138 Miscellaneous. 
Vienna, to be submitted to a meeting of the Nomenclature Com- 
mittee of the International Geological Congress which will be held 
at Zurich on the 7th of August. As Bronn’s ‘ Nomenclator’ dates 
back to the year 1858, and nothing of the kind has since been 
attempted, we can only hope that Dr. Neumayr’s proposal may be 
carried out on the scale and with the completeness suggested in 
his admirable report. 
He commences by discussing the plans adopted in the only two 
works which more or less occupy the ground, namely the above- 
mentioned ‘ Nomenclator’ of Bronn and d’Orbigny’s ‘ Prodrome,’ 
both of which are of old date. The plan of the latter, as he very 
justly points out, renders it far more useful to the stratigraphist 
than to the paleontologist—that is to say, regarding it from the 
nomenclatorical point of view; for of course, as indicated by Dr. 
Neumayr, the ‘ Prodrome’ must always be consulted by the paleon- 
tologist on account of the many new genera and species established 
in it. 
Bronn’s plan, on the contrary, was purely paleontological ; strati- 
graphical considerations had no influence whatever upon the general 
arrangement of his work. In the ‘ Nomenclator’ properly so called, 
which occupies his first two volumes, he has given a purely alpha- 
betical list of all the names existing in palzontology up to his date 
(i. e. the generic names are arranged alphabetically and the specific 
names also alphabetically under each genus), with indications of 
synonymy and references to the works in which the different forms 
are described ; while the so-called ‘‘ Enumerator,” constituting the 
third volume, forms a complete classified index to the preceding 
portion, and at the same time furnishes indications of the strati- 
graphical distribution of the species by means of a series of vertical 
columns. Of course in five-and-twenty years paleontology has 
enormously outgrown this work of Bronn’s; but every one who has 
had any thing to do with paleontological work must own that he 
owes a deep debt of gratitude to the man who undertook and so suc- 
cessfully carried out a work of such labour and research. 
** Bronn’s plan of an alphabetical enumeration,” says Dr. Neu- 
mayr, “ has the great advantage that no terminal index is necessary, 
that doubts as to the arrangement of different forms never stand in 
the way, and finally that in those cases in which formerly species 
belonging to different types of the animal kingdom were thrown 
together under the same generic name, no complication arises from 
this confusion. But great as these advantages may be, it is impos- 
sible not to see that still more important considerations are in favour 
of systematic separation in accordance with the great primary groups 
of the animal and vegetable kingdoms: in the first place, in pale- 
ontological researches one usually has to do only with representa- 
tives of one of the primary divisions at a time; and then we need 
only make use of the volume relating to it, and not of the whole 
book ; so that asimplification of the work is introduced. Above all, 
however, we must be governed by practical considerations as to the 
mode of bringing out the work. If every thing is to be brought into 
