20 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 73 



The following case is an example which illustrates Rhumbler's 

 system : 



Pachynodon reverendus Amegh. Eupachnodontos ereverendos A. m ! ! = 

 f ossiler Ungulate aus dem ostlichen Siidamerika. — E = Saugetier ; u = 

 Ungulat. 



It has long been a principle in zoological nomenclature that a name 

 is only a name. For instance, the Code of Nomenclature adopted 

 by the American Ornithologists' Union, 1892, pp. 21-22, contains 

 the following : 



Principle V. — A name is only a name, having no meaning until invested 

 with one by being used as the handle of a fact; and the meaning of a name 

 so used, in zoological nomenclature, does not depend upon its signification in 

 any other connection. 



Remarks. — The bearing of this principle upon the much desired fixity of 

 names in Zoology, and its tendency to check those confusing changes which 

 are too often made upon philological grounds, or for reasons of ease, elegance, 

 or what not, may be best illustrated by the following quotation : 



" It being admitted on all hands that words are only the conventional signs 

 of ideas, it is evident that language can only attain its ends effectually by being 

 permanently established and generally recognized. This consideration ought, 

 it would seem, to have checked those who are continually attempting to sub- 

 vert the established language of zoology by substituting terms of their own 

 coinage. But, forgetting the true nature of language, they persist in confound- 

 ing the name of a species or [other] group with its definition; and because the 

 former often falls short of the fulness of expression found in the latter, they 

 cancel it without hesitation, and introduce some new term which appears to 

 them more characteristic, but which is utterly unknown to the science, and 

 is therefore devoid of any authority.^ If these persons were to object to such 

 names of men as Long, Little, Armstrong, Golightly, etc., in cases where they 

 fail to apply to the individuals who bear them, or should complain of the 

 names Gough, Lawrence, or Harvey, that they were devoid of meaning, and 

 should hence propose to change them for more characteristic appelations, they 

 would not act more unphilosophically or inconsiderately than they do in the 

 case before us ; for, in truth, it matters not in the least by what conventional 

 sound we agree to designate an individual object, provided the sign to be 

 employed be stamped with such an authority as will suffice to make it pass 

 current." 



(5. A. Code, 1842) 



These words, which in the original lead up to the consideration of the 

 " law of priority," seem equally sound and pertinent in connection with the 

 above principle of wider scope. 



Regeln fiir die wissenschaftliche Benennung der Thiere zusam- 

 mengestellt von der Deutschen Zoologischen Gesellschaft, 1894, p. 

 5, paragraph 5c, states : 



* Linnaeus says on this subject: " Abstinendum ab hac innovatione quae 

 numquam cessaret, quin indies aptiora detegerentur ad infinitum." 



