. 232. NOMENCLATURE. 34)9 



produce, an image of the natural-historical quality of the 

 objects to which they refer, or to remind us of those which 

 are more or less similar to them, they must indicate the 

 place which the species occupy in the general assemblage 

 of the natural productions belonging to the kingdom. 



This is the point of view from which we must consider 

 and develope the arrangement of the systematic nomen- 

 clature in general, and the properties of the systematic de- 

 nominations in particular. 



. 232. PROPERTIES OF THE SYSTEMATIC DENOMI- 

 NATION. 



The systematic denomination must be composed 

 of several words, the order of which expresses the 

 connexion between the denominated object and 

 several others, to which it is more x>r less similar. 



In order to recognise a given individual, or to determine 

 the place which it occupies in the system, it is necessary 

 to proceed with it through all the general ideas of this sys- 

 tem, from the highest degree to the lowest one. For this 

 is the means by which we learn the connexion in which it 

 is with others. 



If we have to express this connexion by words, we must 

 construct the denomination in such a manner that it may 

 tell the unities of all the above-mentioned ideas, in as far 

 as it is necessary (. 234.) ; it must therefore consist of se- 

 veral words ; and since the ideas, according to their con- 

 tents, are subordinate to each other (. 228.), these words 

 must follow each other according to the same order. That 

 word which expresses the highest idea must precede, and 

 that which expresses the lowest idea must follow, in the or- 

 der of these expressions. This distribution of words should 

 agree with the general spirit of the language ; and the Latin 

 language, therefore, would be preferable in the mineralo- 

 gical nomenclature, as well as in the zoological, or in the 

 botanical one. This language, however, has been so very 



