370 ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 



consonant, as in the above examples ; and -ius, geu.-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. Greek. Latin. 



ai becomes se. 6 becomes th. 



ei „ i. <p „ ph. 



o; terminal, us. 

 ov „ urn. 



ov becomes u. 

 01 „ ce. 



v » y- 



When a name has been erroneously written, and its ortho- 

 graphy 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 correc- 

 tion. 



PART II. 



RECOMMENDATIONS FOR IMPROVING THE 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 hereafter enumerated, have been proposed and 

 acted upon by various authors who have undertaken the difficult 

 task of legislating on this 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 rules in question are, 

 for the most part, founded on just criticism, and therefore, 

 though we do not allow them to operate retrospectively, we are 

 willing to retain them for future guidance. Although it is of 

 the first importance that the principle of priority should be 

 held paramount to all others, yet we are not blind to the desir- 

 ableness 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 currency, 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, 



