THE USE OF LOCAL NAMES LN GEOLOGY 1 63 



tated for real scientific work, but fancy that knowledge is 

 advanced, or a new science is founded when they let loose a 

 flood of odd names upon the unoffending world. The inunda- 

 tion is more disastrous in some other departments of science 

 than geology, but among the geological branches it is most 

 apparent, perhaps, in palaeontology, where the majority of the 

 names catalogued are spurious. 



Fortunately for everybody concerned there is a remedy for 

 the evil that is as divine in its effect as was the discovery of ether 

 in alleviating the physical sufferings of mankind. There is an 

 immutable law that determines the perpetuation of scientific 

 terms, regardless of the quality or of the countless myriads pro- 

 posed. It is the same law that governs in literature, life and all 

 else — the survival of the fittest. It makes no difference what 

 the new terms are, or where they apply. If they are appropri- 

 ate, useful and expressive they will last — but not fixed or for all 

 time, only until they have fulfilled their mission, until others 

 more harmonious with the ever-changing conditions take their 

 places. If the proposed titles fail to meet a long felt want they 

 are at once dropped, and forever forgotten. Which, among the 

 new terms proposed, are the really useful ones, the ones destined 

 to survive a while, and which the unnecessary ones doomed to 

 perish at their birth, no man can tell. Moreover, it is absolutely 

 beyond the power of its author, or of any other person, to say 

 which names shall be perpetuated and which shall not. Every 

 new term depends for its life not on the wish of its originator 

 but on its own merit. It goes for what it is worth. With the 

 many others it takes its chances. The final tribunal is the scien- 

 tific public. 



In the application of technical titles neither of the two 

 extremes, too many or too few terms, is desirable. It is not 

 advisable, if the best interests of geological science are to be 

 considered, to adopt by itself either a rigid, unchangeable, and 

 spare system of nomenclature, or one in which there is ponder- 

 ous verbiage. The proper mean can be reached only after the 

 long and fierce struggle for existence is over. The adoption of 



