OSBORN — ZOOLOGIC AND PALiEONTOLOGIC RESEARCH 
7 
Mendelism, and of modern genetics, as well as from the older standpoint 
of geographic and climatic variation. 
One of the newer aspects of field and museum work is the careful 
notation and emphasis on habit, habitat, and environmental relations, 
as developed in the Congo collections of the American Museum of 
Natural History and the publications thereon by Lang and Chapin. 
SUMMARY 
In the above very imperfect review, which does not pretend to men- 
tion all the notable workers nor all the various fields of work, it is 
seen that there has been a gradual and entirely natural divergence 
between zoologic and palceozoologic workers in mam^malogy. It is- 
obviously desirable to bring these workers together and to select the 
most consistent and philosophic methods from each. Such a union 
is now in progress in the joint researches of Gidley (a palaeontologist) 
and Miller (a zoologist) on the phylogeny, evolution, and classification 
of the Rodentia. 
All these observers and natural philosophers are treating exactly the 
same animal — the mammal — ^from different points of view. Yet in 
reading some of their writings and comparing them with my own, I am 
reminded of the old East Indian fable of the blind men and the ele- 
phant. Each of the blind men formed an entirely different opinion of 
the character of the elephant from the particular part of the animaFs 
anatomy on which his hand rested, namely, trunk, tusk, the limb, 
the chest, etc. 
My desire in the present communication is to point out that these 
different modes and methods of research which have sprung up inde- 
pendently among zoologists and palaeontologists should be harmonized, 
It is important that zoologists and palaeontologists should read each 
other’s papers, speak the same language, and use the same terminology. 
It is important that they should use similar methods of measurement, 
similar indices and ratios, similar terms in the nomenclature of tho 
teeth and of the skeleton. I am confident that such harmonic meth- 
ods will be developed, especially among the younger members of this 
Society, such as Anthony and Gamp, who have been trained both in 
the school of zoology and of palaeontology. 
myscus. Amer. Nat., Vol. LII, pp. 177-208; 290-301; 439-454, April-Sept., 
1918. 
Autonomy of the Tail in Rodents. Biological Bulletin, Vol. XXXIV, pp. 1-6, 
Jan., 1918. 
Several Color “Mutations” in Mice of the Genus Peromyscus. Genetics, voh. 
2, pp. 291-300, May, 1917. 
