On Nomenclature. 425 



name of any one individual or family which may be included 

 in such division, resembles the distinction of a company or 

 regiment, by the name of any individual in such division of a 

 brigade or army, which may be composed of troops of different 

 nations, and may be generally considered as containing horse 

 and foot ; light infantry, artillery, &c. descriptive names of 

 military classes, orders, genera, &c. 



It will occur to those accustomed to think on the connexion 

 of words with ideas, that all, or nearly all, noun substantives, 

 or names of things (viz. of all objects of the senses or of 

 consciousness), are generic names, including in their extent 

 of applicability and relation many species, the specific names 

 of which add, or should add, to the generic name an adjec- 

 tive, or word expressive of a difference between the relative 

 parts of the genus, and designating the species to which the 

 generic name, duly defined, will be found to extend, e. g. the 

 generic name horse, includes cart-horse, race-horse, Arabian 

 horse. E'quus among naturalists includes E'quus Hemionus 

 or Dshiggety, Ass or Equus A'sinus, E. Zebra, and E. Quagga, 

 as well as E^quus Caballus. 



Sometimes a familiar name is added instead of a descrip- 

 tive adjective, as in the above instances, and that of the well 

 known genus Felis. The lion is Felis Leo, the tiger Felis 

 Tigris, the domestic cat, Felis Cattus : and but some species 

 of Felis are distinguished by adjectives, as Felis jubata, Felis 

 minuta, &c. 



The name of a genus implies both relation of agreement and 

 of diversity ; for without both no distinction between genus 

 and species can be conceived. If a country be imagined where 

 there should be only one kind of tree, one kind of herb, one 

 of beast, one of bird, &c. generic or specific names would 

 not be there devised. A plant or animal which seems to have 

 no resemblance in the most important characteristics to any 

 known individual of any genus or species, as the first dis- 

 covered Ornithorhynchus, or Rafflesia Arnoldi, receives from 

 the discoverer a proper or individual name, peculiar to itself. 

 An Ornithorhynchus which should differ from that singular 

 family of animals only in having a beak like a hawk, instead 

 of a beak like aduck, would be anew species. Ornithorhynchus 

 would be the generic name, the specific name of the first 

 would be anatirostris, of the second falconirostris, &c* But 



* Du Cange, verbo Falco. 



Julius Firmicus seems to have been the first user of this word, lib. v. 

 c. 7. Capitula Caroli Magni, a. d. 769. " Omnibus servis Dei interdici- 

 mus ut venationes et accipitres et Falconet, non habeant." Here it* applies 

 to hawks trained for sport. 



Vol. I. — No. 8. n. s. i i 



