established Terms in Natural History. 39 



naturalist is concerned amounted only to a few hundreds, or a 

 few thousands, then, indeed, the supposed improvement of the 

 nomenclature might be in some measure excusable ; but, since 

 the profuse fecundity of Nature has overwhelmed her admirers 

 with such myriads of forms, that their number alone consti- 

 tutes the chief difficulty with which they have to contend, it 

 is surely the height of folly to increase that difficulty, by 

 bestowing a multiplicity of names on the same object. From 

 the excess of this practice, the rectification of synonymes has 

 become the most laborious part of the process of compiling 

 systematic works on natural history; which are thus vastly 

 increased in size and price, and rendered more repulsive to 

 the general reader. There are, also, many other sources of 

 inconvenience in this practice. Can S. D. W., for instance, 

 expect that the whole republic of science will take the trouble 

 of relabelling their cabinets, altering their catalogues, or 

 making notes in their works of reference, because an anony- 

 mous writer fancies that he can improve Pyrrhula vulgaris by 

 changing it to Densirostra atricapilla ? Again, if some adopt 

 the alteration, a large number will not : and hence it is that 

 we rarely find the same species labelled alike in two different 

 museums. In short, if this practice be once given way to, 

 there will soon be an end of all nomenclature, and, through 

 it, of all science ; for true it is, that, 



" Nomina si pereunt, perit et cognitio return. 9 * 

 If names perish, the knowledge of things perishes with them. 



The above arguments apply equally to the proper names 

 of genera, or of larger groups, where such groups are retained 

 unaltered, their appellations only being changed; as in the 

 case of the genus Pyrrhula, which S. D. W. has altered to 

 Densirostra. Where an old genus is divided into several 

 new ones, new appellations must, of course, be found for 

 them ; but, even then, the original name should be retained 

 for that group which is the most typical of the whole. 



A complete parallel seems to exist between the proper 

 names of species and of men. The first discoverer of a spe- 

 cies may be regarded as its parent or godfather ; who bestows 

 on it any name he thinks fit, and publishes it to the scientific 

 world in some standard work, as in a parish register : and, as 

 the laws of the land forbid men to change their names without 

 due cause, so the laws of natural history ought to be equally 

 severe against those who encumber species with a multitude 

 of aliases. It would, I think, be highly desirable if an au- 

 thorised body could be constituted, to frame a code of laws 

 for naturalists, instead of the present anarchical state of 



d 4 



