THE CANADIAN ENTOMOLOGIST. 59 
CANONS OF SYSTEMATIC NOMENCLATURE FOR THE 
HIGHER GROUPS. 
BY SAMUEL H. SCUDDER. 
[FROM THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE AND Arts, VoL. III, May, 1872.] 
Several years ago, the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science appointed a committee to reconsider the canons of biological 
nomenclature, and to report whether, with the growth of science, they 
required any additions or alterations. No report has yet been made, nor, 
- so far as we are aware, is any likely to be presented, until the subject is 
again brought prominently forward and new instructions given. Professor 
A. E. Verrill has since republished * the Revised Rules of Zoological 
Nomenclature adopted by the British Association for the Advancement of 
Science in 1865, and has accompanied them by a few apt comments; in 
England, Mr. W. F. Kirby, in a paper read before the Linnean Society of 
London, has called attention to the extensive changes which a strict 
adherence to the laws of priority would cause in the generic nomenclature 
of butterflies; and quite recently has put the same into practice in his 
catalogue of these insects. 
But hitherto very little has been said concerning the special application 
of definite rules to groups higher than genera, and it is to this division of 
the subject that we desire to call attention. 
In attempting to legislate upon this branch of zoological nomenclature, 
two principles must be kept in view: jirs¢, so far as possible, the canons 
already in general acceptance for generic nomenclature should be applied 
to all the monomial groups. Unity of principle lies at the foundation of 
acceptable legislation ; second, retrospective laws should be avoided. 
One difficulty meets us at the outset,—what some are pleased to term 
the unstable nature of the higher groups, but which we should prefer to 
call the disagreement of naturalists as to the limits and value of these 
groups ; yet as this diversity of view is a nearly equal hindrance to any 
code of rules, it needs only to be mentioned in passing. 
Endeavoring to keep in mind the principles above enunciated, and as 
the simplest means of presenting our views, the following outline of a 
code is suggested for the consideration of zoologists. 
This Journal, July, 1869. 
