NO. I OPINIONS 68 TO 77 31 



placed in an Official List, while other names show disagreement, we 

 obtain a clearer vision of our problems. 



The Official List has a chief object and a chief result in view: 

 The chief object is to give to the general zoologists a list of names 

 which, so far as can humanly be determined, seem to be beyond dis- 

 pute ; the chief result is to find out where we all can agree, thereby 

 bringing us all more closely together before we reach the final differ- 

 ences of opinion on cases which are in dispute. 



The outlook for settling all cases by any one method in our genera- 

 tion is hopeless — unless we can change human nature. Our lives 

 in general are made up of a series of compromises in policies in 

 order to carry out principles ; nomenclature can hardly hope to 

 escape this same necessity. The great principles in nomenclature 

 are (i) stability in so far as this is possible under a system of chang- 

 ing conceptions as to classification, and (2) objectivity as to selec- 

 tion between competitive names ; the methods by which these de- 

 siderata are to be reached are dependent fully as much upon policy 

 as upon principle, and secondary principles can well afiford to make 

 way for policies which, by compromises, hold out hope for success 

 of the primary principle. 



