570 REPORT— 1898. 



three years. Your Committee are therefore of opinion that no good results 

 would follow in presenting an incomplete report of the work done up to 

 this time, and they respectfully request reappointment. 



Index Animcdium. — Report of a Committee, consisting of Sir W. H. 

 Flower (Chairman), Mr. P. L. Sclater, Dr. H. Woodward, Rev. 

 T. E. R. Stebbing, Mr. R. MacLachlan, Mr. W. E. Hoyle, and 

 Mr. F. A. Bather (Secretary), appointed, to superintend the Com- 

 pilation of an Index Animalium. 



By ' Index Animalium ' is meant an index to the original place of publi- 

 cation of every name, whether valid or invalid, that has ever been applied 

 as the generic or specific denomination of an animal, recent or fossil. It 

 may be repeated that the Committee has decided to deal first with the 

 names occurring in literature published from 1758 to 1800 inclusive. 

 The examination of this literature has been carried on as before by Mr. 

 C. Davies Sherborn at the Natural History Museum. He reports as 

 follows : — 



' Considerable and satisfactory progress has been made during the year 

 ending June 1898. No less than 2,434 volumes and tracts have been 

 examined and indexed, and from these about 5,000 entries have been 

 obtained. This, no doubt, seems a small proportion, but it must be 

 remembered that all the more important works have already been dealt 

 with. There now remain about 3,500 volumes and tracts dealing with 

 zoology, and published before 1800, to be seen : 1,300 of these are not to 

 be found in this country, and have therefore been ordered and are slowly 

 coming in. As most of these 3,500 publications are unimportant it is 

 hoped that in another two years the literature of 1758-1800 will have 

 been so far sifted as to allow the discussion of the question of printing. 



'The final alphabetical sorting of slips for 1758-1800 has been begun, 

 but this in no way interferes with the reference series under genera, as it 

 will be remembered that these slips are all in duplicate.' 



The following reports on dates of publication of books have been 

 published by Mr. Sherborn during the year : — 



Note on the dates of the Zoology of the ' Beagle.' ' Annals and Mag, 

 Nat. Hist.' [6], xx., November 1897. 



Lacepede's Tableaux , . . des Mammif feres et des Oiseaux, 1799. 

 'Natural Science,' December 1897. 



Note on Martyn's 'Psyche,' 1797. 'Annals and Mag. Nat. Hist. 

 [7], i., January 1898. 



The Committee gratefully acknowledges expressions of sympathy from 

 the Linnean, Geological, and Entomological Societies of London. Its | 

 more hearty thanks are due to the Royal Society and the Zoological 

 Society, whose pecuniary aid has enabled many rare books to be purchased, 

 and will make the task of hunting for the remainder comparatively j 

 easy. 



The help obtained from the sources just mentioned is not enough to- 

 secure the services of the compiler, and the Committee therefore asks for j 

 a renewal of the grant of 100/., and recommends its own reappointment, j 

 with Dr. H. Woodward as Chairman in place of Sir William Flower, who j 

 retires from the Committee, 



