382 
[Assembly 
sils belonging to like rocks in Europe, to which we find not one but 
two, and even more names, in consequence of having been described 
by different persons of different countries, ignorant of the labors of 
each other. 
It is in natural history as in all things else, that the discoverer is en- 
titled to the benefit or advantage of his discovery, and the name which 
he affixes, is the received or accepted one, if it be appropriate ; that is, 
for example, should it be one for a species, it must not be given or 
used in a genus having a specific name of the same kind, for in that 
case, as confusion would result, and as it was his business to prevent, 
and he did not, his right, consequently, is lost. No one can doubt the 
sacredness of this right, but like every practical right or advantage, it 
often greatly tends to retard the progress of natural history, where con- 
cert of action, or knowledge of what each is doing, does not exist. It 
often happens that two or more may find the same object, and each may 
give to it a different name, and the difficulty is often still further increased 
by imperfect descriptions or worse drawings or plates. So incumber- 
ed is some parts of the Fossil department, by man's doings, that the 
labor of collecting the fossils, arranging them in the order in which 
they occur, giving to each a place, a name and a description, is small 
in comparison with determining what has been described, and what has 
not been described ; what name ought to be adopted, and what name 
ought not to be adopted. 
Two reasons have urged me to make the above observations. The 
desire to make known the difficulties experienced in that part of our 
duty, connected with the fossil department, and to ascertain what means 
are best to put that department in the same state of advance, with the 
other departments. 
Secondly, it is possible that the fossil department may seem to many, 
not only unimportant, but even trivial, and every way unconnected with 
the interests of man. Such, too, may not be aware that one of the 
great primary laws of creation is, that effects are but the consequences 
of causes, and that causes are but the antecedents of effects, proving 
that all that exists, has existed, and shall exist, are enchained together 
as parts of one great whole or system, the unravelling of which was 
given by its great Creator, to the only part of his creatures whom he de- 
clared to have formed in his image. Do we not every where invaria- 
bly find that the power of man increases with every advance made 
