284 Further Observations on Rules for Nomenclature. 



teen ; besides which we have the ' Codex Westwoodianus,' 

 and, for aught I know to the contrary, a hundred others which 

 I have not had the good fortune to meet with, but which, ta- 

 ken all together, must needs make the search after a new name 

 as difficult and intricate as that for the north-west passage, 

 or the philosopher's stone. Here lies Scllya, there Charyb- 

 dis ; to the right, a rock, to the left, a sand-bank ; the passage 

 being so beset with whirlpools and quicksands that Palinu- 

 rus himself, with the advice and experience of Mr. Westwood 

 to boot, could scarce steer through the labyrinth. In short, 

 these "Codes for Nomenclature" put me in mind of nothing 

 so much as Mrs. Malaprop's account of the " laws of confu- 

 sion, the Chinese Philosopher, 



"Where you feel like a needle going astray, 



" With its one eye out, through a bundle of hay." 



I have now done with "Codes" and "Codification." The 

 subject was forced upon me, or I should never have volunta- 

 rily taken it up : I have been arraigned before a court of 

 which I dispute the jurisdiction, and tried by laws which de- 

 rive no force either from their wisdom or utility, and whose 

 authority, I have endeavoured to shew, neither is nor ought to 

 be binding, inasmuch as it is derived not from necessity, con- 

 sent, or any fixed principles, but only from the arbitrary dic- 

 tum of individuals ; and whose practical operation, far from 

 securing the stability or uniformity of scientific nomenclature, 

 can only tend to involve it in interminable confusion and un^ 

 certainty. I repeat again that I am not hostile to such "rules 

 for nomenclature" as are founded in rerum naturd, and con- 

 formable to good sense, sound criticism and fixed principles ; 

 and if what I have said here and elsewhere, can in any way 

 tend to promote so desirable an object, I shall not think my 

 labour in vain. Mr. Strickland and those who think with him, 

 have, I am sure, the same end in view as I have myself, — that 

 of benefiting science, and restraining the depredations of 

 poachers and petty larceners, — we disagree only about the 

 proper means, nor do I think our opinions differ so much in 

 reality as they appear to do in words. So long, however, as 

 the very groups themselves, in Zoology, are not less unsettled 

 and fluctuating than their names, it is useless to think of re- 

 forming or amending the nomenclature of the science ; it is 

 beginning at the wrong end ; let us rather set about studying 

 the natural boundaries and relations of the groups, and it will 

 be time enough afterwards to settle their nomenclature. 



