president’s address. 
345 
to our old specific names, to these mutations, that tends to introduce 
into natural science almost endless appellations, most of them 
unintelligible except to the specialist. 
Every one will readily admit that no hard and fast lines can be 
drawn between certain species that follow one another in chrono- 
logical order. There is, however, a limit to our capacities for 
utilising material, and I look upon the present fashion of naming 
these endless “ mutations ” as the most serious obstacle that has 
ever been placed in the pathway of the student of nature. 
The specialist naturally wishes to record the facts that come 
before him ; but he might devise other means of indexing his 
knowledge that would not interfere with the intelligible nomen- 
clature of species. 
Not the least unfortunate result of this publication of working 
material, is that the common and characteristic medals of creation, 
once familiar to geologists, are apt to become lost sight of and 
undistinguishable in the chaos of words. For the present we must 
be content to leave these names to the specialists who invent them, 
hoping that in time they will be lumped together as “ time- varieties,” 
and that broad general specific names may be reinstated. 
The collector who may feel that “love’s labour is lost,” should, 
however, still keep up his occupation, for by gathering many 
specimens of the same species from each locality and bed of rock, 
and by studying the variations that may accrue from duration in 
time as well as change of sedimentary condition, he may help in 
many ways towards the progress of knowledge. 
AVhile on this subject I may mention that some palaeontologists 
are disposed to abandon the doctrine of special centres of creation, 
and to believe that as species result from adaptation to environment, 
similar conditions may lead to the independent evolution of species 
that are practically indeutical.* If true, this means that the same 
species may be developed at different epochs ; but the view is one 
that must at present be regarded as very speculative. 
A good deal of attention is paid to the subject of geological 
* See J. AY. Gregory, iu * Bouncy's Year Book of Science ’ for 1S02, 1S93, 
p. 295. 
