vi *.. W. A. Lewis on 
that disagreements on nomenclature had arisen. In 1857 
M. Guenée issued the last volume of the Species Général des 
Lépidoptéres, in which work he undoubtedly brought forward 
some names unwelcome to the entomologists of Germany. 
Whatever the cause may have been, the German entomologists 
in 1858 called a Congress to establish rules for nomenclature. 
It duly met at Dresden, and its rules* were shortly afterwards 
published. 
There is one great difference between the Manchester rules 
and the Dresden rules, and it is not a little instructive to 
remark it. The framers of our rules no doubt had before them 
only the object of reconciling the prevailing disagreements. 
The object of those who framed the Dresden rules, however, 
was to supply a standard of perfect accuracy, and the laws 
which they framed they intended not only to be of permanent 
authority, but also to comprehend all the aspects of the ques- 
tions. Those who took part in the Congress were fully awake 
to the circumstance that names in use everywhere might be 
“wrong,” for they had had some recent experience of the fact. 
How did they deal with the case? They first agreed in enact- 
ing ‘ priority,” in much the same language as our own rule ; 
but by another rule, passed at the same time, they provided— 
what? ‘ The principle of preserving the oldest of the names 
given to the same insect is not absolute ; the choice between 
them, following the greater or less degree of convenience, 
remains free.” Where entomologists had an eye to the point 
that no name in use might be the “ prior” one, it is striking 
that the decision arrived at was—not the imperative acceptance 
of the prior name—but that the choice between the names 
should follow ‘“ the greater or less degree of convenience.” 
We are coming to consider wrong and right, and it is not 
beside the question to recall that this code of rules is in opera- 
tion in Germany at the present moment, while nevertheless it 
is from Germany that we are visited with the systematic intru- 
sion of the first name on strict “ priority” grounds. The very 
writers to whom we must attribute a familiarity with the 
Dresden code are the most unsparing in throwing all ‘“ degrees 
of convenience” to the winds, and even (it must be said) 
treating with derision those who have all the time this statute 
in their justification. 
Immediately on the publication of the Dresden code, the 
Entomological Society of France had the matter before it, and 
M. Amyot, who took a leading part in the discussions which 
followed, formulated a set of rules.t It is only important to 
quote the one which provides that “ wsage may consecrate 
injustices in the priority of names.” ‘There is no code drawn 
* Berlin. Ent. Zeitsch, vol. ii. app. 
+ Ann. Soc. Ent. France, 3rd ser. vol. vii. 606. 
