REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 1898 r35 



In zoology no one person can subsequently claim an authority 

 equal to that possessed by the person who is the first to define a 

 new genus or describe a new species, and hence it is the name 

 originally gi\^en, even though it may be inferior in point of elegance 

 or expressiveness to those subsequently proposed, which ought as a 

 general principle to be permanently retained. 



To this consideration we ought to add the injustice of erasing the 

 name originally selected by the person to whose labors we owe our 

 first knowledge of the object and we should reflect how much the 

 permission of such a practice opens a door to obscure pretenders 

 for dragging themselves into notice at the expense of original 

 observers. 



A more thorough knowledge of the anatomy and the phylogeny 

 of a group of organisms of which the moUusca furnish a good ex- 

 ample has introduced in conchology many subgeneric names and 

 varieties. The use of subgeneric terms does not replace the early 

 generic word used for a larger number of organisms, but is placed 

 in parenthesis between the generic and specific nam.es. We have 

 followed this method in relabeling the collections. 



The earlier conception of sj)ecies was that of a fixed unit, limited 

 and immutable. Cuvier, the founder of paleontology, gave a good 

 definition of this idea as follows. " A species is an assemblage of 

 all organized creatures which have descended, one from another or 

 from common ancestors and of all those which resemble them as 

 closely as they resemble each other ". 



Lamarck first showed that species were not immutable, but were 

 derived from one another. Darwin's later researches demonstrated 

 that species are derived one from another, and that there conse- 

 quently exist between all organisms living and extinct, true rela- 

 tions of parentage more or less removed. 



. In revising the collections in the museum and adopting in label- 

 ing the latest authoritative works on the subject, the old names are 

 often put in parenthesis below those now proposed. Where the 

 author's name is inclosed in parenthesis, it is intended to imply 

 that the author gave the specific term bnt used a different generic 

 word when he first described the species. 



The following is a brief outline of my work in the museum. 



The first three weeks of November were spent on the Mesozoic, 

 Cenozoic and Quatenary collections of the United States. Some 

 of the fossils from the New Jersey greeusands were assigned 



