1922.] JS^ome.iidatvre and Suhspec'ips. 321 



shall for ever be decided. This is that the starting-point 

 for priority shall not be Linnreus 10th, 12th or any other 

 edition ; but a list, catalogue, or book of comparatively 

 recent date, approved and sanctioned by a strong committee 

 representing all shades of opinion in the country, as the 

 best and most reliable starting-point for the nomenclature 

 of the birds, mammals, fishes, and other orders res])ectively. 

 And that a new rule should be made to this effect : — That 

 no new names of species or subspecies should be recognized 

 as binding and properly published, until they have been 

 accepted and passed by the committee appointed for that 

 purpose by a constituted authority such as the B. 0. U. 

 Reasonable men, who alone have a right to be considered, 

 would, 1 believe, be willing to sink their diflferences of 

 opinion which must always exist in such cases as are 

 specified by Mr. Gurney, or in other cases which might 

 arise as our knowledge increases. New names or chanecs 

 in names given by unreasonable men, or men who wore 

 considered by the authority as cranks, or whose position in 

 the world of science does not justify them in giving names 

 at all, would simply be ignored and boycotted by their 

 fellows. 



Now it may be objected, and rightly so, that such rules 

 could be applied only in countries where the knowledge of 

 the particular class of objects concerned had reached a 

 point which has not yet been reached in many new and 

 distant countries, or in many branches of biology ; that such 

 rules would have no international authority, and would not 

 deter naturalists from describing new or supposed new 

 forms in languages such as Polish, Hungarian, Bulgarian, 

 or in Asiatic languages generall}'. That is, I tliink, a very 

 desirable object to aim at, for as the rule stands there is 

 nothing to prevent the publication of new names in daily 

 newspapers, or by obscure local Societies in languages which 

 cannot be understood generally. I would insist on some 

 international language for such cases as these. Latin used 

 to be the language of science ; English, French, and German 

 are possibly preferable if the greatest good of the greatest 



SER. XI. — VOL. IV. Y 



