332 Remarks upon the Genus Anomalodonta, etc. 



changed to Plectorhampus. It is, we conceive, the bounden duty of an 

 author, when naming a new genus, to ascertain by careful search tha.t 

 the name which he proposes to employ has not been previously adopted 

 in other departments of natural history. By neglecting this precaution, 

 he is liable to have the name altered and his authority superseded by 

 the first subsequent author who may detect the oversight, and for this 

 result, however unfortunate, we fear there is no remedy, though such 

 cases would be less frequent if the detectors of these errors, would, as 

 an act of courtesy, point them out to the author himself, if living, and 

 leave it to him to connect his own inadvertencies. This occasional 

 hardship appears to us to be a less evil than to permit the practice of 

 giving the same generic name ad lihitum to a multiplicity of genera. 

 We submit, therefore, that 



" Sec. 10. A name should be changed which has before been proposed 

 for some other genus in zoology or botany, or for some other species in 

 the same genus, when still retained for such genus or species." 



The law of nomenclature, having disposed of Megaptera, reaches 

 out its hand and suppresses, at least for the present, Oputhoptera. 

 Because only one of the autliors suggested the name with an if and 

 a doubt, and did not himself adopt it, as plainly appears by refer- 

 ence to the publication in the Ohio Paleontology, above referred to, and 

 if he had positively proposed the name, it would have fallen under the 

 twelfth rule governing naturalists, and the reasons therefor, as follows : 



" Unless a species or group is intelligibly defined when the name is 

 given, it can not be recognized by others, and the signification of the 

 name is consequently lost. Two things are necessary before a zoologi- 

 cal term can acquire any authority, viz., definition and publication. 

 Definition proj^erly implies a distinct exposition of essential characters, 

 and in all cases we conceive this to be indispensable, etc." Therefore : 



" Sec. 12. A name which has never been clearly defined in some pub- 

 lished work, should be changed for the earliest name by which the 

 object shall have been so defined." 



The only generic characters ever given to Megaptera, and conse- 

 quently the only ones that Opisthoptera, if alive, can inherit, are the card- 

 inal teeth of an Amhonychia, and a long posterior wing ; and the right 

 of possession of these is dependent upon ascertaining that the lateral 

 teeth in the posterior wing of the Casei is essentially different from the 

 lateral teeth in the posterior wing of the Ambonychia. And if pos- 

 session is ever acquired, the characters will only be subgeneric, and 

 Avill include, so far as yet ascertained, but one species, whose name 

 Avill then be Ambonychia {Opisthopttra^ Casei (M. & W.) 



The genus Anomalodonta, having a cardinal tooth and hinge line 



