( xxxix ) 



recent publication in which insects were divided into groups 

 having two calcaria and one calcaria (!), and in which such 

 expi-essions as " metapostscutum," " metaepimeron," etc., were 

 employed, and said that it was monstrous that educated 

 persons should for ever be bound by such forms of words, 

 simply because the original giver of the names did not know 

 what he was talking about. At the same time he counselled 

 patience, saying that we could not expect in one generation to 

 arrive at a permanent solution of so difficult a problem. 



Mr. J. H. DuREANT concurred with the President in the 

 absolute impossibility of accepting such names ; he then 

 spoke of Mr. Kearfott's nonsense alphabets, hana, cana^ 

 dana, etc., etc., and congratulated Mr. Meyrick on his valiant 

 attempt to dispose of them at a stroke. 



The Rev. G. Wheeler said that it was a relief to hear two 

 such eminent Entomologists agree that the laAvs of Priority 

 must not over-ride everything. He said that while he 

 admired and sympathised with Mr. Meyrick's attempt, 

 published in the Entomologist's Monthly Magazine, he feared 

 it was beyond the power of any individual to reject a series 

 of names of this kind, and said that he intended, unless some 

 one else was already going to do so, to move at the coming 

 International Congress for the appointment of a permanent 

 International Committee, such as Mr. Turner had already 

 advocated before the Society, who should have power to deal 

 with the question, and to whom all names should be submitted 

 before they were held to have achieved publication. 



Mr. G. T. Bethune-Baker, though strongly upholding the 

 law of Priority on all ordinary occasions, was quite in favour 

 of the idea of such a Committee, who should have power to 

 alter the International Code if necessary. 



Mr. C. O. Waterhouse gave, as an instance of the fatuity of 

 adhering too strictly to the law of Priority, Meigen's paper on 

 Dlptera, dated 1800, of which only three copies were known 

 to exist, which had remained unknown for more than a century, 

 and which would, if followed, change some of the most universally 

 employed names in the Order. Meigen had written much on 

 the Dijytera later, and had never referred to this paper, which 

 it was in fact probable that he had wished to suppress, the 



