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THE ZOOLOGIST 



fire beginning to aflojDt this method in the description of cultivated 

 phmts, botli useful and ornamental. 



Dr. Gill said in regard to this question : " We have had a 

 condition of things which must appeal to the sense of the 

 ludicrous. In former times there was an undivided belief in 

 creation, and yet we had before us our domesticated animals and 

 cultivated vegetables, exhibiting these excessive variations — so 

 great, that if seen in nature, they would be differentiated not only 

 into species, but different genera. Take the dog. We were told 

 the dog was a species — by some said to be created for the use of 

 man. What is the dog ? It is not a species in any sense of the 

 word; it is simply a conjugation of forms, derivatives from a 

 number of wild species. The dog is not a species; it is the 

 result under cultivation and domestication of the off-spring of 

 half a dozen different species. It is a composite which itself 

 shows the processes of development in a marked degree, so that 

 we have in what is popularly known as the dog, a combination of 

 species and even genera." 



Dr. Coues said it gave him great pleasure to note the extent 

 of the indorsement given to this system ; but that he had expected 

 that some one would have put forward the objections which miglit 

 be raised. As none appeared to be forthcoming, he would venture 

 to state some of them liimself. The purpose of the trinomial 

 system, he remarked, is an obvious one, yet that system is so 

 sharp a tool that without great care in handling, one is apt 

 to cut his fingers with it. It is of such pliability and elasticity, 

 and lends itself so readily to little things, that in naming forms 

 one is tempted to push discriminations beyond reasonable and 

 due bounds. It gives one an opportunity— even a temptation — 

 to enter into faunal catalogues and lists of animals an almost 

 indefinite number of very slightly differentiated forms in any 

 department of zoology— forms which perhaps only the eye trained 

 in that special line is able to satisfactorily discriminate. We 

 therefore liave in our lists a number of so-called geographic and 

 climatic races which no one but their discoverer or describer is 

 able to recognize or appreciate. This is the real difficulty— the 

 real objection to the system — its abuse in the hands of immature 

 specialists. Dr. Coues said, with some emphasis, that since he 

 had ventured to bring the matter to the attention of the Academy, 

 he would not conclude without adding the word of caution, that 



