362 Appendix A 



take pains to see that his whole thought is expressed, in- 

 stead of leaving vacancies which must be filled by the 

 puzzled and groping reader. His own views and his quo- 

 tations from the views of others about the static and 

 dynamic theories of distribution are examples of an im- 

 portant principle so imperfectly expressed as to make us 

 doubtful whether it is perfectly apprehended by the 

 writer. He can avoid the use of those pedantic terms 

 which are really nothing but offensive and, fortunately, 

 ephemeral scientific slang. There has been, for instance, 

 a recent vogue for the extensive misuse, usually tauto- 

 logical misuse, of the word "complexus" — ^an excellent 

 word if used rarely and for definite purposes. Mr. Hase- 

 man drags it in continually when its use is either point- 

 less and redundant or else serves purely to darken wis- 

 dom. He speaks of the "Antillean complex" when he 

 means the Antilles, of the "organic complex" instead of 

 the characteristic or bodily characteristics of an animal 

 or species, and of the "environmental complex" when he 

 means nothing whatever but the environment. In short, 

 Mr. Haseman and those whose bad example he in this 

 instance follows use "complexus" in much the same 

 spirit as that displayed by the famous old lady who de- 

 rived religious — instead of scientific — consolation from 

 the use of "the blessed word Mesopotamia." 



The reason that it is worth while to enter this protest 

 against Mr. Haseman's style is because his work is of 

 such real and marked value. The pamphlet on the dis- 

 tribution of South American species shows that to excep- 

 tional ability as a field worker he adds a rare power to 

 draw, with both caution and originality, the necessary 



