Ce Canadian Éntomolontst. 
VOL Vv. LONDON, ONT., FEBRUARY, 1873. No. 2 
SOME REMARKS ON ENTOMOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 
BY W. H. EDWARDS, COALBURGH, W. VA. 
The papers on Nomenclature, lately published in the CANADIAN 
ENTOMOLOGIST, have much interested me, and doubtless many others, 
and as the subject is one that just now, for reasons well known, appeals 
especially to Lepidopterists, I beg to be allowed a little of your space 
to give my views thereupon, and to state what I believe is a practicable 
remedy for the evils complained of. 
* I am glad that this matter of Nomenclature was brought so prominently 
forward by the Entomologists present, at the Meeting of the American 
Association for 1872, and that a Committee was appointed by the 
Entomological section to report a series of Rules for consideration at the 
next Meeting. 
I apprehend that hitherto very little attention has been paid to Nomen- 
clature in ‘this country, at any rate in Entomology, and that when start- 
ling innovations are proposed, based upon assumed Codes or systems of 
Rules, very few know what such Codés or Rules are, or how far they are 
applicable or binding, or how they came to be enacted, with many other 
points of like nature. As applied, they seem incomprehensible to most 
persons, and even to the initiated have their difficulties. In the words 
of Alex. Agassiz, “’The laws requisite for the correct name of an animal 
or of a plant have become as difficult to establish as the most intricate 
legal question.” How such a discreditable state of things has come 
about, it is worth while to consider. 
From an early period, Entomology, quite as much as its kindred 
Sciences, suffered from a disagreement as to names of species, one set 
prevailing in England, another in France, another in Germany, and so 
on. The first effort to secure uniformity seems to have been made in 
England by the Rev. Mr. Strickland, who, after consultation with other. 
naturalists, drew up a Code of Nomenclature for Zoologists, that was 
