The Conservation of Types, 
by Dr. W. J. HoLLAND (Pittsburgh). 
It is scarcely necessary that I should undertake in this presence 
to attempt to define what constitutes a type. You all are familiar 
with the subject in all its phases. It may, however, be proper to 
remark in passing that all material, which has been made the sub- 
ject of accurate investigation by an author and to which he has 
definitely attached nomenclatorial designations, becomes by that 
very fact typical, and its preservation for the use of students is 
important. 
In the first place, the preservation of typical material is import- 
ant because language, even when employed by a master of the 
descriptive art, often fails to give an adequate conception of the 
objects themselves. The personal equation enters largely into all 
descriptive work. Observers are not all equally competent and 
careful. The most competent and careful observer may fail by 
means of nouns and adjectives to exactly convey to the mind of a 
reader that which he has seen. Word-painting, even when executed 
by a SHAKESPEARE ora TENNYSON, does little more than suggest 
to the mind that which the eye teaches. Even when verbal descrip- 
tions are accompanied by well executed illustrations, there is often 
something left to be desired. The pictorial art has been brought 
