590.1 254 



IV. 



Rules of Nomenclature in Zoology. 



THE code of the German Zoological Society for the moment holds 

 the field. It is to govern the naming of all the known animals 

 of the world in the forthcoming volumes of "Das Tierreich." There 

 is still, however, a brief interval during which the code is liable 

 to be modified. It may, therefore, be made better or it may be made 

 worse. At a recent meeting of the Zoological Society of London 

 only one point was made transparently clear, namely, that no body of 

 regulations on the subject of scientific nomenclature can possibly give 

 universal satisfaction. Some speak of the law of priority as " a 

 fetish " and " a demon," while others hold that it governs almost jure 

 divino in the vocabulary of science. Some persons are taunted with 

 being extremists who look upon themselves as the pure models of 

 logical consistency. Some think that we ought to bury the past and 

 bind the future, while others believe that the more justice we render 

 to our predecessors, the more surely will our own decisions be 

 accepted by those who come after us. Some single out for censure 

 the very points in the German code which others think exceptionally 

 deserving of praise. 



The first rule relieves the zoologist from the obligation of paying 

 regard to the names of botanical genera. This is in accord with Sir 

 William Jardine's Report, approved of and adopted by Section D of 

 the British Association in 1865, on the motion of Mr. Gwyn Jeffreys, 

 seconded by Dr. Sclater. Since that time the relief in question has 

 generally been taken for granted, as a matter of such obvious con- 

 venience, as a blessing so unqualified, that it could need no further 

 argument. With much surprise, therefore, did one hear or seem to 

 hear Dr. Sclater himself maintaining the contrary opinion. He urged 

 the chances of confusion between a genus of plants and a genus of 

 animals, especially when we are dealing with the borderland between 

 animal and vegetable life, and he pointed out that the recent " Index 

 Kewensis " now made it easy for the zoologist to discover and avoid 

 the names which have been used in botany. But the " Index Kewen- 

 sis " is of no avail to the zoologist working at a distance from great 

 libraries. He is certain not to possess it, and, were it ever so near to 

 his hand, it would tell him nothing in regard to the continuous coinage 

 of new botanical names. In any case, in order to avoid the infinitesimal 



