Groups of the Lepidoptera. 349 
reasons, are published following the same order. But 
what respect is such a list to receive, when it seeks to 
change and subvert an arrangement previously adopted ? 
How completely absurd it is to accept as any authority 
a list, which, as if by its author’s ipse dizi, supersedes 
the work of an entomologist who has given his reasons! 
Worse ignominy awaits us in the spectacle of our system 
re-organised by labelling lists! If the label writer keeps 
his place, people will buy his labels in the course of business, 
and his publisher’s account may be expected to show a 
moderately satisfactory return. But if the label writer 
assumes too much, and pretends to be a systematist, we 
shall probably choose to deal somewhere else. When we 
buy a labelling list, it is generally with the confidence 
that if we do not secure a learned, we at least have a 
useful commodity. But if a label writer takes to tinker- 
ing the lists on his own account, not only is his new 
labour thrown away, but his own proper work is rendered 
untrustworthy. I have no hesitation in saying, that I 
regard the introduction of changes in arrangement in a 
list intended for labelling as an affront to science ; and, 
if such a course is not considered to fix a stigma on the 
scientific reputation of an author, it is only because the 
ignorant and unreflecting collectors are so numerous 
that they constitute the majority and direct opinion. 
I gladly dismiss this subject (on which, as will have 
been gathered, I hold a strong view) by suggesting a 
consideration which I think should weigh with any 
author, having pretensions to be a man of science. ‘To 
publish changes in a labelling list for the first time, is to 
obtain a sanction for new views by adventitious means 
—a thing to be deprecated by all. - I leave these gentle- 
men and their followers to the scourge of M. Guenée’s 
trenchant sarcasm where, speaking of improper changes, 
he says they “tendent 4 se vulgariser chez nous par les 
nombreux entomologistes-amateurs qui ne posstdent, 
pour toute bibliothéque, qu’un catalogue qwils suivent 
aveuglément” (Lépidopt., vol. 9, p. xxxiii.). 
An entomological book ought to fulfil the conditions 
required of all good books, according to its kind. If an 
entomological book seek to introduce alterations, an 
entomological book like any other book, ought to support 
those alterations by facts and reasoning. If it be sup- 
TRANS. ENT. soc, 1871.—ParT 11, (AUGUST.) BB 
