1896. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 349 



N.Spp. ? 



We have for the greater part of this year been protesting, both 

 in season and, as some of our readers think, out of season, against 

 that irritating form of scientific vanity known as the preliminary 

 notice. Our protest was originally drawn forth by a regrettable 

 publication in the Circular of the Johns Hopkins University from the 

 pen of an excellent American geologist. But his rival has now 

 appeared in our own country, and a greater offender arises in the 

 Geologists' Association. We should like very much to know 

 what particular obliquity of judgment it was that led the well- 

 known gentlemen who form the council of that thoroughly 

 praiseworthy association to publish in the August number of their 

 Proceedings (issued September 4, i8g6) "A Preliminary Synopsis of the 

 Fauna of the Pickwell Down, Baggy, and Pilton Beds : by the Rev. 

 G. F. Whidborne, M.A., F.G.S." We do not propose on the present 

 occasion to discuss the accuracy of this gentleman's work ; we do 

 not propose to repeat for his edification, or for the benefit of the 

 Geologists' Association, the invectives that we have already launched 

 at the heads of workers and societies of even greater reputation ; but 

 we confine ourselves to the most succinct statement possible of the 

 facts of the case. 



The paper occupies seven pages: it consists of a list of 187 names 

 of fossils, most of them without added remarks, but many placed (no 

 doubt wisely) between inverted commas or in front of a note of inter- 

 rogation. Seventy-five of these names, however, are stated to belong 

 to new species. Of these seventy-five new names, two are absolute 

 nomina nuda. Five others are equally unprovided with any attempt at 

 a diagnosis, but have references to figures in Phillips' "Figures and 

 Descriptions of the Palaeozoic Fossils of Cornwall, &c." The remain- 

 ing sixty-eight are followed by sentences which only courtesy and con- 

 venience permit us to designate as diagnoses. No figures are given. 

 We quote at random a few examples of the diagnoses : — 



" Anatifopsis (?) Anglica, n.sp., like A. acuta, Barr., but shorter. 



" Ceratiocaris (?) subquadrata, n.sp., large sub-oblong valves 

 vnth ogee end. 



" Orthoceras Barmnense, n.sp., very like 0. ibex, Sow., but 

 without longitudinal striae. 



" Scaldia (?) longa, n.sp., small, smooth (?), transversely ovate, 

 with sub-central umbo. 



'^ Athyris nigulosa, n.sp., large, with wide flattened fold and 

 numerous imbricated foliaceous striae. 



" Camarella togata, n.sp., with three large ribs on fold. 



" Rhabdomeson (?) distans, n.sp., dichotomizing witth (sic) fewer 

 and more distant zoaecia (sic), with oval apertures. 



" Cornulites devoniamis, n.sp., small, elongate, conical, slightly 

 flexuous, with few step-like annuli. 



