278 Proceedings of the Boyal Physical Society, 



meeting in the new Natural History Museum at South Ken- 

 sington, brought together for the purpose of discussing 

 certain interesting questions connected with zoological 

 nomenclature, to which I will refer further on. At present 

 I may quote one sentence from the introductory remarks of 

 Professor Flower, who presided, — "I have often had little 

 difficulty in making out the characters and structure of an 

 animal, and even the functions of some of its organs, but 

 when I have to decide by what name to call it, I am often 

 landed in a sea of perplexity." 



Certain it is that the correct naming of animals and plants 

 is one of the most serious difficulties with which museum 

 officials, and investigators generally, have to contend. Well 

 do conservators of museums, where scientific assistance or 

 access to books is deficient or inadequate, know the difference 

 in value between an authentically-named collection and one 

 which is not. 



I fear, however, that to the outside laity, who have never 

 approached the study of Natural History from a scientific 

 point of view, and who imagine, as I know many do, that 

 the only work of a museum curator is to put his stuffed 

 birds and beasts on shelves, and see that they are not 

 corrupted by dust or moths, it must be a perfect mystery 

 what all this talk about nomenclature means. Such persons 

 often wonder why naturalists choose to becloud and 

 encumber the science, which they profess to love, by what 

 are popularly termed " jawbreaking" names — for their part 

 they are quite content to go on speaking or writing about 

 " the spider-crab," or " the white butterfly," or " the wild goose," 

 or '* the dogfish." Just the other day a letter appeared in the 

 Scotsman newspaper, expressing immense contempt for the 

 ignorance of the Firth of Forth fishermen in believing that 

 the Dogfish brought forth its young alive. A discussion in 

 the correspondence column ensued, in which it was shown 

 that there were many kinds of small sharks known as 

 " Dogfish " round our coasts, and that though some of these 

 deposited eggs, others, and notably those most likely to be 

 known to our local fishermen, actually are viviparous. 



Here, however, some one more enlightened as to diversity 



