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THE AMEBIC AN NATURALIST [Vol. XLII 



of the National Museum, which, thanks to the "Albatross," prob- 

 ably contain the largest and finest lot of crinoids in the world, 

 are constantly available, his opportunities are most unusual and 

 it must be a source of pleasure and gratification to all students 

 of echinoderms that he is living up to them so well. His work 

 reveals unusual powers of analysis and of skill in making his 

 disl incl ions tangible, as witness his artificial keys to genera and 

 species which seem to be very usable. He is quick to see a new 

 point in structure or a new interpretation of some point already 

 known, and while he treats the work of Carpenter and other 

 writers with the courtesy and consideration they deserve, he does 

 not hesitate to point out errors or misinterpretations which they 

 have made. If he possesses the necessary patience and per- 

 sistence, there is every reason to believe that Mr. Clark's work 

 will prove epoch-making in the history of crinoid morphology and 

 taxonomy. 



Two faults seem to the present reviewer to mar Mr. Clark's 

 work so far, and it is greatly to be hoped that he will have the 

 courage and self-control to eliminate them in the future. One is 

 a tendency to rush into print on the discovery of each new fact 

 or group of facts, and the consequent result is a multiplication 

 of titles to afflict all future workers, and a decided weakening of 

 the value of each of his papers. Had Mr. Clark made four 

 papers out of the ten which have already appeared, not only 

 would bibliographers have blessed him, but his work would at 

 least seem to have more of the weight and dignity which its 

 quality shows it to deserve.— The other fault is a far more 

 serious one and appears to be the cause of whatever errors and 

 ambiguities mar Mr. Clark's work. It is hastiness in reaching a 

 conclusion, hastiness in grouping the conclusions reached and 

 hastiness in preparing his results for the press. In a word, 

 haste is Mr. Clark's besetting sin and threatens to be the source of 

 much quite avoidable trouble. As an illustration of what is 

 meant by this criticism, reference may be made to some points 

 in Mr. Clark's paper, "New Genera of Unstalked Crinoids." 

 In his introductory remarks, he corrects four or five slight errors 

 in his earlier papers, all of which might fairly be said to have 

 been caused by haste. Under Thaumatometra, " Antedon ciliata 

 A. H. Clark, 1907 {= Antedon tenuis A. H. Clark, 1907)," is 

 given as the genotype, but neither ciliata nor tenuis appear in 

 the list of species referable to the genus. Moreover, if we go 

 back a little we find that while tenuis and ciliata were described 



