Scientific Notices. 135 



animals as decided species. The animals, without having been seen by 

 the critick, are asserted by him to have long been well known and described. 

 And the authours themselves are dismissed with the no very concihatory 

 imputation of having attempted to palm upon the world " nominal spe- 

 cies" and " pretended novelties." 



How for M. Lesson, the avowed writer of this extraordinary comment, 

 has made good his assertions may be collected from the following details. 



The first animal referred to by Mr. Vigors and Dr. Horsfield, [Vol. IV, 

 p. 107.] was represented by them as having been hitherto considered one 

 of the varieties of the Simia Lar of naturalists, the Homo Lar of Linnseus. 

 It was declared to accord with some of the previous descriptions of that 

 species, and more particularly with some of the best representations 

 given of it in plates. They suggested the propriety of separating speci- 

 fically this reputed variety, which was strongly marked by the hands and 

 feet being white, while the rest of the body was black, from that equally 

 strongly marked variety in which the entire animal was of the latter 

 colour. In this proposed separation they assumed the entirely black 

 variety to be the type of the Linnean species Lar ; and they suggested 

 the name of albimana for the white-handed animal, in case of its being 

 ascertained to be a distinct species. 



That they had some grounds for making this provisional separation, 

 and that in so doing they did not lay themselves open to the imputation 

 of wantonly creating nominal species, may be inferred from the fact, that 

 a year subsequently to the publication of their suggestions, M. Geoffroy 

 St. Hilaire proposed the very same separation between these animals ;* 

 reversing, however, the mode of naming them, by assuming the white- 

 handed variety as the type of the Linnean Lar, and describing the black- 

 handed variety, with a well-meaning and well-nierited compHment, under 

 the specifick name of Raffiesii. 



In cases of this nature where an original observer first points out the 

 specifick difference between reputed varieties of a species, the privilege 

 is usually and naturally accorded him of selecting the variety to which 

 the old name is to be retained. He of course looks to the description of 

 the first imposer of the name, and endeavours to discover which of the 



* Cours de I'Hist. Nat, des Mamnii feres, 7nie 109011, p, 33. 



