464 Miscellaneous. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



^^Goldfussia," "■Comaster,'" and '■^Comatulidce." 



Canon A. M. Nokman ('Annals,' ser. 6, vol. vii. p. 387) haa 

 proposed the name Goldfussia for a criuoid described by Goldfuss 

 under the title ^'■Comatida multiradiata, Lam." It is a pity that 

 even so eminent a naturalist as Canon Norman should propose a 

 new generic name for a specimen that he has never seen (and never 

 will see, for it appears to have been destroyed), of which the sole 

 description is regarded by the best authorities as unreliable, and the 

 very existence of which Canon Norman himself appears to doubt. 

 This publication of names without diagnoses rarely advances science, 

 and, apart from its inconvenience, is unfair to those on whom the 

 real labour of description subsequently falls. And why do these 

 name-givers that shirk sponsorial responsibility always bury their 

 new names in miscellaneous and controversial writings, or even in 

 footnotes to papers on alien subjects? Their reward is obloquy if 

 not oblivion. 



As to '■'■Goldfussia" no more need be said, for it has fortunately 

 come into the world stillborn. Ilecognizing a familiar sound, I 

 applied to my colleague Mr. R. Bullen Newton, who informed me 

 that this name was in 1843 proposed by F. de Castelnau for a 

 Lamellibranch genus *. 



It may be worth pointing out that Goldfuss did not use the name 

 Comaster in the ' Petrifacta Germanise,' but employed it first in his 

 " Beitrage zur Petrefactenkunde," Nova Acta Acad. Leop.-Carol. 

 Nat. Cur, xix. pt. 1, p. 3 9, Breslau, 1839. The date of Comaster, 

 Ag., is usually quoted as 1835 ; but the original cover of Mem. Soc. 

 Sci. Nat. Neuehatel, tome i., which contains the " Prodrome," bears 

 date 1836. The priority of the name Comaster to Actinometra is no 

 new discovery ; but the diagnosis given by Agassiz was worthless, 

 while Canon Norman has not told us what we are to understand by 

 "Comatida midtiradiata, Lamarck." 



When the time arrives for splitting up the assemblage of genera 

 at present lumped together as Comatulidse, the name Antedonidae 

 should certainly be applied to that family in which Antedon is 

 placed. But while such different forms as Thaumatocnnuf^, Atele- 

 crinus, and PromacJiocrinus swell the motley crowd, the name 

 Comatulida? seems, from its very w^ant of meaning, the best adapted 

 to embrace them. F. A. Bather. 



April 5, 1891. 



* ' Essai sur le Systeme silurien de Il'Amdrique septentrionale.' 4to, 

 Paris and Strasbourg, 1843. Goldfussia proposed for Cardwn? nauti- 

 loides, sp. n., p. 43, pi. xv. tigs. •'3, 0. 



