Observations on Rides for Nomenclature. 151 



paring them, will readily perceive how arbitrary and unfound- 

 ed, in return natura the generality of them are, and often how 

 contradictory of one another ; I shall confine my attention to 

 those which bear upon the subject of Mr. Strickland's "objec- 

 tions," and to one other example, for the purpose of demon- 

 strating the carelessness and utter disregard of fixed princi- 

 ples with which they have been drawn up. 



As to the first rule cited by Mr. Strickland, — that names of 

 families should always end in idee, and adcB, — I grant that, 

 generally speaking, the adoption of these terminations may 

 have some practical advantage, when they are employed to 

 designate equivalent groups; but it should be remembered 

 that this is merely a matter of convenience, a species of arti- 

 ficial memory, useful enough in its way no doubt, but of no 

 actual scientific importance. Restricted within proper limits, 

 it is unobjectionable ; but, like all arbitrary rules, it is liable 

 to be pushed too far, and thus to sacrifice the substance of 

 the principle to the shadow of the name. The instance which 

 Mr. Strickland censures in my nomenclature of the cheiro- 

 peds, furnishes a glaring example of this kind of mischief, a- 

 rising from the inconsiderate and indiscriminate application 

 of a purely arbitrary rule. The nomenclature in question was 

 not adopted without due consideration, as Mr. Strickland will 

 perceive upon referring to my memoir ; (Mag. Nat. Hist. vol. 

 i. p. 456, n s.) I employed the term Simia to denote the 

 anthropomorphous Quadrumana of Asia and Africa, simply 

 because it was the legitimate and original generic name by 

 which the ancients designated the same animals, and by 

 which they are still known to all scholars who have any pre- 

 tensions to critical accuracy ; and I applied the term Simia- 

 ddn to the analogous group of anthropomorphous Pedimana, 

 inhabiting the continent of South America, intending by the 

 similarity in the sound and structure of the word, to express 

 the obvious and important relations which these animals bear 

 to the true Simiae. By this means T conceive that I gained 

 two positive advantages ; first I employed an ancient classi- 

 cal term in ancient classical acceptation ; and secondly, the 

 new-coined term was made to express a valuable scientific 

 relation. 



So much for the advantages of my own nomenclature ; now 

 for those of Mr. Strickland's. Mr. Strickland would substi- 

 tute the term Simiadce for my Simice, and replace the former 

 by the word Cebidce. What would science gain by the 

 change ? In the first place Mr. Strickland would discard the 

 ancient classical and highly appropriate name of the group, 

 to replace it by a new name of his own coinage ; and in the 



Vol. II. — No. 15. n. s. n 



