Zoological Writings of Rafinesque. 283 



gy ; as a great part of his American new species belong to these 

 genera, andtoJuhis; genera with which every one is familiar. 

 The remainder of the '■'■Precis'^ is taken up (except the botanical 

 portion) with new species of Cephalopoda, worms, and zoo- 

 phytes. 



Principes fondamentaux de Somiologie, ou les Lois de la No- 

 menclateur, etc. " The Laws are necessarily familiar to all pro- 

 fessed naturalists ; but we have never before met with so wel- 

 come a digest of them. Somiology is designed to express the 

 science of organized bodies in one word, and seems derived from 

 soma, a body, and logos, a discourse ; and, without it, two must 

 be used, as Zoology, and Phytology or Botany."* French is re- 

 commended as the language of Natural History, instead of Latin. 

 Arrother rule should have been added, viz. when a new species 

 is characterized, which has nothing to enable one to recognize the 

 description as belonging to a distinct species, it becomes necessa- 

 ry to state wherein it differs from an allied and well known spe- 

 cies. 



Specchio delle Scienze, Sfc, 2 v. 8vo., Palermo, 1814. This 

 work was published monthly for one year, when it was discon- 

 tinued, for the want of sufficient support ; a fate which has befall- 

 en all the periodical works of this author. He even states that 

 the last number was detained by the printer, although indebted 

 to him, but he must afterwards have succeeded in getting it, as we 

 possess it. There are a number of zoological articles in it, among 

 which are descriptions of two new genera of j5sh, Leptopus and 

 Nemochirus. Osservazioni microscopiche,f are principally devoted 

 to new species of Infusoria. An article on the Sicilian Phocidas, 

 gives live species under four genera, retaining the Linnean name 

 for " P. vitulina," under which name several species have been 



* Loudon's Mag. V, 76. These laws are not well known, or we would not have 

 so many barbarous names imposed upon the science from day to day. Our author 

 was particularly happy in his nomenclature, for which he deserves the gratitude 

 of all naturalists. Barbarous names, he says, should be expunged ; such as Messer- 

 sckinidia, Hoffmansegga, Krascheninikojia, etc. We protest, liowever, against the 

 injustice of crediting a genus to an author who has merely varied a name from 

 its original form : as Lepi<Zosteus, Jlgass., instead of Lac6pede, who named this ge- 

 nus Lepisosteus. If Agassiz is to have the genus, the species follow of course; 

 and a rule which leads to such a result, must be fiilse. 



\ Jlrthrodia, anew genus of Conferva, seems to be identical with Oscillatoria. 

 We do not pretend to determine the right of priority, between Rafinesque and other 

 authors, in the instances cited in this article. 



