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Descriptions and Types 
125 
the second party from arriving at an erroneous conclusion 
when comparing certain specimens with the type, are ample 
to prevent errors in most cases. Such precautions also 
testify to the good faith of the reviser and indicate that 
he is seeking for the truth regardless of what it may be. 
If taxonomists as a class are so intellectually dishonest as 
to swindle the entomological public in this way, as Professor 
Strand claims, how much easier it would be to perpetrate 
such swindles if the description were everything. It hap- 
pens rather often that the descriptions of two species are 
indistinguishable when compared word for word. In such 
a case the reviser would need to go no further; his report 
would be that here are two descriptions exactly alike and 
therefore one of them must be relegated to synonymy. If 
the descriptions were everything no one could challenge his 
conclusion, since there would be no source of evidence with 
which to support such a challenge. Species have been rele- 
gated to synonymy by this method many times in the past, 
with the result that when the types were finally located 
and authenticated it was found that the description re- 
ferred to a good and valid species. Descriptions or types, 
either one, will not prevent intellectually dishonest per- 
sons from perpetrating swindles, nor will the use of either 
one tempt an honest man to use dishonest methods in his 
research. If Professor Strand knows of concrete examples 
of such swindles, as he claims, it is his duty to bring them to 
the attention of entomological taxonomists, together with 
the facts and evidence to prove that they are swindles. 
To point out concrete examples and expose them as swindles 
will do more to eliminate dishonest work from the field of 
entomological taxonomy, than assailing a method of tech- 
nique and mode of thought which has improved the quality 
of taxonomic work. 
(8). And finally it is contended that the description is 
quite an absolutely constant, invariable thing which is 
accessible to the whole world, while the question is asked : 
“Who guarantees that the animal designated as the ‘type’ 
really is the type”? The implication in the question is, 
that taxonomists as a group, in the field of entomology, at 
