Further notes on " Jurinean " Genera of Hymenoptera. 437 



be replied with some confidence, that a Latin prose-writer 

 of the Ciceronian or Augustan age would have been dis- 

 inclined to approve any one of these formations, while 

 analogies to each and all of them can be found abundantly 

 in old Latin (e.g. Plautus) or late Latin (e.g. Appuleius), 

 to say nothing of the many centuries which followed, 

 while Latin was still a living language in the mouths and 

 on the pens of churchmen, physicians, lawyers, and diplo- 

 matists, and, in short, the professors and expositors of 

 every branch of literature and science. It by no means 

 follows that a formation is to be branded as " not Latin " 

 because it is not to be found in Smith's Smaller Latin 

 Dictionary. It may require correction in a schoolboy's 

 Latin Exercise, because he is supposed to be reproducing 

 the Latin of a particular period. But it is quite another 

 matter to assume the right of doctoring into conformity 

 with tastes and fancies of our own the names which have 

 come down to us from the founders of our science, such 

 as Linne, Fabricius, Latreille, etc. Even the most un- 

 impeachable of such emendations * are at best super- 

 fluous, contributing absolutely nothing either to the ad- 

 vancement of the science, or to the convenience of those 

 occupied . with it. [With similar misapplication of learn- 

 ing, and hardly more waste of time and energy, one might 

 re-edit Shakespeare or the Bible, correcting their lapses 

 from philological accuracy in the transcription of Proper 

 names — Mark Antony, Shylock, Pharaoh, etc. It might 

 be pointed out that, according to the Kecommendations 

 of a certain Committee, " Niobe all tears " ought to have 

 appeared as Nioba, and " Patmos " as Patmus !] Some- 

 times, however, they are worse than superfluous, merely 

 creating a difficulty in consulting Indices or Catalogues, 

 as when Heriades is " corrected " to Eriades, or Omalus 

 to Homalus. And sometimes, as we have tried to show, 

 they are not, in fact, required by any such supposed Laws 

 of Greek or Latin Word-formation as they postulate. So 

 that on the whole we come to the conclusion which is 

 briefly comprehended in Fabricius's remark upon the 

 subject. Nomina, he says in his preface to " Systems 

 Entomologiae," mutata nunquam usum, saepius confusionem, 

 praebent. 



* We do not mean to deny that some kinds of "emendation" 

 may be sometimes necessary, as, for instance, in the case of an 

 obvious misprint ! 



