148 FIELD GEOLOGY. 



appear to be figured or described at all in any of the 

 books we can consult ; these should be put on one side, 

 and if possible shown to some palaeontologist who makes 

 a special study of the groups to which they severally 

 belong : should they prove to be entirely new species 

 or definite varieties, they may be described as such when 

 an account of the district comes to be written. 



The whole subject of scientific nomenclature is at 

 present in confusion ; but, without going into the matter, 

 we may briefly point out the main causes of this un- 

 satisfactory state of things, and suggest some means of 

 remedy. 



In the first place, the illusory ideas regarding the 

 definiteness of species have greatly contributed to it, for 

 different authorities have had different estimates of 

 specific differences, and many so-called species are after 

 all mere arbitrary creations of individual opinion. 



Secondly, there exists the great desire of finding some- 

 thing new to Science, which too often takes the form of 

 <c species-making " instead of discovery. 



Thirdly, the difficulty in many cases of finding out 

 whether a species has been previously described, either 

 by British or foreign writers, has operated in the same 

 direction. All, in fact, are fruitful causes of the multi- 

 plication of synonyms. 



The first of them opens a difficult question, for a 

 name is undoubtedly required even for varieties, if 

 they are tolerably definite and constant; the only 

 way out of the difficulty appears to lie in the more 

 general use of subgeneric titles, grouping species to- 

 gether under their respective genera, and using in fact 

 a trinomial instead of a binomial nomenclature. 



