12 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 73 



The expression uouien nudum does not occur in the Rules or Rec- 

 ommendations. It may occur somewhere in the Opinions, Ijut repeated 

 search has failed to find it. In the ahsence of a definition by the Inter- 

 national Commission, it seems necessary to take the literal meaning of 

 the words, which corresponds with general usage, viz., a generic or 

 specific name unaccompanied by any word of definition, diagnosis, or 

 description, by any figure, or by any reference to previous definition, 

 etc. or figure. A statement of locality and geological horizon does not 

 of itself prevent a name from being a noinen nudum (Opinion 52). 

 Reference to a type specimen or type specimens by the register or cata- 

 logue number of a museum or collector does not of itself prevent a 

 name from being a nomen nudum; a fortiori the mere existence of a 

 type specimen has no bearing on the question (Opinion one) . 



It is plain that the new names introduced by d'Orbigny in the 

 " Prodrome " are not nouiina nuda in the sense here defined, and no 

 ruling of the International Commission can make them so. 



This conclusion has the support of Dr. Bartsch, but the other col- 

 leagues do not seem to have dealt with the precise point. 



The application of Messrs. Cox and Arkell is not, however, to be 

 dismissed because of a loose use of terms. They proceed to request 

 that the " Prodrome " names " shall have no status in nomenclature." 



The meaning of this phrase, as used by the applicants, is ambiguous. 

 There are two kinds of status : i. availability ; 2. validity. 



1. A specific name may be unavailable for various reasons, e. g., 

 because it is pre-Linnean, unpublished in the sense of the Code, non- 

 binominal, as well as the reasons already discussed. 



2. A specific name may be invalid for various reasons, and these 

 reasons are of two kinds — a. nomenclatural ; h, zoological. 



a. Invalid because a preoccupied homonym, or because established 

 on the same type specimen or other indication as a pre-existing 

 species, i. e., a nomenclatural synonym. 



h. Invalid because held by the reviser (s) to belong to a species 

 previously named, i. e., a zoological synonym. Invalid because the 

 definition, figure, etc., are held by the reviser (s) to be incapable of 

 interpretation, or, in so far as capable, then palpably incorrect and 

 misleading. 



Now the International Commission is competent to pass an Opinion 

 on all questions raised under i and 2a, because these are questions of 

 pure nomenclature. It is not competent definitely to decide questions 

 under 2h, because these involve zoological points, and these points are 

 not so much of zoological fact as of subjective interpretation. The 

 Commission is, however, competent to pass an Opinion on the nomen- 



