THE AMERICAN NATURALIST [Vol. LIII 



is human like the rest of us, he has his limitations like the rest 

 of us, but he believes, I think justly, that his work is pioneer 

 work of great importance; and, if occasionally he gets beyond 

 the limited range of our embryologist 's microscope or our an- 

 atomist's scalpels and needles, let us not accuse him of wandering 

 along the River of Doubt or being a lineal descendant of the 

 famous Baron Munchausen. But let us look upon the sys- 

 tematist's work as the foundation for the glorious Structure, 

 modern zoology, which completed by his other co-workers will 

 stand four square to the wind for all time to come. We do not 

 need to defend systematics on the basis of "(1) the advertise- 

 ment theory; (2) the recognition mark theory;" although both 

 are perhaps more important than "X" intimates. But what is 

 vastly more important is the fact that systematics is the basis 

 for all real work in zooloig\\ And tlie morphologist or anatomist 

 who takes the attitude that systematics is to be entirely avoided^ 

 or, what is worse, is to be simply laughed at is placing himself 

 in the same class as the man who says that there is no such thing 

 as matter in the world. Sooner or later he is going to bump into 

 the fact that systematics must iplay its part in his field and that 

 systematics is broader than the question whether the "second 

 joint is longer than the third" or whether a species should be 

 called aabus Smith or beaibus Jones. 



Z. 



length the anatomy of, let us say, the "American frog (Eana temporaria) " 

 because that was the name given the frog in his perfectly good English 



