1 G2 STNOXTMT OF TORPEDINIDJE OR NAECOBATID^—GILL. vol. xviii. 



Every requisite for generic nomenclature is here fulfilled. A name 

 is given, a real diagnosis is supplied, and a typical species described. 

 Of course a great mistake was made in identification, but tlie descriji- 

 tion and not the identification iii the cardinal point in the determina- 

 tion of the question at issue. The perversion of the name Torpedo 

 from the rays so long familiar under that designation is very regret- 

 table and at variance with ancient usage; but even the ancient use of 

 Torpedo for the rays was secondary, the primary use being for the 

 quality of numbness or torpidity, and the electric catfish is as much 

 the embodiment of numbness as the electric ray. Besides, we have 

 been too much used to wanton perversions of old names to be much 

 shocked by any new manifestation. Witness the perversion of the 

 name Trochilus (originally used for a snipe) to the exclusively American 

 humming birds, and of Amia (originally given to a tunny) to the equally 

 American ganoids. For such unscientific x^erversious we have to blame 

 Linnreus and his followers, and so distorted were their views of the 

 fitness of things that they even took a certain pride in misusing such 

 names, and were very particular in rejecting what they were iileased 

 to call barbarous and nonclassical terms. Remonstrances against such 

 perversions were not wanting to Linnanis, even very early in his career;^ 

 but he was deaf to all, and scientific nomenclature has consequently 

 been cursed with a load of names revived in a very different sense from 

 their primitive use. At worst, one more such misused term will be 

 Torpedo J but its misuse will be less repulsive than that of many others, 

 because its primary meaning will not be in disaccord with the fish. 



The facts in question are thus exhibited in the synonymy: 



Genus TORPEDO. 



^Torpedo, Forskal, Desc. Auim., etc., p. 16, 1775. 

 ^=Malapterurus, Lacepede, Hist. Nat. Poiss., V, p. 90, 1802. 

 =Anacanthtis, Minding, Lelirb. Nat. Fische, p. 117, 1832. 

 Eaja sp., FoKSKAL. 

 Siluriis s])., Gmemx et al. 



The family to which it belongs should consequently be called ToR- 



PEDINIDvl^. 



II. 



If the proj)riety of the retention of the name Torpedo in place of 

 Malapterurns is conceded, it necessarily follows that another name 

 must be used for the genus of electric rays. Narcaclon is the oldest 

 term, having been given by Klein in 1742, and was adopted in 1861 

 by Gill and later by Bleeker, but having been given before the estab- 

 lishment of the binomial system of nomenclature is now considered 

 ineligible. 



'Dilleuius, in an early letter to Limi.Tus, remarked: "I do not object to Greek 

 words, especially in compound names; but I think tlie names of the ancients ought 

 not rashly and promiscuously to be transferred to our new genera, or tliose of the 

 New World."' There was much more sound advice m the letter, which Linuanis 

 uuftirtunately did not profit by. 



