744 REPORT — 1900. 



eastern margin of the great synclinal of coal measures beneath the Cheshire plain, 

 to be of a different quality from those in the anticline, while the thickness of the 

 measures will be increased. 



5. Report on the Registration of Type Specimens. — See Reports, p. 342. 



6. Suggestions in regard to the Registration of Ti/ioe-fossils. 

 By Rev, J. F. Blake. 



Whereas : 



1. There is now in existence, and has been for some time, a Committee of the 

 British Association ' to consider the best methods for the registration of all type 

 specimens of fossils in the British Isles.' 



2. There is as yet in course of production no general register of such 

 specimens. 



3. The original types are in many, perhaps the majority of, cases either lost, 

 inaccessible, or inadequately preserved or described. 



4. Many names in common use have a foreign origin which have not been 

 adopted after actual comparison with the original foreign types. 



5. Palffiontoloffical nomenclature consequently still remains burdened with 

 names of uncertain value. 



It is therefore advisable that — 



1. The above-named Committee recognise and register a new class of ' types,' 

 which may be either original or adopted, but which satisfy certain conditions laid 

 down to insure their having a definite value. 



2. A register be published annually of such types, so that an author in using a 

 name may have the option of quoting this register, instead of the original author's 

 name. 



3. This register should give references (1) to the author or authors, and their 

 publications thereupon, who have first satisfied the required conditions; (2) to the 

 museum where the type is deposited. 



4. The limitation of types, registered by the British Associatio7i, should have 

 reference to the type specimens, whatever their origin, which are deposited in 

 museums within the United Kingdom (possibly to be enlarged at a future date to 

 the British Empire). 



5. The Committee should, from time to time, determine the conditions required 

 for registration, but should be iu no way responsible for the validity of the 

 ' species ' to which the type may be said to belong, or for the name under which 

 it is registered, which registration should apply to the ' specific ' name only and 

 not be affected by its reference later to another genus ; the only care of the 

 Committee, beyond seeing that the required conditions are satisfied, being to secure 

 that identical diagnoses are not registered under different names, and that the same 

 name is not used at different times for different diaernoses. 



The suggested conditions for registration are as follows : 



1. A single specimen must be selected as the type, but two or more co-types 

 may be admitted, which are identical in all other respects than the preservation of 

 different necessary characters. 



2. The exact horizon and locality of the specimen thus selected must be 

 known. 



3. All the commonly called 'specific ' characters required, in the class to which 

 it belongs, must be known by the type or by the co-types together, and also 

 described, and also the generic ones when the genus is not obvious. [N.B. — The 

 determination whether this condition is carried out in any particular case will rest 

 with the member of the Committee charged with the class.] 



