460 



national Code of Nomenclature to the effect that no new generic name 

 proposed after a given date, say December 31, 1909, may claim recog- 

 nition unless its author definitely designates its type at the time of the 

 publication of the name in question. A rule of this nature, extreme 

 though it may appear to some persons, seems to be fully warranted in 

 view of the experience zoologists have had with genera proposed with- 

 out tyj)es. It seems somewhat doubtful, however, whether the Inter- 

 national Congress would see its way clear to adopt the proposition just 

 referred to. 



Another plan has occurred to me by which practically the same 

 result may be obtained, without recourse to the adoption of the proposal 

 mentioned, namely, by inducing journals and publishing societies to 

 refuse publications to papers containing new genera for which the 

 authors fail to designate types. This plan, unbeknown to me at the time, 

 had already been adopted by the Washington Biological Society before 

 I began to advance it. I have now brought the j)roposition before several 

 organizations, all of which have agreed to insist upon the designation of 

 a type for every new generic name submitted to them for publication, 

 and instructions have been issued to the general effect that papers not 

 complying with the rule will not be accepted for publication. The or- 

 ganizations which have notified me of the adoption of this general plan 

 are as follows: 



U. S. Fish Commission. 



U. S. Geological Survey. 



U. S. Department of Agriculture. 



U. S. National Museum. 



TJ. S. Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service. 



Smithsonian Institution. 



Biological Society of Washington. 



Entomological Society of Washington. 



American Museum of Natural History, New York. 



It is my intention to communicate with other organizations in the 

 hope of inducing them to adopt this same plan. Such a movement, 

 however, when dependent upon the efforts of one person, is necessarily 

 somewhat slow. On this account I take the liberty of addressing the 

 systematic zoologists, through the »Zoologischer Anzeiger« and of 

 asking them to join in the movement by bringing the matter before any 

 publishing organizations to which they belong and by urging its adoption 

 not only by societies, academies, surveys, etc., but also by zoological 

 journals. 



I shall be under obligations if zoologists will notify me of any 



