NOTE. 
ot 
FEELING sure that such a book as Professor Haeckel’s 
“Schopfungsgeschichte” would do a great deal of good, if 
placed in the hands of the English reading public, and of 
commencing students of Natural History, I gladly under- 
took to revise for the publishers the present translation, 
which was made by a young lady. I have not attempted 
to escape a difficulty by ignoring the German names made 
use of by Professor Haeckel for classes, orders, and genera, 
but have adopted English equivalents. I do not submit 
these names as a maturely considered English nomenclature, 
they appear here simply as necessary parts of a close ren- 
dering of the German work. I do, however, hold that some 
such series of English terms is both possible and useful, and 
do not doubt—in spite of the pretended hostility of the 
genius of our language, and the curious sentimental objec- 
tion that English names are wnscientific—that we shall 
before long make use of plain English in speaking of the 
various groups of plants and animals—much to the gain of 
the larger public, and without detriment to the latinized 
nomenclature established for the purposes of the professional 
student. 
Hh, B.-L. 
Oxford, October, 1874. 
