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SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 198. 



existing systems of classifications are simply 

 card houses of abstractions. 



Whatever doubt may yet remain as to the 

 causes and machinery of evolution, the doctrine 

 of the separate creation of species is gener- 

 ally relegated to the past. The causal and 

 genetic relationships previously supposed to 

 affect only individual lines are now ascribed also 

 to genera, families and orders. Systematic 

 biology may not remain an index of names ; it 

 becomes an integration of all our knowledge 

 of organic nature. There was introduced an 

 element of finality which broadened all lines 

 of study and suggested new interpretations for 

 every fact and phenomenon, and yet the uni- 

 versal advance which this change of base ren- 

 dered possible has not caused systematists to 

 reconstruct their science in harmony with pre- 

 vailing views on the origin, differentiation and 

 distribution of life. In other words, there 

 has been no general or consistent attempt at the 

 application to classification and taxonomy of the 

 pertinent corollaries of evolution. 



Instead of an infinite array of disconnected 

 forms and facts, only to be combined in artifi- 

 cial concepts, we may proceed in the study of 

 any group of organisms with the assurance that 

 a truly natural or phylogenic classification is 

 possible, and we have the further satisfaction 

 that such an arrangement when reached will be 

 final and command universal acceptance. The 

 task of the systematist is no longer to study 

 and contrive artful arrangements of concepts, 

 but to gain the clearest possible insight regard- 

 ing the form, structure and activities of the sub- 

 jects of his study. All similarities and all dif- 

 ferences have value and bearing, not merely 

 those which have been previously used in classi- 

 fication. The deductive method must here, as 

 elsewhere, give place to the inductive. Classi- 

 fication must be built up from below on facts, 

 not suspended from above on abstractions. 

 Affinities must be demonstrated by the produc- 

 tion of the connecting links, not inferred from 

 agreement in formal characters. No matter 

 how obscure it may now appear, every species 

 has its history and its relationships, which the 

 naturalist undertakes to discover and to express 

 by his systematic arrangement. He must be 

 ready to accept, record and utilize every new 



fact and recognize its bearing on the interpre- 

 tation of other facts. From one group of 

 organisms an extensive series of concepts may 

 be drawn, and these will be successively ad- 

 vanced and thrown aside, the variable element 

 being our knowledge, while the organisms fur- 

 nish the constants which our notions should 

 gradually approximate. The excellence of the 

 systematist will depend upon his facility in the 

 construction of new concepts in accordance 

 with constantly changing bases of judgment. 



Here is the practical issue regarding the 

 method of types. Shall we continue the prac- 

 tice of naming the concept? Shall we not 

 rather think of the name as applied in the 

 most immediate and permanent manner to the 

 organism ? We shall thus have a designation 

 ready for the final entity, but also available for 

 any number of approximating concepts which 

 may follow each other with no unnecesary con- 

 fusion. Successive systems of classification may 

 then be introduced with a minimum of biblio- 

 graphic labor on the part of the specialist and 

 a minimum of misapprehension for subsequent 

 students. To maintain the use of the method 

 of concepts because systematic biology had a 

 mediaeval origin is to stop the dial of progress 

 and decree permanent confusion. And yet this 

 is the purport of the prevalent systems of 

 nomenclature. No existing legislation requires 

 that a genus be anchored to any one point or 

 vicinity. It is not merely a concept, but a 

 negative concept, since it stands at the mercy 

 of all comers, who may dismember at will and 

 and remove any of the species without apology. 

 Certain codes will not permit the sequestration 

 of all the original species, but systematists are 

 not always thus considerate and some do not 

 hesitate to take even the last, though they may 

 avoid injury to the concept and use it later for 

 a second set of species. Such jugglery has 

 done its part toward bringing systematic biology 

 into its present disrepute, for while all workers 

 have not followed counsels of confusion, all are 

 at the mercy of the bigoted and the reckless, 

 and while there are many laws determining 

 trifles of spelling and punctuation, there are as 

 yet none dealing adequately with the weightier 

 matters of clearness and permanence in the 

 application of generic names, nor are there 



