372 Dr. J. Allan Thomson — Brachiopod N omenclature. 



i.e. it should replace Syringothyris, Winchell. My object in pointing 

 this out is not to urge a strict interpretation of the international 

 rules in this case, for it would serve no useful purpose to attempt to 

 displace a name which through a century of usage has become the 

 geological equivalent of a household word, but to show the need for 

 geologists to combine with zoologists in demanding a list of nomina 

 conservanda in zoology. 



In 1814 or 1815 James Sowerby read a paper before the Linnean 

 Society describing the presence of spiral coils in Anomites striatus, 

 Martin, and proposing for it the genus Spirifer. He also stated that 

 he suspected that Anomites cuspidatus, Martin, possessed similar 

 coils. The substance of this paper became known not only in 

 England but on the Continent, but the paper was not published 

 until 1821. 1 In the meantime Sowerby published the genus in 

 Mineral Conchology, vol. ii, 1818, pp. 41-43, Tab. 120, giving a 

 diagnosis of the genus, followed by a description of Spirifer 

 cuspidatus. Other species are mentioned, but none are named. 

 King, Meek, and others have accepted Anomites cuspidatus as the 

 type of Spirifer, but Davidson urged that Sowerby's intention that 

 Anomites striatus should be the type must be accepted, and in this he 

 has been followed by most subsequent authors, and Anomites 

 cuspidatus has since been referred to the genus Syringothyris, 

 Winchell, 1863. Ii Anomites cuspidatus is regarded as the type of 

 Spirifer, Syringothyris becomes a synonym of Spirifer, while the 

 group of Anomites striatus must take another name. Dall 3 sums up 

 the position thus : If the work of restriction were to be done over 

 again, it is probable that most authors would consider the rules of 

 nomenclature better served by taking cuspidatus as the type, but the 

 reverse process has been the rule among authors so long that it 

 would be a serious detriment to science to attempt such a change at 

 present. 



Since the Fourth International Zoological Congress at Cambridge 

 in 1898 there has been a Permanent International Commission on 

 Zoological Nomenclature which studies questions of nomenclature 

 and renders opinions upon cases submitted to it. Opinion 30 3 

 on Swainson's Bird Genera of 1827 almost exactly applies to the 

 case of Spirifer. Swain son wrote and sent for publication to the 

 Zoological Journal a paper containing diagnoses of several genera, 

 with explicit designation of their types. This first written paper 

 was unexpectedly long delayed in publication, greatly to the 

 disappointment of the author, as he stated, who was powerless to 

 prevent the inopportune delay. This paper was published in two 



1 Fide W. H. Dall, "Index to the Names which have been applied to the 

 Subdivisions of the Class Brachiopoda " : Bull. U.S. Mus., No. 8, 1877, p. 63. 

 F. J. North (" On the Genus Syringothyris, Winchell" : Geol. Mag., Dec. V, 

 Vol. X, pp. 393-401, 1913) gives the date of publication as 1818. I have not 

 access to the publication in question, but all authors agree that it was 

 published subsequently to Mm. Conch., vol. ii. 



2 Loc. eit. 



3 " Opinions rendered by the International Commission on Zoological 

 Nomenclature." Opinions 30-7. Smithsonianln stitution, Publication 2013, 

 1911, pp. 69-72. 



