NO. 8 oi'ixioxs 124 TO 133 27 



to Foraminifera ", quotes " Cyclosiphon? Elirciiberg., Abhaiuil. K. Akad. \Vis>. 

 Herlin, 1855, p. 168", and adds " Orbiioides fragment, referred elsewhere by 

 Ehrenberg to O. mantelli." Obviously this high authority on foraminifera, bibli- 

 ography, and nomenclature hesitated to accept Cyclosiphon. 



From a strictly nomenclatural standpoint I agree with the Secretary that this 

 uncertainty has no bearing on the incidence of the Rules; but this only shows 

 how ridiculous adherence to the letter of the law may sometimes be. 



It is not clear to me what confusion would be caused by substituting Cyclo- 

 siphon for Lcpidocyclina, but I gather that the latter name has long been in 

 general use, whereas no one seems to have used Cyclosiphon between P^hrenberg 

 (1856) and Galloway (1928). It is not in the Nomenclators of Bronn, Scudder. 

 or Waterhouse. 



With his informal [negative] vote Commissioner Stone sends the 

 statement : 



The privilege of asking for a Suspension of the Rules is in danger of being 

 abused. I should advocate it only in cases (i) that are so involved that various 

 interpretations are possible or (2) that seriously affect fields and activities outside 

 of pure zoological nomenclature. With too much leniency our whole s\stcni 

 will become utterly inconsistent. 



The Secretary has corresponded with the following persons, also, 

 who are interested in this case and who approve of a Suspension of 

 the Rules. Most of these workers have read the Summary of this 

 Opinion and have subscril>ed to it : 



R. Wright Barker, Tampico, Mexico; W. S. Cole, Columbus, O. ; J. .-\. 

 Cushman, Sharon, Alass. ; .'\. M. Davies, London; S. Hanzawa, Sendai, Japan: 

 L. G. Heubest, Washington, D. C. ; H. K. Hodson, Caripito, Mexico; W. L. F. 

 Nuttall, Cambridge, England ; D. K. Palmer, Matanzas, Cuba ; H. J. Plummer. 

 .■\ustin, Tex. ; G. M. Ponton, Tallahassee, Fla. ; L. Ritter, Utrecht, Holland ; 

 A. Silvestri, Milan, Italy; G. Stefanini, Pisa, Italy; J. H. F. Umbgrove, Delft, 

 Holland ; I. M. van der Vlerk, Leiden, Holland ; G. L. Whipple, Puerto Mexico, 

 Mexico; H.Yabe, Sendai, Japan. 



The Secretary invites attention to the facts : ( i ) that the sj^eciah'sts 

 consulted are agreed upon the advisability of Suspension in this case : 

 (2) the case involves geological record, i. e., a coordinate branch of 

 science, and zoologists should be doubly conservative in arriving at 

 conclusions on cases of this type which may have important economic 

 bearings and which have become thoroughly established in ])aleonto- 

 logical and geological literature. 



In view of the foregoing data the Secretary recommends that the 

 Summary given above be adopted as the Opinion of the Commission. 



Opinion prepared by .Stiles. 



Opinion concurred in by thirteen (13) Commissioners: Ai)stein, 

 Cabrera, Chapman, Fantham, Horvath, Ishikawa, Jordan, Pellegrin, 

 Silvestri, Stejneger, Stiles, Stone. Peters. 



