AMERICAN NATURALIST 
Vout. XXVIII. May, 1894. 329 
REMARKS ON SCHULZE’S SYSTEM OF DESCRIPTIVE 
ERMS.' 
By ALPHEUS HYATT. 
One cannot systematically describe a number of species or 
in fact properly record observations especially upon isolated 
species or groups without the aid of a convenient nomenclat- 
ure and a generalized, topical scheme of work. The invent- 
ion of such a system obliges one to make a more or less com- 
plete classification of the parts of any form, and this is a most 
efficient aid to thorough observation and a check upon hasty, 
inconsequent or unsystematic description. 
Such remarks are apparently superfluous and even super- 
cilious, but no one can work with new methods or try to find 
in scientific literature reliable data with regard to any of the 
invertebrates without being continually confronted with posi- 
- tive evidence that in the effort to place new species on record, 
many naturalists have lost sight of the main aim of descrip- 
tive work. The fixed habit of considering a new species as a 
discovery of such importance, that the describer’s name must 
forever remain attached to it, is perhaps necessary, but it has 
loaded scientific research with an enormous mass of badly 
constructed records. . 
This paper with the exception of the introductory remarks was published in Bio- 
logisches Centralblatt, XIII, Nos. 15-16, August, 1893, as Bemerkungen zu 
Schulze’s System einer deskriptiven Terminologie. It has been thought advisable to 
have it — in English. 
