164 THE GENERA OF FISHES, FART II 



Compilations of this sort constitute an exercise in modesty. They 

 can never be made absokitely complete nor free from errors. In the 

 present case, the author cannot be certain that the genotype he indi- 

 cates is actually the one chosen by the first reviser. The compilation 

 itself deals with the work of great minds, but also with a degree of igno- 

 rance, carelessness and perversity by which names were multiplied with 

 no corresponding increase of ideas. Synonymy in general is the index 

 of lack of actual knowledge, or else, of the failure to deal justly with 

 the work of others, "a burden and a disgrace to science"'. No system of 

 naming can be beyond the knowledge on which it rests. Ignorance of 

 fact produces confusion in nomenclature. 



The science of ichthyology, to which the present series of papers 

 offers a kind of key, is the work of rriany scholars, each in his own field, 

 each contributing a series of. facts, a series of tests of the work of others, 

 or else some improvement in the method of arrangement. As in other 

 branches of science, this work has been done by sincere, devoted men, 

 impelled by a love for this kind of labor, and having in view, as "the only 

 reward they asked, a grateful remembrance of their work". And as 

 future generations may be lenient towards our own shortcomings, we 

 should be generous towards those of our predecessors. 



In so far as the present paper assumes to decide questions of nomen- 

 clature, it follows strictly the rules agreed on by the International Com- 

 mission. Of these, the one of most vital iniporlance is concerned with 

 the rigid enforcement of the law of priority. 



The writer expresses his special obligation to Mr. Barton A. Bean of 

 the United States National Museum, and to Henry Weed Fowler of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia for services in examining 

 rare or forgotten books, and to Mr. Masamitsu Oshima, for valuable aid 

 in compilation. He is also under special obligations to Mr. R. A. Nelg^er 

 of the Stanford University Press for his care in ensuring accuracy in 

 this difficult piece of work. In arranging the genera of fossil fishes, 

 he has depended almost entirely on the Catalogue of the Fossil Fishes 

 in the British Museum, by Arthur Smith Woodward. The cataloguing 

 of the scattered and multifarious genera of Dr. Bleeker has been made 

 possible by the Index of the Ichthyological Paf^ers of P. Bleeker, by 

 Dr. Max Weber and Dr. L. F. de Beaufort. In matters of citation of titles 

 Dean's Bibliography of Fishes has been absolutely indispensable. The 

 writer hopes to complete this work by a final paper covering the period 

 from 18.S9 to 1920. The need of such compilation grows progressively 

 less, as the Zoological Record of London, beginning with 1864, contains 

 references to nearly all the generic names of subsequent date, although 

 having occasional surprising omissions. 



