Note 2 — Chapter VI · STRUCTURE OF THE HEART IN THE EDRIOPHTHALMA.

According to Milne-Edwards’ arrangement the females of this genus would belong to the “Hypérines ordinaires” and the previously unknown males to the “Hypérines anormales,” the distinguishing character of which, namely the curiously zigzagged inferior antennæ, is only a sexual peculiarity of the male animals. In systematising from single dead specimens, as to the sex, age, etc. of which nothing is known, similar errors are unavoidable. Thus, in order to give another example of very recent date, a celebrated Ichthyologist, Bleeker, has lately distinguished two groups of the Cyprinodontes as follows: some, the Cyprinodontini, have a “pinna analis non elongata,” and the others, the Aplocheilini, a “pinna analis elongata”: according to this the female of a little fish which is very abundant here would belong to the first, and the male to the second group. Such mistakes, as already stated, are unavoidable by the “dry-skin” philosopher, and therefore excusable; but they nevertheless prove in how random a fashion the present systematic zoology frequently goes on, without principles or sure foundations, and how much it is in want of the infallible touchstone for the value of the different characters, which Darwin’s theory promises to furnish.