430 



were so to speak not exactly grammatical — or at least rhetorical — when 

 it came to their technical names. 



72) That present conditions are to be settled in a day or in a few years 

 is not to be expected. The transitional period between the lack of uniformity 

 in the past and the hoped for uniformity of the future will last at least one 

 entire generation, and to our generation falls the pleasure or the misfortune 

 (according to one's point of view) of undertaking the extensive and distinctly 

 altruistic duty of saving future generations of scientific workers from the 

 dangerous inheritance of chaotic nomenclature that threatens them. 



73) Stability in all zoological names during our generation is not in 

 the dreams of the members of this Commission, which at your request under- 

 took 18 years ago a most trying, most thankless, and very extensive task, 

 for which the only reward in its successful accomplishment exists in the 

 thought that our work is sacrifice. 



74) That many of our colleagues should differ with us in point of view, 

 does not disquiet us , but it is a matter of some misgiving to us that some 

 of our colleagues are (or at least seemingly are) of the opinion that the 

 difficulties at hand are to be settled so easily and in a few years. 



75) The transitional period will be mentioned again in connection with 

 the reference to the Law of Priority. 



76) Whatever the outcome of the present situation , the Commission 

 desires to express its gratification of the fact that, judged from the various 

 postal card votes that have recently been taken, many persons are today are 

 hearing of the rules of nomenclature who probably rarely if ever heard of 

 them before and many others are taking an active interest who formerly 

 ignored the subject. At the same time the feeling that has been exhibited 

 in some instances leads the Commission to the view that the present occasion 

 is one that calls for cool and calm deliberation rather that for attempts to 

 obtain majorities in postal card votes, for surely the quiet deliberations of 

 a few representatives selected because of their long experience in the intri- 

 cacies of a very intricate subject are more likely to reduce confusion than 

 is the conclusion of a large number of persons, voting upon a subject per- 

 haps by mail and assuredly with less careful deliberation. 



77) This latter point was clearly recognized in the Cambx'idge (Eng- 

 land) meeting when the Commission was not, because of a lack of unanimity 

 in its report, even accorded a place on the program to present the rules, 

 and again in the Berlin Congress when the Commission was urged to keep 

 the subject of nomenclature out of the general meetings by reporting only 

 upon propositions agreed upon by unanimous vote in commission. 



78] The Relations of the Commission to the Congress. — 

 Certain letters and certain published ci'iticisms seem to indicate more or 

 less clearly that there is considerable misunderstanding in regard to the 

 relationship of the Commission to the Congress. In the hope of clearing up 

 certain points and thus in the hope of a better understanding, the Com- 

 mission ventures to give a brief statement bearing on this subject. 



79) In 1889 and 1892, at the Paris and the Moscow Congresses, a 

 Code of Zoological Nomenclature was discussed and adopted. 



80) In 1895, at the Leyden Congress, a desire was expressed by one 

 of the German delegates to have all codes submitted to a comparative study 

 and to have the results presented to the next Congress. As a result, a 



