330 Remarks on Mr. Oyilby's "Further Observations.'''' 



is false, men will not "agree to give it a particular significa- 

 tion" contrary to its obvious one. Such words therefore fail 

 of their effect as conventional signs of ideas, and there can be 

 no doubt that they should be rejected. But a proviso is at- 

 tached to the rule, that when such words as Caprimulgus, 

 Apoda, &c. have accidentally acquired a conventional mean- 

 ing, in spite of the falsity of their etymological one, they cease 

 to mislead, and should be retained. It appears then that Mr. 

 Ogilby and I agree in principle, though we differ in the ap- 

 plication of our principles to practice. And I can only say, 

 that if zoologists would agree to use such terms as are desti- 

 tute of an etymological meaning, I, for one, should not have 

 the slightest objection to them, and Rule 11 might then be 

 dispensed with. 



§ 5. — Absolute and relative characters. — Mr. Ogilby seems 

 to be greatly puzzled with my Rule 14, that " the meaning of 

 names should be founded on absolute characters, — not on rela- 

 tive or comparative ones." Could I have anticipated his difficul- 

 ties, I would have appended to the rule a few words of explana- 

 tion. By absolute characters, I meant characters which are ap- 

 parent in the object itself, without reference to its congeners, 

 such, for instance, as are expressed by the terms rujipes, viridis, 

 sibilatrix, Americanus, &c. Names founded on relative or com- 

 parative characters, are such as imply comparison with some 

 other object, and which cannot therefore be intelligible, un- 

 less a knowledge of the object compared be presupposed, — 

 Of this class are the terms tinnunculoides, vespiformis, major, 

 minor, &c. Unless a person is acquainted with the species 

 tinnunculus, he gains no additional knowledge from the term 

 tinnunculoides, which in such a case only explains ignotum 

 per ignotius. Objections to this class of words are not of mo- 

 dern date, for they are urged by Linnaeus in his 'Critica Bo- 

 tanical To prevent the adoption of such terms in future, 

 was the object of Rule 14 ; and I know of no other more in- 

 telligible form of words than that in which it is announced. 



§ 6. — Meaning of the word type. — My view of the word 

 type is precisely the same as Mr. Ogilby's. By the type of 

 a genus I mean that species which is usually selected as an 

 example of the genus, and "by the most typical genus" of a 

 family, I mean that genus which seems to afford the best sam- 

 ple of the characters on which the family is based, with the 

 least tendency to diverge into other families. My doctrine is, 

 that all species were created free and equal, and that all the 

 distinctions about typical, aberrant, &c. are instances of mere 

 human favoriteism, which have no existence in rerum natu- 

 rd. Man selects a group of closely-allied species, which he 



