136 Scientific Notices. 
varieties best accords with that description. Now in selecting the type 
of the Linnean Lar, Mr. Vigors and Dr. Horsfield considered that the 
black-handed species agreed, the more accurately of the two, with the 
deseription of Linnzeus; who, referring to the individual which was the 
representative of his Homo Lar, makes no mention of the white hands, 
and at the same time quotes the figure of Buffon, in which the white 
hands are apparent, with a mark of doubt. Subsequent writers also to . 
Linneus have taken the same view of the subject as Mr. Vigors and Dr. 
Horsfield ; although others of equal authority have assumed a different 
type. For M. Lesson’s satisfaction, it will be sufficient to select from 
among the former two names which he will not be backward in acknow- 
ledging as of ample authority on such points. The first is that of M. 
Cuvier, who having made the white-handed variety the type of the Lin- 
nean Lar in the first edition of his “ Régne Animal,” gives in his 
second and corrected edition the entirely black species as the type ;—the 
second is that of M. Lesson himself, who in his ‘“‘ Manuel de Mammalo- 
gie”’ expressly describes the Hylobates Lar as “ entiérement noir.” On 
the whole, the writers in the Zoological Journal cannot but consider that, 
as the first distinguishers of the two species, they possessed the privilege 
of selecting the type; and, that, in the exercise of this privilege they 
added to it the weight of some authority. 
Trivial, however, is the end obtained in all such questions of nomen- 
clature :—trivial, unless, as in the present instance, it affords an oppor- 
tunity of performing an act of courtesy, or paying a tribute to well- 
merited reputation. And it is with much gratification that Mr. Vigors 
and Dr. Horsfield take advantage of the opportunity now placed within 
their reach of according to the well-established merits of M. Geoffroy 
St. Hilaire the privilege which is theirs only by the humble claim of 
priority. Their feelings are indeed as much interested in this case, as their 
sense of what is due to his distinguished character. In the name which that 
gentleman has imposed upon one of the species, he has made an appeal 
which cannot be resisted. And it is with no common satisfaction that 
they yield their own names to those of M. Geoffroy St. Hilaire; their 
Hylobates albimana merging into his Hyl. Lar; and their Lar into his 
Hyl. Rafflesii. 
But what they thus willingly concede to the merits of this veteran in 
