ON ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 107 



scientific language is almost as foreign to him as their vernacular. Almost 

 every specimen which he examines is labeled by a title which is unknown 

 to him, and he feels that nothing short of a continued residence in that 

 country can make him conversant with her science. If he proceeds thence 

 to Germany or Russia, he vis again at a loss : bewildered everywhere amidst 

 the confusion of nomenclature, he returns in despair to his own country and 

 to the museums and books to which he is accustomed. 



If these diversities of scientific language were as deeply rooted as the ver- 

 nacular tongue of each country, it would of course be hopeless to think of 

 remedying them ; but happily this is not the case. The language of science is 

 in the mouths of comparatively few, and these few, though scattered over di- 

 stant lands, are in habits of frequent and friendly intercourse with each other. 

 All that is wanted then is, that some plain and simple regulations, founded 

 on justice and sound reason, should be drawn up by a competent body of 

 persons, and then be extensively distributed throughout the zoological world. 



The undivided attention of chemists, of astronomers, of anatomists, of 

 mineralogists, has been of late years devoted to fixing their respective lan- 

 guages on a sound basis. Why, then, do zoologists hesitate in performing 

 the same duty ? at a time, too, when all acknowledge the evils of the present 

 anarchical state of their science. 



It is needless to inquire far into the causes of the present confusion of 

 zoological nomenclature. It is in great measure the result of the same branch 

 of science having been followed in distant countries by persons who were 

 either unavoidably ignorant of each other's labours, or who neglected to in- 

 form themselves sufficiently of the state of the science in other regions. And 

 when we remark the great obstacles which now exist to the circulation of 

 books beyond the conventional limits of the states in which they happen to 

 be published, it must be admitted that this ignorance of the writings of others, 

 however unfortunate, is yet in great measure pardonable. But there is another 

 source for this evil, which is far less excusable, — the practice of gratifying 

 individual vanity by attempting on the most frivolous pretexts to cancel the 

 terms established by original discoverers, and to substitute a new and un- 

 authorized nomenclature in their place. One author lays down as a rule, 

 that no specific names should be derived from geographical sources, and un- 

 hesitatingly proceeds to insert words of his own in all such cases ; another 

 declares war against names of exotic origin, foreign to the Greek and Latin ; 

 a third excommunicates all words which exceed a certain number of sylla- 

 bles ; a fourth cancels all names which are complimentary of individuals, and 

 so on, till universality and permanence, the two great essentials of scientific 

 language, are utterly destroyed. 



It is surely, then, an object well worthy the attention of the Zoological 

 Section of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, to devise 

 some means which may lessen the extent of this evil, if not wholly put an 

 end to it. The best method of making the attempt seems to be, to entrust 

 to a carefully selected committee the preparation of a series of rules, the 

 adoption of which must be left to the sound sense of naturalists in general. 

 By emanating from the British Association, it is hoped that the proposed 

 rules will be invested with an authority which no individual zoologist, how- 

 ever eminent, could confer on them. The world of science is no longer a 

 monarchy, obedient to the ordinances, however just, of an Aristotle or a Lin- 

 nseus. She has now assumed the form of a republic, and although this revo- 

 lution may have increased the vigour and zeal of her followers, yet it has de- 

 stroyed much of her former order and regularity of government. The latter 

 can only be restored by framing such laws as shall be based in reason and 



