about a century and a 

 half to perfect it, because it assists us to a knowledge of what 

 has been newly observed, and serves as reminder of what was 

 previously known. Moreover, it fixes our knowledge with regard 

 to objects whose properties are or will hereafter become of use 

 to us. 



" But naturalists attach too much weight to forming lines of 

 demarcation in the general series both of animals and plants ; they 

 devote themselves almost exclusively to this kind of work, without 

 considering it under its true aspect or coming to any agreement as 

 to the framing of settled rules in this great enterprise for fixing the 

 principles of determination. Hence the intrusion of many abuses ; 

 for each one arbitrarily changes the principles for the formation of 

 classes, orders and genera : and numerous different groupings are 

 incessantly being set before the public. Genera undergo continual 

 variation without limit, and the names given to nature's pro- 

 ductions are constantly being changed as a result of this thoughtless 

 proceeding. 



" As a result, synonomy in natural history is now terribly wide- 

 spread. Science every day becomes more obscure ; she is surrounded 



