On the question of credit to their original sources of results already
on record, it is hardly necessary for me to advise, because good sense
and the consensus of opinion will in the end justify or condemn a
writer according as he prove just and conscientious in this regard.
There is one principle that should guide every careful writer, viz.,
that in any publications whatever, where facts or opinions are put
forth, it should always be made clear as to which are based upon the
author's personal experience and which are compiled or stated upon the
authority of others. We should have no patience with a very common
tendency to set forth facts, even those relating to the most common
and best known species, without the indications to which I have
referred. The tendency belittles our calling and is generally
misleading and confusing, especially for bibliographic work, and
cannot be too strongly deprecated.
On this point there will hardly be any difference of opinion, but I
will allude to another question of credit upon which there prevails a
good deal of loose opinion and custom. It is the habit of using
illustrations of other authors without any indication of their
original source.
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