42 Elliot, Truth versus Error. [£^ k 



Dr. Allen thinks it " too absurd for serious consideration," the 

 charge that this Canon XL places a premium upon illiteracy, 

 and yet what are the facts? It provides for the retention of 

 names no matter how ridiculous they may be, nor how grossly 

 they may violate all rules of orthography and etymology, and then 

 assures all those who may commit such blunders that they shall 

 be perpetuated. That is clearly offering a premium on illiteracy, 

 for a writer would doubtless feel that even though he tried 

 earnestly to have his production free from blunders, yet it would 

 not matter, if he was not up in his Greek and Latin, for his errors 

 if he made any, would stand in the place of honor side by side 

 with those words that were correct in construction. It is true 

 that the rule ends with some good advice such as, " word coiners 

 will pay the closest attention to philological proprieties," but if 

 any are ignorant of these proprieties, attention to them, no matter 

 how densely concentrated, would be of little avail. And Dr. 

 Allen in his glorification of this rule says that the rising genera- 

 tion of naturalist have not " perceptibly deteriorated " in their 

 spelling. The " rising generation " will no doubt return thanks 

 for so much praise. If, however, they have not " perceptibly 

 deteriorated " it is not the fault of Canon XL which tells them 

 they can be careless with impunity, but because the facilities for 

 instruction afforded by this Age enables every one to acquire an 

 education, therefore, the blunders in nomenclature become more 

 and more obnoxious, and the precepts of this Canon more and 

 more distasteful. 



One of the principal objections to amending Canon XL urged 

 by Dr. Allen in his ' Defense,' as I gather from reading it, is the 

 great number of blunders that exists in ornithological nomencla- 

 ture, and he fears that I do not appreciate what a task it would 

 be to overcome them. It is a poor soldier who throws down his 

 weapons because the enemy appears formidable, and in spite of 

 multitudes it is quite unnecessary to follow the example of the 

 Advocates of Error and take refuge in the opposing ranks. Run 

 over to the enemy in fact ! The difficulties of the task are 

 more fictitious than real, and would speedily vanish together 

 with the blunders themselves before a competent tribunal sum- 

 moned to substitute a sensible Canon XL, for the one that now 



