Article XXVII. MAMMAL NAMES PROPOSED BY 

 OKE.N IN HIS ' LEHRBUCH DER ZOOLOGIE.' 



By J. A. ALLEN. 



The second part of Oken's 'Lehrbuch der Zoologie,' pub- 

 lished in I8I6, 1 includes the Vertebrates, pp. 651-1284 being 

 devoted to mammals. While Oken's ' Lehrbuch ' has been 

 rarely cited, account has been taken of some of the names 

 first proposed in it, and when found to have priority they 

 have been adopted; a few others quite as well entitled to 

 recognition appear to have been overlooked. Such of the 

 latter as relate to mammals are here considered. 



Oken was almost as erratic and irregular in nomenclatorial 

 matters as was Zimmermann in his ' Specimen Zoologiae Ge- 

 graphicae,' published in i777, 2 but in some respects is less 

 satisfactory, since he failed to cite authorities for the names 

 used, and gave no references to his sources of information. 

 Both diagnosed generic, subgeneric and other groups, as well 

 as species, under either vernacular or systematic names, as 

 seemed to please their fancy, and employed the names given 

 by previous authors as these authors used them, regardless of 

 whether the generic portion of the name conformed or not to 

 the genus to which they assigned the species. Yet they each 

 had a ' system,' sadly defective, however, when tried by the 

 nomenclatorial usages of to-day. But it is usually not diffi- 

 cult to determine what they meant to indicate. 



In the case of Oken, many of the names which he gave were 

 merely substitutes for earlier names. In the case of groups or 

 species not previously named, upon which he bestowed names 

 (fortunately few), their basis is clearly evident. He gave 

 new names to all his higher groups, from classes down to his 



1 [Lorenz] Okens | Lehrbuch | der | Zoologie. | | Mit vierzig Kupfertafeln. | | 

 Zweite Abtheilung | Fleischthiere. | | (Preis : 2 Thaler.) | | Jena, bei August 

 Schmid und Comp. I 1816. 



Or: 



Okens | Lehrbuch | der | Naturgeschichte. | | Dritter Theil | Zoologie. | Mit vierzig 

 Kupfertafeln. | | Zweite Abtheilung | Fleischthiere. | . . . [Rest of title page as 

 above.] 8 vo., 3 11. (=2 title pages and dedication), and pp. i-xvi., -f- 1-1270, i 1. and 

 chart of classification. 



2 See antea, pp. 13-22. 



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