TERMINOLOGY AND NOMENCLATURE. 



461 



numerous enough to require one (as in 

 geometry, for example), or because no 

 one has yet suggested a suitable prin- 

 ciple for such a system, as in minera- 

 logy : in which the want of a scienti- 

 cally constructed nomenclature is now 

 the principal cause which retards the 

 progress of the science. 



§ 5. A word which carries on its 

 face that it belongs to a nomen- 

 clature seems at first sight to differ 

 from other concrete general names in 

 this — that its meaning does not re- 

 side in its connotation, in the attri- 

 butes implied in it, but in its de- 

 notation, that is, in the particular 

 group of things which it is appointed 

 to designate ; and cannot, therefore, be 

 unfolded by means of a definition, 

 but must be made known in another 

 way. This opinion, however, appears 

 to me erx'oneous. Words belonging 

 to a nomenclature differ, I conceive, 

 from other words mainly in this, that 

 besides the ordinary connotation, they 

 have a peculiar one of their own : 

 besides connoting certain attributes, 

 they also connote that those attri- 

 butes are distinctive of a Kind. The 

 term *' peroxide of iron," for example, 

 belonging by its form to the syste- 

 matic nomenclature of chemistry, 

 bears on its face that it is the name 

 of a peculiar Kind of substance. It 

 moreover connotes, like the name of 

 any other class, some portion of the 

 properties common to the class ; in 

 this instance the property of being a 

 compound of iron and the largest 

 dose of oxygen with which iron will 

 combine. These two things, the fact 

 of being such a compound, and the 

 fact of being a Kind, constitute the 

 connotation of the name peroxide of 

 iron. When we say of the substance be- 

 fore us, that it is the peroxide of iron, 

 we thereby assert, first, that it is a 

 compound of iron and a maximum of 

 oxygen, and next, that the substance 

 so composed is a peculiar Kind of 

 substance. 



Now, this second part of the con- 

 notatioa of any word belonging to a 



nomenclature is as essential a portion 

 of its meaning as the first part, while 

 the definition only declares the first ; 

 and hence the appearance that the 

 signification of such terms cannot be 

 conveyed by a definition, which ap- 

 pearance, however, is fallacious. The 

 name Viola odorata denotes a Kind, 

 of which a certain number of char- 

 acters, sufficient to distinguish it, are 

 enunciated in botanical works. This 

 enumeration of characters is surely, 

 as in other cases, a definition of the 

 name. No, say some, it is not a 

 definition, for the name Viola odorata 

 does not mean those characters ; it 

 means that particular group of plants, 

 and the characters are selected from 

 among a miich greater number, merely 

 as marks by which to recognise the 

 group. But to this I reply, that the 

 name does not mean that group, for 

 it would be applied to that group no 

 longer than while the group is be- 

 lieved to be an injiina species ; if it 

 were to be discovered that several 

 distinct Kinds have been confounded 

 under this one name, no one would any 

 longer apply the name Viola odorata 

 to the whole of the group, but would 

 apply it, if retained at all, to )ne 

 only of the Kinds contained therein. 

 What is imperative, therefore, is not 

 that the name shall denote one par- 

 ticular collection of objects, but that 

 it shall denote a Kind, and a lowest 

 Kind. The form of the name declares 

 that, happen what will, it is to denote 

 an infima species; and that, therefore, 

 the properties which it connotes, and 

 which are expressed in the definition, 

 are to be connoted by it no longer 

 than while we continue to believe that 

 those properties, when found together, 

 indicate a Kind, and that the whole 

 of them are found in no more than 

 one Kind. 



With the addition of this peculiar 

 connotation, implied in the form of 

 every word which belongs to a 

 systematic nomenclature, the set of 

 characters which is employed to dis- 

 criminate each Kind from all other 

 Kinds (and which is 9, re^l defioition) 



