76 BUREAU OF ANIMAL INDUSTRY. 



26. EMENDATION OF NAMES. 



The question relative to the necessity of emending names which were 

 not originally published in accordance with the usages of classical 

 orthography is one upon which there has been very great difference of 

 opinion. Personally we have contended that classical Latin in nomen- 

 clature is a desideratum, but of really relatively secondary impor- 

 tance, and further (unfortunately) an impractical proposition; on this 

 account we have contended, in common with Jordan, Everman, Ash- 

 mead, and a number of other zoologists, for the adoption of the orig- 

 inally published orthography, be it good, bad, or indifferent, and pro- 

 posing that all names that are incorrectly written should be construed 

 under Article 8k, of the International Code, as "arbitrary combina- 

 tions of letters." 



The International Congress of Zoology, held in Berlin, Germany, 

 in 1901, decided in favor of emendation, hence, emendation is to-day 

 called for by the International Code. (See Article 19.) 



It is not desired to reopen the question at this time, but attention 

 may be directed to certain work which should be undertaken before 

 emendation is put into practice. 



It has been those authors who have argued in favor of the law of 

 priority who have undertaken that extensive pioneer work which has 

 made the carrying out of that law possible. Many authors who 

 argued against it have adopted the law of priority in cases where 

 they could do so without too much extra study, or where other men 

 have worked out its application to certain groups. In this same spirit 

 those authors who feel that emendation is an impractical proposition 

 can justly look to their colleagues who think the rule practical to 

 demonstrate its practicability by assuming the necessary burden of 

 pioneer work in collating all the data which are prerequisite to an 

 application of the rule in such a way as not to result in constant 

 instability. 



One of these prerequisites is a list of generic names which contains 

 not only all generic and subgeneric names thus far proposed, lut also 

 all the variations in orthography of said names (to determine how many 

 of these variations vitiate otherwise valid names by homonymy), and 

 also the authoritatively correct orthography of all these words. To start 

 in on emendation without such a list would be to take a leap in the 

 dark, not knowing what may happen or where we may finally land. 

 We favor the principle of majority rule, but in this case we belong to 

 the conservative minority. 



As a small contribution to this list, we are endeavoring gradually 

 to collect all the names and variations found in the groups in which 

 we are especially interested. 



As soon as such a list demonstrates the feasible application of the 

 rule, and places authors in a position so that it can be enforced, we 



