Cs dors) 
last year’s Record are generally accessible, and how many of 
them would be worth consulting if they were. I should not 
like, by giving instances of what I consider unnecessarily 
published papers or periodicals, to raise opposition to a 
reform, but no one who knows the facts can deny that there 
are many of them. 
We do not desire to check the publication of papers by 
beginners, or to throw cold water on the efforts of small 
local societies to create and develop local interest in science, 
or to obstruct the descriptions even of mere priority seekers. 
But we do want to have such rules as will prevent the honest 
and conscientious naturalist of small means or isolated resi- 
dence from being entirely at their mercy, and unable to work 
in a manner that will satisfy the modern requirements of 
science. 
My own idea is that if each country, or each group of 
countries, using the same language, would select some 
existing entomological journal, or if no suitable one exists, 
found one, in which the description of every new species 
should be published before it could be recognised, we should 
attain two great points without interfering with any existing 
interests. 
First, we should have no more questions about dates of 
publication, which are often considerably antedated in private 
works published in parts, like Moore’s ‘ Butterflies of India,’ 
or by some of the smaller and less regular serials; and 
secondly, we should run no risk of overlooking descriptions 
of new species published in little-known local periodicals. 
We should not take away the power that every writer has 
of publishing his descriptions and papers where he likes, but 
we should oblige him, if he wishes to have his writings 
recognised by scientific men, to conform to the laws estab- 
lished by scientific men for their mutual protection and 
advantage, by sending a précis of his paper, and a copy of 
his descriptions, to the recognised medium for their pub- 
lication. Personally, I would be inclined to restrict his 
choice of language to four or five—Latin, English, French, 
and German; Spanish might possibly be added, as spoken 
over a larger area of the world’s surface than even French, 
