4 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. J'] 



game developed. The sixth edition (1748), as already shown, con- 

 tained a large number of binominal specific names — not incidentally 

 or accidentally, but intentionally so — and in 1753 only five years after 

 the sixth edition, Linnaeus carried out the binominal system consis- 

 tently as far as the plants were concerned. Five years later (10*'' ed.) 

 he carried it out equally consistently for the animals. For practical 

 reasons given above, the recent codes of zoological nomenclature 

 decided to start with 1758, and not because this edition initiated a new 

 " game " ; it only inaugurated its consistent general application. If 

 then Linnaeus himself did not play a new game in 1758 and after, 

 surely those who had followed him thus far still played the same 

 game, as I shall demonstrate later on (Brisson, p. 18). 



It was also for practical reasons that generic denominations dating 

 from before 1758 have been excluded much against the protest of 

 the French zoologists. 



II. BINARY AND BINOMINAL 



Fortunately the word binominal^ presents no serious difficulty. 

 Except in a few isolated cases of carelessness, it is used by all authors 

 to designate a system of nomenclature in which both the genus desig- 

 nation and the species designation each consist of a single word. 



Much mischief has been caused by the introduction and common 

 synonymizing of the term binomial with the above. Many authors 

 have even gone so far as to intimate that it is an " abbreviation " for 

 binominal. The two words are from different roots and ought to 

 mean different things, but it matters little, for binomial has been 

 commionly used indiscriminatingly for binominal. Properly it ought 

 to mean the same as binary of Opinion 20 of the International Com- 

 mission, and has been so used by some authors. 



Binary, however, is the word about which much controversy has 

 been raging. Etymological dictionaries have been consulted as to its 

 origin and meaning; zoological literature has been searched so as to 

 trace its application ; its use by individual writers has been analyzed 

 in order to interpret its hidden meaning. And everybody has inter- 

 preted it to suit himself. The Latin word binarius, meaning simply 

 " that which consists of two," lends itself admirably to such interpre- 

 tation. Some argued that binary nomenclature referred to names 

 consisting of two terms, others that it referred to names consisting 

 of two ivords. To some it was synonymous with binomial, to others 

 with binominal, and as most authors confused binomial and binominal, 



*The Latin adjective binomin{s^=cui geminum est nomen, ut Numa Pompilius, 

 Tullus Hostilius. 



