on Rules for Nomenclature, 277 



with which I deprecated the mischievous tendency of these 

 codes ? The truth is, that like the old poor-laws, they are 

 better calculated to afford a plausible pretext to idleness and 

 peculation, than to secure the fruits of honest industry. 



With regard to the terminations ides, and adce, Mr. Strick- 

 land will perceive, on reference to my paper, that I quarrelled 

 not with the use, but with the abuse of these terms ; I have 

 sanctioned their use upon many occasions, by adopting them 

 myself, but I objected, and still do object, out of mere com- 

 pliance with a rule, which Mr. Strickland will admit to be 

 purely arbitrary, to sacrifice the legitimate classical import of 

 the term Simla?, as well as the zoological relation which I 

 have made to depend upon its similarity of structure with the 

 new-coined word Simiadm. These Mr. Strickland will sure- 

 ly admit to be substantial reasons ; he has himself adduced 

 none on the contrary side of the question, except the propri- 

 ety of complying with the rule, which, with great deference 

 to Mr. Strickland's logic, is begging the question ; since, that 

 being the very subject in dispute, he is clearly prohibited from 

 taking for granted what he ought to prove, — namely, that my 

 nomenclature is necessarily vicious, because it does not com- 

 ply with his rule. Nor can I altogether agree with Mr. Strick- 

 land as to the import of the affix idee. He says it expresses 

 "not the resemblanee of one group to another, but the inclu- 

 sion in a larger group of a smaller," and that the term Alc- 

 maeonidae signifies " the house or family which included Alc- 

 maeon himself, and his immediate relations.' 1 If for relations 

 Mr. Strickland had written descendants, I think he would 

 have been nearer the truth, for I am not aware that the affix 

 in question ever included collaterals ; nay, if I be not greatly 

 mistaken, it is absolutely identical with the affix oidod, which, 

 as Mr. Strickland admits, expresses relationship, the o being 

 merely the last letter of the primitive Greek word with which 

 edvis is most commonly joined in composition. The root of 

 the affix idm, as I take it, is to be sought in the verb Eitiu ; it 

 is cognate with the terms e1$os, Etdcobov, Idea, and idsai, all of which 

 signify forma, species, similitudo, likeness or similarity ; and 

 enters frequently into composition in this sense, as Apuydaxo- 

 sidyg, amygdala species gerens ; Avfyw7ro-Eiby\$, like a man, or 

 anthropoid ; At^o-ei^, vapori similis ; ®£o-Eidri$, Deo similis;* 

 &c. It is needless to mention that idee is only the Latin form 

 of the plural of ti$h$ ; so that Mr. Strickland will perceive that 

 the primitive and only legitimate meaning of the term is re- 



* Ah his Scapulae sententiis differt CI. Westwoodius, sed male. 



