64 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 419. 



of the systematist, and those of us who are 

 still pushing forward in spite of the almost 

 overwhelming perplexities of the work, to 

 say nothing of the frankly expressed con- 

 tempt of the men in whose service we toil, 

 are by no means called upon to sing our 

 'Nunc dimitis.' It has occurred to me 

 that it would be profitable for us to con- 

 sider on this occasion the position in which 

 we stand, make confession of our sins, 

 which are many, state as clearly as possible 

 the embarrassments which at times nearly 

 overcome us, and attempt at least to point 

 out some of the means by which we can 

 better our position and our work. 



As to our position before the general 

 public, it must be confessed that the gen- 

 eral public cares for us not at all. Of all 

 departments of biological science, none of- 

 fers so little that is attractive to the aver- 

 age man as that which has to do with 

 classification and the host of outlandish 

 names that the systematist delights, in 

 popular opinion, to inflict upon the litera- 

 ture of his subject. The average college 

 student agrees with the general public, and 

 will be prone to elect anything rather than 

 systematic zoology or botany. There is 

 absolutely nothing that seems to him more 

 hopelessly dull, forbidding and profitless 

 than all matters pertaining to classifica- 

 tion and nomenclature. But it is in the 

 house of our friends that we are woiinded 

 most cruelly. Even the best of our fellow 

 zoologists and botanists wish us nothing 

 better than a speedy and painless, at any 

 rate speedy, death, and the worst of them 

 would be glad to hasten the day. 



It is not my purpose to discuss at pres- 

 ent the attitude of the general public, nor 

 even that of the college student, important 

 as it is to all of us, but some attention 

 ought surely to be paid to the prevalent 

 opinion of our colleagues. 



Let us inquire then, briefly, into the 

 reasons for the unfortunate attitude of 



these who ought to be our best friends. In 

 my opinion the most fundamental cause 

 for their discontent is to be found in their 

 irritation in finding nothing fixed or defi- 

 nitely settled in our classifications, or even 

 in specific or generic names. 



It certainly does not conduce to the tran- 

 quility of mind of the morphologist who 

 desires to discuss the variation of a cer- 

 tain structure in a given group of animals 

 to find that his friend the systematist is 

 utterly unable to delimit the group for 

 him, or that no two authorities can agree 

 as to the number of species, much less as 

 to their names ! Wishing to get upon some 

 solid ground for his discussion, the mor- 

 phologist asks in desperation : ' What is a 

 species, anyhow ? ' And the systematist, if 

 he is honest, is forced to admit that he 

 doesn't know. Again, the morphologist,' 

 with a commendable desire to learn some- 

 thing of the classification in a general way, 

 laboriously masters some scheme which 

 seems to have met with general acceptance, 

 only to find that the next authority that he 

 consults scorns it utterly. Still again, 

 wishing to discuss the geographical distri- 

 bution or ecology of some limited group, he 

 finds that no two systematists agree as to 

 the number of species included or the names 

 by which they should be called. 



Now, all this is exasperating to the last 

 degree, and we must deal gently with our 

 friends who exclaim in desperation: 'Is 

 there anything definitely settled in regard 

 to any group of animals whatever?' or 

 'Have the systematists any real basis for 

 their decisions, or are they anything better 

 than the merest pei'sonal whims?' Can 

 we wonder that they resort at times to ab- 

 solute brutality, and propose logarithms? 



Having thus admitted the unfortunate 

 position in which we stand before our fel- 

 low zoologists, let us now turn our atten- 

 tion to the highly edifying endeavor to 

 honestly confess our sins. I suppose that 



