56 INTRODUCTION. 



It is true that natural history is not a science of names 

 alone — we have living objects for the subjects of our con- 

 templation ; and blind indeed must he be to the beauties of 

 the visible world, who could look at a plant or an insect 

 Avith no other interest than that of ascertaining its scientific 

 name. The astronomer would be worse than mad who 

 should regard the great luminaries of the universe with no 

 other feelings for the benefits which they bestow than that 

 of a desire to prove their place in the " heavens above." But 

 whilst we thus uphold the superiority of the observations of 

 the economy and natural history, in its legitimate sense, of 

 the animated world, let us not (hsregard one of its important, ^ 

 although subservient, adjuncts — that of names. No one 

 will indeed deny their utility, the supposed abuse, not 

 the use, of the system being objectionable. Should, how- 

 ever, any one object to the latter, and affirm that nature 

 may be studied in all its details without the technical 

 machinery of names, we shall feel no disinclination even 

 to agree with him in this latter observation, so far as 

 his own. experience is concerned; but how greatly is the 

 case altered should he wish to impart his knowledge. I 

 have, indeed, only to refer to the highly valued memoirs of 

 Reaumur for a confirmation of these observations upon the 

 utility of names, since it has unfortunately happened that 

 many of his most interesting histories, for want of a precise 

 determination of the animals whose habits are thus recorded, 

 have been lost to science. 



Admitting then the necessity of names, it is advisable to 

 prove the necessity of that extended system of nomenclature 

 which, from having been so much paraded, to the exclusion 

 of natm'al history, has caused great clamour to be raised by 

 those who were led to believe, first, that our science was but 

 a science of names, and secondly, that the system of Linnsean 

 nomenclature was amply sufficient for every piu-pose, — hence 



