i8g 3 . INDEXES TO NOMENCLATURE. 383 



" Systema Naturae " of Linnaeus, that having been found the most 

 convenient starting point and more in accord with the ideas of foreign 

 as well as British naturalists. The system above described (the 

 completion of one book at a time) is apparently an especially good 

 one, for it permits the MS. to be always complete as far as it goes, 

 and will enable any person, at any moment, to take up the work, 

 should it unfortunately be found necessary. 



A still more gigantic proposition has been advanced by the 

 German Zoological Society, which proposes not only to form a cata- 

 logue of all described species, but to give a short diagnosis of each as 

 well ! The vastness of this compilation overwhelms one, but that 

 indefatigable indexer, Professor Victor Carus thinks well of the 

 scheme. This could not possibly be done by one man, and the 

 notion is, that specialists in every branch of natural history might 

 undertake some family or even genus alone. The final details of 

 Professor Carus's scheme are unknown to us, a brief notice only having 

 as yet appeared in a recent number of the Zoologischer Anzeigev. 



