724 The Smithsonian Institution 



The Institution contributed to the needs of its correspon- 

 dents and collectors in another way. Under the title of 

 "Smithsonian Museum Miscellanea," in 1862, it published 

 sheets giving the abbreviated names of states, territories, 

 etc., often repeated, and intended especially for insect- collec- 

 tors, and also five sets of numbers of different sizes. These 

 were frequently called for. 



Here, perhaps, is also the most apt place to mention a work 

 of much more general importance than any of the publica- 

 tions hitherto mentioned, but which belongs to the category 

 of adjuncts to the collector's and describer's outfit. The work 

 in question was compiled as well as published at the expense 

 of the Smithsonian Institution, and was entitled, " Nomen- 

 clator Zoologicus: an alphabetical list of all generic names 

 that have been employed by naturalists for recent and fossil 

 animals from the earliest times to the close of the year 1879." 

 The author was Doctor Samuel H. Scudder, and the com- 

 pleted work was published in 1882. 



It is a rule observed by almost all naturalists not know- 

 ingly to give or adopt a name, already used for one genus, to 

 or for another. But the difficulty of finding out whether a 

 given name had already been used would be very great 

 under ordinary circumstances, and the task of doing so would 

 entail a disproportionate expenditure of time. With the ad- 

 vancing years and increasing number of investigators and 

 describers, the uncertainty and labor involved would be 

 greatly increased. In order to meet the demand for ready 

 reference, from time to time nomenclators or indexes to the 

 genera proposed have been published. The first important 

 one was prepared under the direction of Professor Louis 

 Agassiz, over half a century ago (i842-'46), and another, 

 by Count von Marschall, was published about a quarter of a 

 century later (1873). But useful as both were, another was 



