180 THE entomologist's record. 



now, appropriate and inoffensive, and will become valid. It is the one 

 odd name which gives the trouble and which we have to legislate for. 

 The Committee must not act in the nature of restriction. At the 

 present time it appears hardly advisable to give the Committe any 

 instruction to deal with the names of the past in a wholesale way, 

 although it seems that something should be done. Each case might 

 be discussed on its merits for a time as it comes up, until this proposed 

 Committee gets a recognised standing, when at a subsequent Congress 

 its powers might be increased. At present it seems advisable to get 

 the committee appointed and to limit the reference to it as stated above, 

 that it should be simply a court of appeal. Its decisions will be given 

 by entomologists to entomologists, and will carry more weight and 

 receive more recognition than would the decisions of any outside body. 



It should be competent for any one to lodge an appeal, but it must 

 be on one or more definite points and the decision of the Committee 

 must be absolute, even if a slight error in their collective judgment 

 should creep in. What is wanted for the future is absolute finality as 

 regards the application, structure, etc., of any one name. The Com- 

 mittee are not to consider all names, and a majority decision in case of 

 dispute to be final. It would be advisable for the awards, when made, 

 to be distributed to the chief magazines of each country, but it need 

 not to be the duty of the committee to do or to see that this is done. 



It might be referred to the Committee, if established, that they 

 should consider the advisability of compiling a code of nomenclatorial 

 rules for the general guidance and information of entomologists, and 

 to report at the next Congress. 



A general instruction as to the work of the Committee on any 

 question might be indicated at the Congress. When an appeal is made 

 it should be the duty of the Committee to ascertain all available facts 

 and details, to confer with one another, to make various suggestions to 

 both the appellant and the author, but only in extreme cases should it 

 be the duty of the committee to alter or rename, and then only after 

 all reasonable suggestions or alternatives had been ignored. In 

 such extreme cases the decision should be sent to at least one of the 

 chief magazines in each country by the committee. Of course all 

 members of the Committee when a decision has been arrived at will 

 agree loyally to support it, even against their own individual opinion. 



It must be generally recognised that there are several inherent 

 difficulties in the way of the working of this Committee besides the 

 question of language. The members could only meet at the Congress 

 once in three years, and communication, necessarily slow, niust be by 

 correspondence, and some plan would have to be devised for the work- 

 ing of this. Say a secretary, who would send on a duplicate of each 

 appeal to one member, who would register his opinion and pass the 

 appeal with his opinion to the next member, and so on. The order of 

 the communications might be determined by arrangement. The 

 secretary would then collate the opinions and summarise the result, 

 which he would at once send to each member for his approval or 

 further suggestion. In the mean time the secretary and each member 

 of the Committee would ascertain all the facts bearing on the case, 

 which would be incorporated with the secretary's summary. Finally, 

 the secretary would communicate the decision both to the Appellant 

 and to the Author concerned. 



