THE OTTAWA NATURALIST 



Vol. XXVI. FEBRUARY, 1913 No. 11 



SOME CHANGES IN THE NAMES OF GENERA OF 



TRILOBITES. 



By Percy E. Raymond. 



The writer had viewed with some complaisance the recent 

 signs of revolt against the rules regarding priority and pre- 

 occupation as laid down by the International Zoological Congress, 

 believing that among paleontologists, the English speaking ones 

 at least, there was a general agreement to follow the rules. At 

 the recent meeting of the Paleontological Society, however, I 

 was surprised to find that many of the American paleontologists 

 were following the rules in a half-hearted manner; that is, that 

 they were willing that the names of unknown or relatively in- 

 conspicuous genera should be corrected if necessary, but if the 

 name were at all well known, they preferred to adhere to the 

 long established although incorrect name. Now the arguments 

 in favour of accepting the first name given to a genus, provided 

 that the name is accompanied by a satisfactory diagnosis enabling 

 one to recognize the organism indicated, are too well known to 

 require repeating, and I can add nothing to what has already 

 been said. In discussing one of the cases cited below, that of 

 Cryptolithus versus Trinucleus, a paleontologist who protested 

 strongly against giving up Trinucleus admitted that if he himself 

 had proposed Cryptolithus, and if, seven years later a more 

 distinguished man had proposed Trinucleus to take its place, he 

 would have objected to the adoption of the later name. In 

 these days, we are very careful not to say "I want credit for 

 my work," but it is a popular saying, " Give credit where credit is 

 due," and as we say it, we are more apt to slap our own chest 

 than our neighbour's back. Why not be true sportsmen, and 

 do to our predecessors what we w T ould like done to us? Inci- 

 dently, it simplifies matters for the systematist. 



In regard to preoccupation, it does seem as though the 

 rule requiring that there should be no duplication of generic 

 names within the confines of the whole animal kingdom were a 

 little unjust. In former days, when there were naturalists, it 

 probably was a little trying to read a paper on Amphion, and not 



