610 MR. ©. DAVIES SHERBORN ON A PROPOSED [June 2, 
The following papers were read :— 
1. Explanation of the Plan adopted for preparing an “ Index 
Generum et Specierum Animalium.” By C. Davis 
SuHeErzporn, F.Z.S. 
[Received June 2, 1896.] 
The following description of the work of preparing an Index to 
the generic and specific names of animals, both recent and fossil, 
which was commenced by the author in July 1890, has been pre- 
pared for the Society, at the request of Sir William Flower, 
Mr. Sclater, and Dr. Henry Woodward :— 
The difficulty of finding accurate and reliable lists of the species 
of any particular genus was pointed out by Darwin years ago, and 
impressed itself so strongly on that naturalist that he personally 
endowed the undertaking which we know as the ‘ Index Kewensis,’ 
recently brought to so successful a conclusion by Benjamin Daydon 
Jackson. In this book of reference there are some 600,000 generic 
and specific names of flowering plants. The botanist has now a 
key to the literature of Phanerogams for 150 years within covers, 
and all difficulty in keeping pace with present and future descrip- 
tions of new phanerogamic plants has been removed. 
It is quite otherwise with zoological generic and specific names. 
Agassiz, Marschall, Scudder, and others have partially catalogued the 
genera ; Waterhouse has listed the genera of birds; H. G. Bronn, 
John Morris, and, more recently, R. Etheridge have provided lists 
of fossil species. But no one book including references to all 
names that have been given to fossil and recent animals has yet 
been attempted. The vastness of the record is appalling, but 
given time all difficulties disappear. 
The work now commenced by the German Zoological Society, 
which was described before this Society at a recent meeting, and 
known as ‘ Das Tierreich,’ will be familiar to all present ; and it 
has been suggested that a brief account of the ‘ Index Generum et 
Specierum Animalium’ should be put on record in the same 
manner. 
In May 1890 a letter appeared in ‘ Nature’ and in ‘ La Feuille 
des Jeunes Naturalistes, from the author, setting forth a scheme 
for the compilation of such a work, and inviting suggestions for 
improved details or other matter. Beyond friends interested at 
the British Museum, those who offered valuable suggestions were 
David Sharp, Alfred Newton, Sven Lovén, and Victor Carus. It 
was therefore obvious that the details were satisfactory to those 
interested, and work was commenced on July Ist, 1890. 
Since that date recording has steadily progressed (circumstances 
have restricted the time at disposal to an amount equivalent to three 
years) and a total of 130,000 slips have been stored away in the 
alphabetical order of genera. Notices of the progress of the work 
have appeared in ‘ Nature,’ vol. xliv. p. 207 (1891), and ‘ Natural 
Science,’ vol. iii, p. 379 (1893), and the manuscript has been 
