Fourth List of New Botifers. By C. F. Bousselet. 153 



Ehrenberg had a most complete and comprehensive knowledge 

 of everytliing that had ever been published on the group, as is shown 

 by his list of synonyms and bibliography with each species in his 

 great work of 1838. His names have done duty for over seventy 

 years, and all later works, including Hudson's and Gosse's mono- 

 graph, have been based on this great system, with such minor 

 modifications, splitting of families, etc., as have become desirable 

 with a fuller knowledge of the class. 



I therefore desire to appeal to all students of the Rotifera not 

 to go beyond Ehrenberg in their search for names, for although the 

 rules of tlie International Commission of Zoological Nomenclature, 

 sanctioned by various zoological congresses, allows the search for 

 zoological names to go back as far as 1758, there is no obligation or 

 necessity for doing so. A way out of the difficulty created by the 

 alDOve Commission is to declare, and I hereby do declare all names 

 of Eotifera given before Ehrenberg, and not recognized by him in 

 his great work, " Die Infusionsthierchen," 1838, to be unrecogniz- 

 able, and therefore incapable of being used to replace his nomen- 

 clature. 



Anyone who looks at the figures of the authors before Ehren- 

 berg's time must see how hopeless it is to positively identify the 

 species they meant to represent, wdiich, moreover, is quite natural 

 and inevitable, when one reflects on the very inferior optical means 

 at their disposal. 



On all these grounds it seems to me much the better policy to 

 interfere with Ehrenberg's system as little as possible. All that is 

 required of authors of faunas is to carefully identify the species they 

 find, a sufficiently arduous task, and record them by their present 

 correct and familiar names, avoiding, as much as possible, the 

 making a new species without a fairly complete knowledge of the 

 literature of all related forms. 



Then, later on, in fifty or sixty years' time, when our knowledge 

 of the Rotifer-fauna of the world shall have become more completely 

 revealed, a second Ehrenberg may arise and devise a new and per- 

 fect system of nomenclature for the Eotifera, which will endure. 

 By that time also the international rules of nomenclature may 

 have been revised and settled definitely, which as yet is not 

 the case. 



The work, which is really wanted at the present time is the 

 clearing away of the numerous modern synonyms and species which 

 have been made with an insufficient knowledge of previous work, 

 and which encumber the nomenclature ; and, further, a study and 

 revision of the various families and genera, accompanied by the 

 best possible illustrations of each species — in fact, work such as 

 H. S. Jennings has done for the Eattulidse, and Dixon-Nuttall and 

 Freeman for the genus Diaschiza. 



