({ cv) 
has a much older name. What would science gain, what 
would any one gain by altering it now! 
If indeed we admit the law of priority, there is still much 
left to the individual in the application of it. I have already 
mentioned the groups into which Linnezeus divided his large 
genera. Some entomologists treat these as sub-genera, others 
consider that they ought not to be so regarded—so that 
priority does not by itself secure a permanent name. 
The law is a good one generally speaking, but that we 
should be bound hand and foot by it seems to me unreason- 
able. This law has force only by a mutual agreement among 
zoologists, but I see no reason why—(also by mutual agreement, 
brought about by an entomological congress, or in some 
other way)—we might not have some modification of it which 
would give us greater fixity. 
I remember one of our Fellows saying in this room that he 
took Staudinger’s Catalogue of Lepidoptera as his standard. 
It is to my mind conceivable that a collection such as I have 
suggested might become a court of final appeal. It would 
not be a question whether brassice is or is not the oldest 
name for a species, but,—What name does it bear in the 
International Collection ? 
Then we need not go beyond that. 
At first there would be just one little difficulty remaining 
with regard to priority. I might put into the collection a 
specimen of a species of which I had the type. Afterwards 
some one might place in it another specimen of the same 
species under a different name, compared with a type in his 
possession. Which of these names should be adopted should 
be left for the trustees of the collection to decide, but both 
specimens should remain in the collection. If a specimen 
had been passed round the principal museums in Europe, and 
its name had not been challenged, I should not alter it even 
if an older name were afterwards discovered. For consider, 
What is the object of the name? Is it not that we may be 
able to speak of the insect and record facts about it? For 
this reason it is of the greatest importance that we should 
have an unchanging name. Whether it is the oldest one or 
not is of very minor importance. 
