The Days of a Man 



C1907 



The "first 

 reviser" 

 compro- 

 mise 



reviser rule." Under a, the original generic name would remain 

 with the residue when one or more other genera had been 

 extracted; b would hold a genus perpetually to the first species 

 actually named under it; c would use as type-species the one 

 first designated as such by a subsequent author. 



At Boston the adherents of each of the three plans were about 

 equal in numbers. American investigators largely favored the 

 first, although a growing group of younger men stood for the 

 second. European authors more often inclined to the third, but 

 some of them were opposed to definite rules, preferring to be 

 guided by custom, or tradition — a method leading straight to 

 inextricable confusion. For unless rules are framed and lived 

 up to, each will do exactly as he pleases, thus nullifying the very 

 purpose of nomenclature — accuracy and permanence of record. 



The first plan involved the fatal necessity of shifting names 

 as the residuum becomes better known. I had earlier advocated 

 the second, mainly on the ground that it would never permit of 

 any doubt, giving absolute certainty; and furthermore, some 

 prominent writers, notably Dr. Pieter Van Bleeker, the most 

 voluminous author in Ichthyology, employed it. It was, 

 however, apparent that neither "elimination" nor the "first 

 species" would be generally acceptable, while the "first reviser" 

 as a compromise would be — and was — at once approved as 

 the one most generally acceptable and least likely to lead to 

 confusion. 



Boston 

 code of 

 nomen- 

 clature 



To most systematlsts the new code as a whole has 

 proved very satisfactory, and no amendments have 

 yet been made. But quite as important is the fact 

 that the commission was then empowered to serve as 

 a court of appeal to settle mooted questions of 

 nomenclature, and to establish new rules when neces- 

 sary, by virtue of its own precedents. About seventy 

 decisions of this sort had been made before 1914. 



In later pages I shall refer to the Congress of 1910, 

 held at Gratz.^ That of 191 3, which I was unable to 



^ See Chapter xxxvi, page 304. 



c 246 : 



