36 report — 1865. 



the above examples ; and -ius, gen. -ii, when it ends with a vowel, as, 

 Latreille, Latreillii, &c. 



In converting Greek words into Latin the following rules must be attended 

 to:— 



Greek. Latin. 



ai becomes a?. 

 ei „ i. 



os terminal, us. 

 ov „ uni. 



ov becomes u. 

 01 „ 03. 



v „ y. 



When a name has been erroneously written and its orthography has been 

 afterwards amended, we conceive that the authority of the original author 

 should still be retained for the name, and not that of the person who makes 

 the correction. 



PART II. 



RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING THE ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE IN FUTURE. 



The above propositions are all which, in the present state of the science, it 

 appears practicable to invest with the character of laws. We have endeavoured 

 to make them as few and simple as possible, in the hope that they may be 

 the more easily comprehended and adopted by naturalists in general. We 

 are aware that a large number of other regulations, some of which are here- 

 after enumerated, have been proposed and acted upon by various authors who 

 have undertaken the difficult task of legislating on the subject ; but as the 

 enforcement of such rules would in many cases undermine the invaluable 

 principle of priority, we do not feel justified in adopting them. At the same 

 time we fully admit that the rides in question are, for the most part, founded 

 on just criticism, and therefore, though we do not allow them to operate re- 

 trospectively, we are willing to retain them for future guidance. Although 

 it is of the first importance that the principle of priority should be held para- 

 mount to all others, yet we are not blind to the desirableness of rendering 

 our scientific language palatable to the scholar and the man of taste. Many 

 zoological terms, which are now marked with the stamp of perpetual cur- 

 rency, are yet so far defective in construction, that our inability to remove 

 them without infringing the law of priority may be a subject of regret. 

 With these terms we cannot interfere, if we adhere to the principles above 

 laid down ; nor is there even any remedy, if authors insist on infringing the 

 rules of good taste by introducing into the science words of the same inele- 

 gant or unclassical character in future. But that which cannot be enforced 

 by law may, in some measure, be effected by persuasion ; and with this view 

 we submit the following propositions to naturalists, under the title of Recom- 

 mendations for the Improvement of Zoological Nomenclature in future. 



[The best names are Latin or Greek characteristic words.'] 

 The classical languages being selected for zoology, and words being more 



easily remembered in proportion as they are expressive, it is self-evident that 

 § A. The best zoological names are those which are derived from the 



Latin or Greek, and express some distinguishing characteristic of the object 



to which they are applied. 



