88 THE NAUTILUS. 
WHAT IS SPECIES? 
BY CHARLES T. SIMPSON. 
But while we are throwing stones at the ‘new school’ across the 
water, let us be sure that on this side we are not living in glass 
houses. Look at the 1200 species of Unionide ; more than half of 
which we proudly claim to be residents of the waters of the 
United States! Look, too, at the vast number of names we apply to 
our Strepomatide, our Planorbis, Limnzeas and Physas! ‘There can 
be no doubt that the numbers of these genera, and perhaps those of our 
Zonites and Helices will be greatly cut down when the truth con- 
cerning them is at last revealed to us. How many species of shells 
have we, right here in our own country, which have been thoroughly 
and carefully studied; of which complete collections have been 
made of specimens of various ages throughout their range, and com- 
pared with anything like complete collections of allied forms? Very 
few indeed! I know that in the matter of naming we are all “ prone 
to err as the sparks are to fly upwards.” It is said that a naturalist 
has a horror of the unnamed, and I believe it. I know collectors, 
and good students too, who will not have unidentified specimens in 
their cabinets, and I confess that it makes me a little fidgety to 
have a shell that I cannot refer to anything. ‘Those who collect get 
such things often, and when they refuse to agree with any figure 
or description, it is aggravating and then often no doubt the Father 
of Temptation puts it into their heads that they are new; and the 
thought of seeing their names in print attached to one of the works 
of nature, and the cheap glory that accompanies it stimulates them 
to name and send them out, when perhaps had their relations been 
carefully studied out, they would be found to be merely forms of 
something already well known. I cannot forbear in this place from 
quoting from a letter written by my friend, the late Miss Annie E. 
Law, one of the most careful and indefatigable students and 
collectors that has ever lived in this country. Shesays: “I want 
to tell you what an iconoclast I would be if I hada chance! I send 
you Euryeelon Wheatleyii which came from Mr. Wheatley himself. 
Now can you see any reason why Anculosa praerosa wouldn’t be 
just as gooda name? In the Holston and Clinch Rivers individuals 
of the same species seem to grow heavier, coarser, and generally 
larger as we go down stream. 
