280 Further Observations 



tainers of such opinions, which commonly proceed, not from 

 defect of understanding, but from haste, and an excess of re- 

 finement." 



The 6th rule of Mr. Strickland's code enacts that "a name 

 may be expunged, whose meaning is false as applied to the 

 object or group which it represents," and according to the 

 11th, "the meaning of a name must imply some proposition 

 which is true as applied to the object which it represents." — 

 The idea expressed in the first of these rules is one of the be- 

 setting sins of the age, and as it opens a wide door for the 

 most captious and mischievous innovation, so unfortunately 

 its operation is not confined to Zoology, but extends to every 

 other department of science, and even to the language of com- 

 mon life ! The second rule is equally unnecessary, though 

 not so mischievous, since it professes to apply only to new 

 names, whilst the first is retrospective ; both arise from a to- 

 tal disregard of the true use and meaning of language, a hea- 

 vy charge against gentlemen who profess to dictate laws and 

 expound the principles of nomenclature. Words are but the 

 signs of ideas ; their application is at first purely arbitrary ; 

 they gain currency only by convention, and so long as we a- 

 gree to give them a particular signification, it matters not a 

 pinch of snuff what may have been their original or literal 

 meaning, or whether they had any meaning at all. If there 

 be any difference, the latter sort are indubitably the best, in 

 spite of the dictum laid down by "Rule 11 ;" because, as 

 signs of ideas, they can never lead to error or confusion, where- 

 as those recommended by the "rule," are in their very nature 

 equivocal. But let us hear what Locke says upon this sub- 

 ject, an authority from which, I presume, even the legislators 

 for zoological nomenclature will not be hardy enough to dis- 

 sent. " Names are but arbitrary marks of conceptions ; and 

 so they be sufficiently appropriated to them in their use, I 

 know no other difference any of them have in particular, but 

 as they are of difficult or easy pronunciation, or of more or 

 less pleasant sound ; and what particular antipathies there 

 may be in men to some of them, is not easy to be foreseen;.... 

 for my part, I have no fondness for, nor antipathy to, any par- 

 ticular articulate soimds, nor do I think there is any spell or 

 fascination in any of them." This is philosophy and good 

 sense, but it is not the fashion ; the modern rage is all for 

 change and innovation; "Poluphlosboiophanism" is the or- 

 der of the day ; it has invaded the very names of all ranks 

 from the prince to the peasant ; 



" Julius Augustus Alexander Spire, 



" Was gamekeeper to Thomas Stubbs, Esquire ; " 



