ON ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 121 



§ E. It is recommended that new genera or species be amply de- 

 fined, and extensively circulated in the first instance. 



f_ The names to be given to subdivisions of genera to agree in gender with the 



original genus.~\ 



In order'to preserve specific names as far us possible in an unaltered form, 



whatever may be the changes which the genera to which they are referred 



may undergo, it is desirable, when it can be done with propriety, to make 



the new subdivisions of genera agree in gender with the old groups from which 



they are formed. This recommendation does not however authorize the 



changing the gender or termination of a genus already established. In brief, 



§ F. It is recommended that in subdividing an old genus in future, 



the names given to the subdivisions should agree in gender with that 



of the original group. 



[Etymologies and types of new genera to be stated. 2 

 It is obvious that the names of genera would in general be far more care- 

 fully constructed, and their definitions would be rendered more exact, if 

 authors would adopt the following suggestion : — 



§ G. It is recommended that in defining new genera the etymo- 

 logy of the name should be always stated, and that one species should 

 be invariably selected as a type or standard of reference. 



In concluding this outline of a scheme for the rectification of zoological 

 nomenclature, we have only to remark, that almost the whole of the proposi- 

 tions contained in it may be applied with equal correctness to the sister sci- 

 ence of botany. We have preferred, however, in this essay to limit our views 

 to zoology, both for the sake of rendering the question less complex, and be- 

 cause we conceive that the botanical nomenclature of the present day stands 

 in much less need of distinct enactment than the zoological. The admirable 

 rules laid down by Linnaeus, Smith, Decandolle, and other botanists (to 

 which, no less than to the works of Fabricius, Illiger, Vigors, Swainson, and 

 other zoologists, we have been much indebted in preparing the present docu- 

 ment), have always exercised a beneficial influence over their disciples. 

 Hence the language of botany has attained a more perfect and stable condi- 

 tion than that of zoology ; and if this attempt at reformation may have the 

 effect of advancing zoological nomenclature beyond its present backward 

 and abnormal state, the wishes of its promoters will be fully attained. 



(Signed) H. E. Strickland. J. S. Henslow. 



June 27, 1842. John Phillips. W. E. Shuckard. 



John Richardson. G. It. Waterhouse. 



Richard Owen. W. Yarrell. 



Leonard Jenyns. C. Darwin. 



W. J. Broderip. J. O. Westwood. 



Report of a Committee of the British Association for the Advancement 



of Science, consisting of Lieut. -Colonel W. H. Sykes, F.R.S., Lord 



Sandon, M.P., G. R. Porter, Esq., F.R.S., J. Heywood, Esq., 



F.R.S., Dr. W. P. Alison, and E. Chadwick, Esq., on the Vital 



Statistics of large Towns in Scotland. 



Your Committee, in pursuance of the Resolution of the General Committee 



of the Association in 1840, at Glasgow, selected the towns of Edinburgh 



(with Leith), Glasgow, Aberdeen, Perth and Dundee, as best suited for their 



inquiries, from their population, the occupations of their inhabitants, and 



