PRINCIPLES, CANONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS. 



51 



§ 8. (9/* the Emendation of Names. 



Canon XL. The original orthography of a name is to be 

 rigidly preserved, unless a typographical error is evident. 



Remarks. — In view of the fact that stability of names is one of the es- 

 sential principles in nomenclature, and that the emendation of names, as 

 shown by the recent history of zoological nomenclature, opens the door to a 

 great evil, — being subject to abuse on tlie part of purists and classicists, 

 who look with disfavor upon anything nomenclatural wliich is in the least 

 degree unclassical in form, — it seems best that correctness of structure, or 

 philological propriety, be held as of minor importance, and yield place to the 

 two cardinal principles of priority and fixity. The permanence of a name is 

 of far more importance than its signification or structure, as is freely ad- 

 mitted by the best authorities in both Botany and Zoology. Your Committee 

 would therefore restrict the emendation of names to the correction of obvi- 

 ous or known typographical errors involving obscurity. They would there- 

 fore reject emendations of a purely philological character, and especiallv all 

 such as involve a change of the initial letter of the name, as in cases where 

 the Greek aspirate has been omitted by the original constructor. It there- 

 fore follows that hybrid names cannot be displaced ; although it is to be 

 hoped that they will be strenuously guarded against in future ; and that, 

 in general, word-coiners will pay the closest attention to philological pro- 

 prieties. 



" The tendency among working naturalists is to retain names in spite of 

 faults." (A. Gray.) 



" A generic name should subsist just as it was made, although a purely 

 typographical error may be corrected." (De Candolle ) 



§ 9. Of the Dejlftttion of Names. 



Canon XLI. A name to be tenable must have been defined 

 and published. 



Remarks. — " Unless a species or group is intelligibly defined when the 

 name is given, it cannot be recognized by others, and the signification of the 

 name is consequently lost Definition properly implies a distinct ex- 

 position of essential characters, and in all cases we conceive this to be indis- 

 pensable, although some authors maintain that a mere enumeration of the 

 component species, or even of a single type, is sufficient to authenticate a 

 genus." (i5. A. Code, 1842.) 



Any tenable technical name is called the onym, as distinguished from an 



