190 CH. WARDELL STILES, 



latter from a German word wbich happens to be the family name of one 

 of our esteemed German colleagues, is absolutely irrelevant to the 

 questions at band. These corabinations have no inberent meaning ex- 

 cept as applied to objects, and as applied to one genus the combina- 

 tion B-r-a-n-d-e-s-i-a is just as satisfactory as the combination 

 A-t-h-e-s-m-i-a applied to the other. That it is any way disrespectful 

 to Brandes, that Stossich named a genus of parasites after bim, 

 cannot be admitted, and if one prefers not to consider it a compliment 

 to Brandes, there is another way to look at it — namely as a com- 

 pliment to the worm ! But as stated, all such questions are secon- 

 dary and insignificant compared with the matter of stability, and from 

 this Standpoint it would have been better if Looss had constructed 

 generic names for the ten still-born homonyms mentioned above, out 

 of the names of ten of bis Egyptian colleagues, friends, or servants, 

 and thus avoided the necessity of a later cbange of names. Looss 

 States that he is greatly handicapped for literature in Egypt. This 

 condition can be fully appreciated, and in my opinion would be ample 

 justification for bis resorting to all sorts of expedients in order to 

 render bis generic names capable of being adopted. 



18. The Status of generic names proposed in the manner 



of LyperosoTnurn, 



Occasionally authors publish names in a manner which may better 

 be avoided, since it is calculated to lead to confusion. As an example 

 par excellence of this kind, attention may be directed to Lypero- 

 somum Looss, 1899, p. 635. Looss says: 



"Sollte es sich im Laufe der Zeit herausstellen, dass zwischen 

 beiden Kategorien noch andere und constante, wenn auch kleine Dif- 

 ferenzen existiren, dann dürfte es sich wohl empfehlen, die oben von 

 Braun namhaft gemachten Formen, zu denen auch Dicr. strigosum 

 gehört, in eine eigene Gattung [vielleicht Lyperosomum mit Namen] zu 

 stellen," etc. 



This case is not quite so bad in one respect (yet still more re- 

 gretable in another) as a specific name published not long ago : An 

 author mentioned that Mr. X had collected certain animals, among 

 which was a specimen of a monkey. He (the author) had not yet 

 determined to what genus the monkey belonged, but in case it proved 

 to be a new species, he would suggest that the specific name ^— be 

 applied to it. 



Lyperosomum is not so bad as this case, because the species and 



