370 The American Naturalist. [May, 
One of the most remarkable characteristics of the literature 
of this century in zodlogy and paleontology is the great con- 
trast between the careless, inadequate, descriptive text of many 
large costly works and the excellent plates and other accom- 
panying illustrations. There are a number of these books in 
which there is a wide difference between the scientific record 
made by the author and his artistic efforts or those of his 
draughtsman, the former being often inconsequent and 
unworthy of companionship with the latter. I refrain from 
giving examples for the simple reason, that they are within 
the experience of every student, and there would be no com- 
pensating advantage in exciting useless antagonisms. An 
attempt to construct a properly systematized topical scheme of 
work would have forced such authors to name and describe 
most of the principal regions and parts of the anatomy and to 
follow out a similar scheme in the description of each species, 
thus minimizing the irregularity and vexatious incomplete- 
ness of their observations. 
One of the marked characteristics of the day in natural 
science is the effort to give greater accuracy to descriptive 
nomenclature. Professor B. G. Wilder’ was the pioneer m 
America, and although his efforts were for many years unap- 
preciated, they are now beginning to bear fruit. Wilder and 
Gage’s Anatomical Technology (1882) laid the foundation of 
the movement which has just been reinforced in Germany by 
a very able paper from Franz Eilhard Schulze? in which z 
lays down some general principles for the construction ol 
terms that ought to be carefully read by every naturalist. 
The details of his scheme are in brief as follows: 
He divides organic bodies into ; (I) die Synstigmen, 
stigma: of Haeckel (rypa meaning point) having 4 
imaginary centre to the body. This point he proposes ee 6 
“centrum, ” parts in the centre“ centran, ” approximate Uns 
are “central” or “ proximal,” those which lie toward th 
ce to that of 
Centro- 
*A partial revision of anatomical nomenclature, with especial efan ae 
the brain. Science, II, 1881, pp. 122-126. 133-138. II, No.1, 1898 
*Bezeichn. d. Lage u. Richtung im. Thierkdrper. Biol. Centralb., XIM, ™ 
ocen 
