772 D r. Tl). Mortensen on (he 



■whom tlie Secretary has applied may be of minor importance, 

 but it should be pointed out that -what the Secretary appears 

 to have asked previously from a number of zoologists, and 

 what the Commission is now asking from all zoologists, is a 

 very considerable amonnt of labour, which it cannot reason- 

 ably expect many to undertake. To find out the biblio- 

 graphical references of ca. 50 generic names may involve 

 a very great trouble, especially when old names are concerned 

 — and this will, of course, be a considerable percentage of 

 the names, it being especially the old names about which 

 there is nomenclatorial trouble. Probably not many will be 

 able to afibrd the necessary time for such a work, and to do 

 it just at the moment they are asked to ! For many zoolo- 

 gists it would be nearly imposs^ible to get access to the 

 literature necessary for the purpose — not to speak of the 

 fact that only systematists can be expected to have any 

 routine in that kind of work ! In short, what the Commis- 

 sion here has demanded is not very far from au absurdity. 



As stated above, the number of the ' Zool. Auzeiger' in 

 which the invitation has appeared was published on the 

 22nd November ; it must certainly be supposed tiiat many 

 zoologists did not see the number before about the middle of 

 December or even later — but the list had to be prepared 

 before the 1st January ! In the ' Annals ' the note was 

 published in December, and in this case the list had to be 

 sent in by the 1st of November ! 



We may, tlien, expect that the result of this invitation will 

 be as poor as that of the Secretary's previous efforts. But 

 if the Commission concludes therefrom that the desire to 

 have the more important zoological names protected against 

 change is not very general among zoologists, that conclusiou 

 is certainly ill-founded. On the contrary, it is doubtless the 

 desire of the great majority of zoologists to have the more 

 important, commonly used names protected against the 

 tyranny of this rule of priority, which leads to such extremely 

 unfortunate results when carried out literally in all cases*. 

 It may, perhaps, also be justifiable to ask how or wherefrom 



* To name only a few of the consequences of the strict applicatian ot 

 the priority rule: we must not hereafter speak of Actiuiie, because the 

 name Actinia was, hrst used for a llolothuriau ; the Actiuise shall now 

 carry the beautiful name *' rriapid;i3.'' Holothuria, on the other hand, 

 was, strictly taken, tirst used for a Salp ; therefore the Ilolothurians are 

 hereafter to be called " Bohadschioideans " ; likewise the Salps are blessed 

 with a new name, " Dajrysid;e." The name Hhombus, used for 2000 years 

 for the turbot. and even used binominally for a hundred yejurs befuro 

 Linnajus, shall be given away to a genus of molluscs, because it was so 

 used in 17i>7 (bv lluniphrevs), while Liuuscus gave the name iVei/rowtdf* 

 to all iLit-lishes". 



