III. 
OF SOME OF THE OBSTACLES IMPEDING THE STUDY OF 
ZOOLOGY, AND THE MEANS OF OVERCOMING THEM. 
One of the opprobria of zoology, at the present day, 
is the great number of nominal species, of almost 
every class of animals which have been described and 
published, and which have been brought forward with- 
out sufficient attention to the relative importance of the 
characters on which specific distinctions should be based. 
Hence it happens that, in approaching the study of this 
science, we are compelled to possess ourselves, at the 
outset, of a mass of useless and cumbersome learning, 
which, under the name of synonymy, consists of little 
else than the accumulated misapprehensions of preced- 
ing writers as to the value of specific differences, and 
the record of the errors which they have thereby been 
induced to commit. We cannot pass this shapeless mass 
without notice, for its very bulk challenges attention ; 
nor can we avoid it, for it obtrudes itself at every point. 
The very necessity that exists, of investigating the 
errors of others, in order to render our own labors more 
