1897. NOTES AND COMMENTS. 37 1 



fossils we may well put the number at 550,000. The number of 

 names applied to those animals is, however, far greater. Owing to 

 the ignorance or perversity of men, or to the gradual advance of 

 knowledge, some animals are burdened with as many as twenty 

 names, but — unlike " the ways of constructing tribal lays " — only one 

 of them is right. Now, whatever be the principles that guide a 

 systematist in determining the name that should be applied to a 

 known species, it is clear that he must have all the claimant names 

 before him when making his decision ; and not only the names that 

 have been applied to the species in question, but names applied to 

 other genera and species, some of which may have received identical 

 names. Consequently, as we have often urged, a complete list of all 

 names that have ever been proposed is an indispensable preliminary 

 to any effective revision of nomenclature. Such a list is the " Index 

 Animalium," now being prepared under the auspices of a Committee 

 of the British Association. 



It has already been shown in Natural Science (Jan., 1896) that 

 the average number of names applied to each species mentioned in 

 the British Museum Catalogue of Birds is 5^. But on a more moderate 

 estimate of three names to each known species in the animal kingdom, 

 this Index will have to contain no less than 1,650,000 references. The 

 mere writing of these is almost a life's work ; and to this labour must 

 be added that of searching for scarce literature, of verifying dates — a 

 most important part of the work, of interpreting obscure passages 

 often in strange tongues, and of sorting the slips into alphabetical 

 order under genera. To this gigantic task, Mr. C. Davis Sherborn, 

 an enthusiastic and competent bibliographer, has devoted himself. 

 In the course of some four years he has completed 140,000 refer- 

 ences, each on a separate slip and in duplicate. These are arranged 

 under genera as the work goes on, so that they are always available 

 for reference. Any zoologist can see them by applying at the librar 

 of the Geological Department of the British Museum (Natural 

 History), and in this way or through correspondence many have 

 already derived important help from Mr. Sherborn's labours. 



Descriptions of the methods and progress of the work have 

 recently appeared in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society (1896, 

 pp. 610-614) and the Geological Magazine (Dec. iv., vol. iii., pp. 557- 

 561, Dec, 1896) ; but, feeling that zoologists in general are not 

 sufficiently aware of the service being rendered them, the Committee 

 has asked us to draw attention to it. We do so with great pleasure, 

 and we earnestly trust that some practical expression of sympathy 

 may be the outcome. The British Association was able last year 

 to make a grant of ;^ioo towards the work ; but this does not go 

 far, and there is no guarantee that a repetition even of this will 

 always be practicable. To make satisfactory progress, at least 

 ;^2oo a year is needed, and the zoologists and palaeontologists of 

 the world should surely be able to provide that sum. 



