ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 361 



tion, and introduce some new terra which .appears to thera more 

 characteristic, but which is utterly unknown to the science, aud 

 is therefore devoid of all authority.* If these persons were to 

 object to such names of men as Long, Little, Armstrong, 

 Golightly, &c., in cases where they fail to apply to the indivi- 

 duals who bear them, or should complain of the names Gougli, 

 Lawrence, or Harvey, that they were devoid of meaning, and 

 should hence propose to change them for more characteristic 

 appellations, they would not act more uuphilosophically or in- 

 considerately than they do in the case before us ; for, in truth, 

 it matters not in the least by what conventional sound we agree 

 to designate an individual object, provided the sign to be em- 

 ployed be stamped with such an authority as will suffice to make 

 it pass current. Now, in zoology, no one person can subse- 

 quently claim an authority equal to that possessed by the person 

 who is the first to define a new genus or describe a new species ; 

 and hence it is that the name originally given, even though it 

 may be inferior in point of elegance or expressiveness to those 

 subsequently proposed, ought, as a general principle, to be per- 

 manently retained. To this consideration we ought to add the 

 injustice of erasing the name originally selected by the person 

 to whose labours we owe our first knowledge of the object ; and 

 we should reflect how much the permission of such a practice 

 opens a door to obscure pretenders for dragging themselves into 

 notice at the expense of original observers. Neither can an 

 author be permitted to alter a name which he himself has once 

 published, except in accordance with fixed and equitable laws. 

 It is well observed by Decandolle, " LVauteur merae qui a le 

 premier dtabli uu nom n'a pas plus qu'uu autre le droit de le 

 changer pour simple cause d'impropriete. La priorite en effet 

 est un terme fixe, positif, qui n'admet rien, ni d'arbitraire, ni 

 de partial/' 



For these reasons, we have no hesitation in adopting as our 

 fundamental maxim, the "law of priority," viz., 



§ 1. The name originally given by the founder of a group 

 or the describer of a species should be permanently retained, 

 to the exclusion of all subsequent synonyms (with the ex- 

 ceptions about to be noticed.) 



Having laid down this principle, we must next inquire into 

 the limitations which are found necessary in carrying it into 

 practice. 



* Linnceus says on this subject, " Abstinenduin ab bac innovatione quse nunquam 

 cessaret, quin indies aptiora dctegerentur ad infinitum." 



