THE ZooLoGist—JULY, 1872. 3125 
the very best and most powerful papers our Entomological Society 
has ever published, and one that will bring us credit both at home 
and abroad. 
Epwarp NEWMAN. 
A Discussion of the Law of Priority in Entomological Nomen- 
clature. By W. Arnotp Lewis, F.L.S. London: Williams 
and Norgate. 1872. 
Tuis pamphlet of eighty-six closely-printed pages will inevitably 
attract the serious attention of entomologists, and must elicit the 
approbation of all who wish well to our science. My own opinion 
on the fashion of name-changing, which has raged like a virulent 
epidemic among ornithologists and entomologists, is, I am fully 
aware, in the highest degree unpopular. In both these ologies, the 
highest achievement of modern science is to exhume from a worm- 
eaten folio, slumbering in some unheard-of library, a name which 
shall be sure to attract attention either from its novelty or its un- 
couthness; and to apply the treasure thus discovered to a bird or 
a butterfly which we cannot fail to see in every summer walk. This 
triumphant folly comes to us as commended by the authority of the 
* British Association for the Advancement of Science,” whose Com- 
mittee on Nomenclature I believe to be entirely innocent of any 
such design: it may be that the Committee were unwise and hasty 
in dealing with their work; but I believe them totally innocent of 
the design which is imputed to them by their admirers. Still this 
version of the “ Rules,” though dating so lately as 1861, has become 
a fashion; and therefore, as an energetic and manly plea against a 
degrading and absurd fashion, which may very appropriately take 
its place with pigtails, beauty-spots and hoops, I cordially accept 
Mr. Lewis’s ‘ Discussion’ as a most timely publication. I can 
scarcely say that I believe it will be useful: whoever knew a woman 
relinquish a fashion at the dictation of wisdom! However foolish, 
fashion knows no remedy but a new fashion: here the home- 
opathists have the better of us; they apply the disease itself as a 
remedy, and until some new idea is started, such as spelling back- 
wards, or ending the name with a capital letteR, thus, we shall 
continue fast fettered by the existing laws of name-changing. No 
SECOND SERIES—VOL, VII, 2K 
