( XV ) 



I. GENERAL SUBJECT. 



THE veseaiT.lies cmboilieil in a work Wh'. rlie iin'sont arc of two vovv ilitt'iMTiif 

 kiiiils. AVi- liail, lii-Titly, tn stuily tin' inseets dealt with ; aiirl, socoinlly, to 

 study tlip names bestoweil njion them by previous authors. It may sound almost 

 ridieulous, ))at it is nevertheless true, tliat in many cases the time one h;is to 

 spend over the nomenclature of a form, in order to clear nji nomeni-latdrial mmldli' 

 and to tind out wliat form authors have meant to desiu'uati' with a certain name, 

 equals or surpasses the time one can, for certain reasons, devote to the study of 

 the natural history of the animal. Surely this is wronu'. The Natural History 

 of the animal beinu' the subject of our science, the accessory subject of nomen- 

 clature sliouhl never have assumed such maj;nitnile. It is waste of ener^'y. 

 However, we have patiently to bear the I'rnits of the sins of our forefathers in 

 Roience, and those who come after us will affiin mutter bad lanyna'.;'!'. One uiay 

 kick, but one has to suiter. AVe have no sympathy with those of onr contem- 

 poraries who contribute unnecessarily to the burden, which is in itself supertbious, 

 and detracts from the efforts devoted to our science. The system of naminji' the 

 groups of individual specimens of animated nature has been invented as a liel|) 

 to the student of science, but it has been carried out from the begiunins in such 

 a way that it necessarily develojied into a liotlier as well. A\'hy ? Hecause the 



PRINCIPLES OP NOMENCLATURE 



were not strict enounii. 



Scien(^e is a repuVilic where everybody may do as he likes. There are no 

 laws which can be enforced : ami nobody can Ijc ju'cvented from publishing 

 what he ]jleases. This freed(ma is a great boon to science. riifortunatelv, the 

 results of scientific research and those of nomenclature are ot ipiite a dilTeviMit 

 standing. W the ]iurjiorted results of scientific investigations prove to lie 

 erroneous, they are repudiated and forgotten. If somebody pro])ounds ''laws'" 

 of dev(do[]ment which are found to be erroneous, science passes on without 

 troubling any longer about them. H' somebody considers the battledore scales 

 of Li/carnidae to bo fmuji, or the maxillary jialpi of Pidicidac to be antennae, 

 such statements are disproved, and are no further encumbrance to science. 

 Statements of fact, and conclusions, once jjroved to be erroneous, no longer 

 occu]iy the time of the scientific student : science is I'id of them. Science can 

 never get rid (if a name of an animal m- plant once jmblished — unless qnite a 

 different system of designation be adopted than that employed since the time of 

 Linno. Wc cannot simply ignore a name which is a record of an animal or 

 ])liint. For we must keep a record at least of all the forms which have become 

 known to science, since we cannot Inive a record of all the forms thiit exist .ind 

 have existed. Evr'ii names which ai'e svnonynis caiimil be droppe(| ; they must 



