106 The Scott is J i Naturalist. 



which are the causes of the present distribution of our fauna and 

 flora. 



In my remarks on the work of Societies I have not indicated 

 how geological and meteorological work should be carried on. 

 The details of this I leave to the respective Committees, but in 

 doing so, would urge upon them, as upon all, the desirability of 

 uniformity. 



THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD IN BIOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION. 



TEKMINOLOGT (Concluded). 



By Rev. WILLIAM L. DAVIDSON. 



HERE, under Rule III., may be raised the question of the 

 propriety or advisability of changing the name of a group 

 (either of animals or of plants), when once the name is commonly 

 acknowledged and well-established. It is notorious that many 

 biological names are offensive hybrids ; yet, speaking generally, 

 we may confidently say that no change of name should be made 

 on such a ground as this ; neither should any be effected solely 

 for the sake of euphony. For, although these grounds would be 

 quite sufficient to justify our rejection of a name at its first intro- 

 duction, the case is different when the t wordj has acquired the 

 sanction of accepted usage. There are three^ cases, however, 

 where a change becomes legitimate, if not imperative — even at the 

 risk of introducing a disturbing element. These are : — (i) When 

 the original name was imposed on a false principle, or has become 

 suggestive of a misleading idea ; (2) when the group itself has, 

 through fresh knowledge and discovery, come to be so remodelled 

 (widened or contracted) as to be virtually a different group ; (3) 

 when the name transgresses the accepted principle on which group- 

 names proceed. 



The first of these cases covers such changes in Terminology as 

 have been necessitated by the passage from the Artificial to the 

 Natural System of Classification, or which mark advances in the 

 natural classification itself ; as well as all instances where 1 name 

 with a misleading connotation has been exchanged for another of 

 an unobjectionable kind. For this reason, it was right, when the 



