842 The American Naturalist. [October, 
on the Batrachia salientia Mr. Boulenger, the author, remarked 
that it appeared “undeniable that the principles of classifica- 
tion laid down by Mr. Cope are more in accordance with the 
natural affinities of the genera of tailless Batrachians than 
those employed by other authors; this is amply proved by all 
we know of their geographical distribution, development and 
physiology.” 
In an article published in advance of his catalogue of the 
lizards, Boulenger states that the old classifications are, “on 
the whole, as unnatural as can be” and that, “like Cope, 
whose lizard families I regard as the most natural hitherto 
‘proposed, I shall lay greater stress on osteological characters 
and on the structure of the tongue.” 
It was a long time, however, before Cope’s views became pop- 
ular. Even anatomists of repute refused to follow him. One” 
of them, for example, admitted that “skeletal characters are, 
indeed, most valuable ones in leading us to detect the deepest 
and truest affinities of vertebrates, but [he urged] these affini- 
ties once found, it is very desirable that zoological classifica- 
tion should not, if it can possibly be avoided, repose upon them 
only, but rather on more external and more readily ascertain- 
able characters.” He, therefore, ventured “ to propose a clas- 
sification derived from that of Dr. Günther.” 
Cope replied" by a fierce review of the work of Dr. Günther, 
and concluded with the utterance that such views “ will only 
interfere with the progress of knowledge if sincerely held and 
believed.” 
But such views were evidently sincerely believed and they 
did retard the progress of science. An eminent Russian her- 
petologist objected to the use of anatomical characters. He 
especially protested against those employed by Boulenger 
after Cope to the grouping of the lizards, and Mr. Boulenger con- 
sidered it incumbent on himself to defend the practice of using 
such characters ;" he aptly replied that the use of “ purely ex- 
s en goat of the families of existing Lacertilia. Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist. 
(5), 
ee in Proc. Zool, Soc. are 1869, p. 2>1. 
*Cope in Am. Journ. Sci. (3), I . 
1" Boulenger in Ann. and Mag. Nat. ak (5), XIX, 385. 
