302 Causes which retard Zoological Knowledge, 



learning in coining useless new names of objects, already long 

 described, and well known to naturalists. The changing of 

 names, and adding to the already confused state of the synony- 

 ma ; the elevating varieties into species, and cutting up the spe- 

 cies into numerous sections, families and genera, on the most tri- 

 fling distinction, or on no distinction whatever. The study of 

 natural history is thus rendered as dry and uninteresting as a 

 Greek vocabulary, and the interest of the object absolutely lost 

 in the learned pleonasm in which it is buried. Thus it will con- 

 tinue to be until there arises a powerful reformer, some modern 

 Linnagus or youthful Aristotle, to make a clear sweep of this 

 Augean stable, who, guided by nature alone, and governed by 

 that admirable simplicity so forcibly displayed in all her opera- 

 tions, will present the world with a system at once comprehen- 

 sive and intelligible. In the words of one of the purest writers, 

 "Tf I was to form a system, it would be that of simplicity; it should 

 pervade all works of imagination, all inquiries of science, all per- 

 formances of the chisel and pencil, all behaviour, and all dress. 

 Carry this idea even to the most awful height, what is simplicity 

 but truth, the great basis of virtue and religion ? Simplicity is 

 the child of nature; the love of it seems implanted in us by Provi- 

 dence ; yet all the labour of erring mortals is to depart from this 

 great and open road, and to return to it when they have seen 

 the fallacy of winding paths and doubtful mazes." — Johnson. 



The recently formed genera, Kinixys, Pyxis, Kinosternon, Ster- 

 notherus, Hydrospis, &c. will be considered of no avail in such a 

 system, seeing that they consist in unimportant variations in co- 

 lour, and slight modifications of the form of the shell, which pro- 

 duce no difference of consequence either in the habits or general 

 organization of the animals themselves ; and constitute, in fact, 

 mere varieties of species, in some instances not characteristic of 

 any peculiar genus ; and in one instance at least, the character 

 absolutely becomes obliterated by age. 



This work is principally characterized by such learned dis- 

 plays in nomenclature, and too frequently at the expense of ac- 

 " curate knowledge of the subject discussed. 



Had one half the talent, labour, and observation, which the 

 author has displayed in this little treatise, been applied to detect 

 the true habits of the animals, as displayed in the woods, the 

 fields, the rivers and the seas ; or had he directed his observa- 



