Fifth List of New Rotifers. By C. F. Bousselet. 21 



These changes of names, and in particuhir the inversion of 

 names, snch as Floscularia for the ancient and familiar Melicerta, 

 have been contested, by de Beauchamp (229) for instance, who is 

 himself an advocate of a strict maintenance of the code of rules 

 created by the International Zoological Congresses. To this Harring 

 has published a reply (232a), contending that de Beauchamp's 

 interpretation of the code is incorrect, and that he has not estab- 

 lished any contradictions. 



Whether this new classification will be finally accepted may 

 depend upon the action of the Commission of Zoological Nomencla- 

 ture of future International Congresses ; meanwhile it is admitted 

 that the synopsis has not the force of law, though the author 

 confidently claims that it is in agreement with the international 

 code. Some authors will no doubt accept the new names, whilst 

 others may reject them, and some have already printed both the 

 names, which does not look like a simplification of zoological 

 nomenclature. 



As long as the classification is in agreement with the inter- 

 national code, zoologists will have no choice in the matter but to 

 accept it, however reluctant, and against their grain the new names 

 may be, unless indeed some specialist, with an intimate knowledge 

 of the more obscure groups of Eotifera, can succeed in showing 

 some errors or contradictions, when that part of the elaborate work 

 will have to be recast or done over again. Harring has shown un- 

 bounded courage in undertaking single-handed such a stupendous 

 work, when it might have been accomplished by a dozen specialists 

 well versed in the various groups of Eotifera, with powers, like 

 those vested in the International Commission of Nomenclature, of 

 recommending their conclusions for adoption by the International 

 Congress of Zoology. 



It seems a pity that, as regards microscopic animals, a later date 

 than Linne's " Systema Naturae," 10th Edition, 1758, when it was . 

 obviously impossible for authors to have even an approximately 

 correct knowledge of the animals they were describing and naming, 

 should not have been fixed. On the other hand, it is difficult to 

 indicate wliat other date could have been selected as a start- 

 ing-point. 



The author of this new Nonemclature is well aware that 

 it will cause- much temporary inconvenience, but he considers 

 that it offers the only means of escape from the present chaotic 

 condition. 



The object of this list, however, is only to record the names of 

 new species and not to criticize them, unless they are synonyms. 

 For greater lucidity I have here added the old generic names, in 

 parenthesis, to the new and unfamiliar names of Harring's new 

 classification. 



