No. 625] SHORTER ARTICLES AND DISCUSSION 



285 



may not seem soul-inspiring work to "X," but to the deseriber 

 it may have been exceedingly so. The description of 560 new 

 species of Zonitidse makes it possible for some student of va- 

 riation or of ''phylogenetic classification" to work on the Zonitidi? 

 in a way that would not have been possible if these 560 "new 

 species" had not been described, and no one man would have 

 been able to describe the 560 new species and work their em- 

 bryology, internal anatomy, neurology, ecolc^, geograpliieal dis- 

 tribulation, behavior, variation, mendelian relations, etc.. ami li\ e 

 to tell the tale. 



Furthermore, if there is any man that has the aptitude t<. 

 describe "560 new species of Zonitidxe" my benediction is "let 

 him go to it." And while 585 of his "560 new species" may 

 prove to be false alarms that have never been turned in. at the 

 same time it does not seem to have 0<'curred to "X" that he may 

 be doing nuich less harm thusly employed than if . he were 

 rampant with scissors, scalpels and needles or with killing 

 agents, stains and a microtome trying to discover the true in- 

 wardness of the Zonitida?. I do not want to be misjudged by 

 any one wlio mny think that I am making a plea for slipshod 

 work, but I do want to make a plea for the isolated worker who 

 is plodding away in his own particular field without hope of 

 reward or rcconipoiiso in tliis day or generation. Let us Iv veiw 

 eaivful alH.ut srttinu our stamp niion n tliino- as worth while 



away with his peas, nevor dared dream. T v<mtiire to say. that 



twentieth eeutury. 'I'hus •■X"" may liave the misfortuiie to view 

 in a future reim-arnation tlie sad spectarle of the zooh^iiists of 

 say 200 years hence loudly aeelaiining the good work of the 

 deseriber of the 560 new species of Zonitida>, while at the same 

 time they point with scorn to the work of the anatomist who 

 discovered ( ?) that the digestive system of the ZonitidjB runs 

 up hill. 



The writer has the fortune or misfortune, as pleases your 

 point of view, to be the entomologist of a state experiment 

 station. His principal duties as entomologist are the intensive 

 studies of two widely separated species of extremely injurious 

 insects. This work is carried on under the Adams Fund by 

 grants from the United States Department of Agriculture. Both 

 projects were so outlined as to involve everything about these 



