276 Further Observations 



"deprecating all laws," that I expressly stated my opinion, 

 "that &few simple ' rules for nomenclature,' if founded upon 

 principles so palpable and indisputable as to command the 

 unanimous assent of naturalists, would be both convenient 

 and useful ; " I granted that generally speaking the particular 

 rules originally cited by Mr. Strickland, might have some 

 practical advantage, if not pushed too far; and I desired it to 

 be understood that " I was not hostile to such rules of nomen- 

 clature as are founded upon just and fixed principles ; " nay, 

 I even turned legislator myself, and ventured to suggest "eu- 

 phony and propriety of application," as, in my opinion, the 

 only legitimate and requisite principles of nomenclature. My 

 censure was directed, not against the use but the abuse of such 

 rules, and that it was neither misapplied nor unnecessary, is 

 proved by Mr. Strickland's own admissions, and by facts which 

 I shall mention in the sequel. 



I was very well aware that Mr. Strickland was not the ma- 

 ker but the compiler of the "Rules" published under his name, 

 and that he had separated those relating to established no- 

 menclature from such as are applicable to the formation of 

 new names; though I certainly did not consider him, as he 

 now assures me, opposed to the mischievous practice, upon 

 which I chiefly animadverted, of giving them a retrospective 

 tendency, since I find three of them, (Nos. 5, 6, and 7), ex- 

 pressly regulating the cases in which established names may 

 be expunged. That Mr. Strickland did not intend to make 

 his rules retrospective, I fully believe, and regret that I should 

 have been led into the error of an opposite opinion ; but that 

 he has inadvertently done so, is not less certain ; and it was 

 against the interminable mischief and confusion resulting from 

 the introduction of a principle at once so dangerous, so 

 unfair, and so uncalled for, that I directed the weight of my 

 censure. Nor were my fears upon this subject merely hypo- 

 thetical; I had, myself, suffered to some extent from this 

 contemptible species of petty larceny, one gentleman having 

 done me the favour of appropriating no fewer than six of my 

 generic and specific names within the last few months ; Illiger, 

 a very Minos among legislators, had not been sparing with 

 the rights of his predecessors; and I could mention many 

 other instances, were it necessary. But is not the fact cited 

 by Mr. Strickland himself, of the well-known naturalist from 

 whose works he has chiefly compiled his "rules," having sanc- 

 tioned their retrospective character, and thereby set the ex- 

 ample to the host of minor luminaries who circulate round 

 him as the sun and centre of their system, and who will not 

 be slow to profit by it, a sufficient justification of the severity 



