218 NATURAL SCIENCE [April 



"MuTATO Nomine " Date 



It may be remembered that in Natural Science for August 1896 

 we endorsed a suggestion made by Prof. Herrera, that the 

 specific name should be followed, not by the name of its author, as 

 is usual, but by the date of its first publication. We are interested, 

 therefore, to find from a paper sent us by Dr K. Jordan, that the 

 proposal has been put into practice by that distinguished systematist 

 in describing a collection of Coleoptera belonging to the family 

 Anthribidae (Ann. Mus. Civ. Storia Nat. Genova, Ser. 2a, vol. xviii., 

 pp. 623-643). Dr Jordan's reasons for adopting this course are 

 thus expressed by him : (1) " While the name of the author does 

 not help me much, if there is no full reference given, to find out 

 when and where the insect in question has been described, the 

 addition of the year to the name of the insect tells us at once in 

 which volume of the Zoological Record the place of the description 

 can be found, 



(2) " As I am the ' author ' of about 800 species of Anthribidae, 

 and shall probably become the ' author ' of a still larger number, I 

 should have to bring my own name before the reader again and 

 again, and thus acquire that kind of cheap immortality to which 

 critics of classificatory work have nowadays so often alluded as 

 being the chief aim of the publication of mere descriptions of species. 

 By the above method of citing the name of a species this cutting 

 criticism loses the point." Example is always better than precept, 

 and we hope that this one will find many followers. 



Peofessor Liversidge's Address 



Professor Liversidge, as President of the Australasian Association, 

 dealt chiefly in his address with the history of the movement for 

 the advancement of science. He referred to the origin of the British 

 Association in 1831 at the instance of Sir David Brewster, who had 

 for objects the wish to give a strong impulse and a more systematic 

 direction to scientific inquiry ; to bring together British and Foreign 

 philosophers ; and to obtain a greater degree of national attention to 

 the objects of science and a removal of any disadvantages of a public 

 nature which impeded its progress. Prof, Liversidge referred to the 

 peripatetic character of the British Association and the system 

 of making grants to individuals, a system productive of valuable 

 results; and then passed on to the origin in 1884 of the Austral- 

 asian Association, conducted on precisely similar lines. He reviewed 

 the results of previous sessions ; discussed the value of the proposed 

 International Catalogue of Scientific Literature " if carried to a suc- 

 cessful issue " ; and referred to the Imperial Institute in London as 

 " now fulfilling its intended objects," a statement which will be 



