[Reprinted from SCIENCE, N. S., VoL XIX., No. 

 482, Pages 498-501, March 25, 1904.] 



PALMER'S ' INDEX GENERUM MAMMALIUM.'* 



DR. PALMER'S 'Index Generum Mam- 

 malium' is a work of immense labor, pains- 

 takingly and intelligently performed, and its 

 publication will form a landmark in the his- 

 tory of mammalian nomenclature. It fur- 

 nishes not only an elaborately annotated list 

 of all the generic and family names of mam- 

 mals, recent and extinct, published since the 

 beginning of the binomial system of Linnaeus 

 down to the end of the year 1903, but the 

 introduction, besides disclosing the origin, his- 

 tory and scope of the work, furnishes a fund 

 of historic information that should most 

 favorably influence the methods of the future 

 in the bestowal and use of names by systemat- 

 ists, not only in mammalogy but in other de- 

 partments of natural history. 



The work consists of an ' introduction ' of 

 about 70 pages, followed by Parts I.-IIL, with 

 an appendix, and an index to Part III. Part 

 I. comprises ' Index of Genera and Subgenera ' 

 (pp. 71-717); Part II., includes the 'Family 

 and Subfamily Names of Mammals ' (pp. 719- 

 776) ; while Part III. is an ' Index of Genera 

 Arranged According to Orders and Families ' 

 (pp. 777-948). The appendix contains names 

 discovered too late to insert in their proper 

 places in Part I. and various additions and 



* ' Index Generum Mammalium : A List of the 

 Genera and Families of Mammals.' By T. S. 

 Palmer, Assistant, Biological Survey. Prepared 

 under the direction of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 

 Chief of Division of Biological Survey. North 

 America Fauna No. 23, U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, Division of Biological Survey. Wash- 

 ington, Government Printing Office, 1904. (Jan- 

 uary 23, 1904.) 8vo, pp. 984. 



