1929] 
Down with the Type-Cult 
231 
be when the “type-madness” proceeds so far as to consider 
the type as all and the description as a mere matter of 
form. Another point in the “examinations” of “types” which 
likewise has not been taken into consideration by Reitter 
and which is often of decisive importance, is the fact that 
if a “specialist” personally cannot have some “types” for 
the sake of examination, he writes some correspondent, 
who lives in the town where the types are preserved and 
asks him to examine the types. In order to show his super- 
iority in this domain the specialist does not forget in the 
same letter to suggest that type A may be cospecific to 
species X and type B to species Y etc., and then asks the 
correspondent to settle this question. The correspondent 
compares type A with species X but has no specific know- 
ledge of the group in question and consequently he does not 
know which items in this question are of most importance 
and he is not trained to find the distinctive marks which 
will decide the matter. Under these circumstances it is no 
wonder that he is not willing to spend much time in order 
to study the matter. For logical and psychological reasons 
one can be sure that the answer of the correspondent at all 
events will be affirmative in such cases, for he will not be 
able to voice a final opinion contrary to the opinion which 
“Mr. Specialist” had already expressed or at least indicated. 
Consequently the correspondent finishes the matter with “it 
may be so” and the specialist proclaims triumphantly that 
comparison of types has proved that his supposition was 
quite right. I could mention concrete examples of such 
swindles. The whole “comparison of types” proves in such 
cases to be a comedy which the “specialist” utilizes in order 
to make the entomological public believe that which is 
agreeable to the “specialist”. 
For this reason I have always considerer types as of 
no great importance and the descriptions have always been 
the main point to me, and for this point of view I now 
stand more than ever. Consequently: Down With the Type- 
Cult! 
