Vol. Xxiii] ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS 1 79 



Woe ! Woe ! Woe ! Hear the voice of lamentation. How 

 long ! how long shall the deserving ones be scoffed at for their 

 labors. Surely the worthy study of nature is becoming a 

 babble of words, the worship of names supplanting a devotion 

 to research. Has orthography parasitized entomology ? 



We hear in an authoritative voice from across the waters 1 

 that the "specific name and not the species is the only really new 

 thing that is intended;" that "n. sp. whenever applied, signi- 

 fies a new specific name only, and not a new species." Now, 

 in fact, although "entomologists do not purpose to have cre- 

 ated the insect they describe," they do propose to have defined 

 a new species, new to science, new in the sense of having 

 never been known. If that is not new, what is it? 



Further, that voice still louder acclaims that priority shall 

 be ignored in respect to certain names because these names 

 are "obviously based on a barbarous and unmeaning gibberish, 

 and .... must be rejected as null and void." Of course this 

 is ridiculous and cannot stand ; and it is to be regretted that 

 these unmeaning names, these combinations of letters, must 

 stand lords and masters over other good, well meaning names, 

 which must be placed beyond further reach in the Sargasso 

 Sea of synonomy. 



It is further to be regretted that a well respected journal 

 should give its pages to such a list of these good names that are 

 thereby made worthless ; and using the form of argument 

 adopted by a fellow entomologist in another journal 2 , if 

 the scientific status of a publication is gauged by the quality 

 of its contents, these pages will surely stand as an indissolvable 

 stain, detracting seriously from its prestige. E. T. C., JR. 



C(laude) M(orley) says in the Entomologist for March, 1912, p. 99, 

 "We do not know Mr. Kearfott ; but he has stirred up more animation 

 in this country than we have seen displayed for a long time." Our 

 hearty congratulations to Mr. Kearfott. H. S. 



(1) The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, Feb., 1912, p. 32. 



(2) The Entomologist, March, 1912, p. 99. 



