2 Nomenclature of Zoology. 
quite perplexing ; and it is even now difficult to settle the claims 
of priority among the various names so recently imposed. 
Our best zoologists have been awake to the necessity of hav- 
ing among themselves some laws, either statute or upon honor, 
which shall ensure respect and justice to each other’s labors, and 
render the nomenclature of our zoology such as shall bear the test 
of enlightened criticism. Not a little correspondence has been 
carried on, among the leading scientific men in the different 
cities, as to how this desirable object might be best secured. As 
one effective means, it has been conceded to those who have been 
engaged upon monographs, that they should settle the synonymy 
of the objects coming within their province, and that others 
should abide by their conclusions, unless they were manifestly 
wrong, the writer being allowed the benefit of all suspicions. It 
was deemed to be no difficult thing to establish a code of honor 
among ourselves; but then the thought arose, of what avail will 
all this be to us, if the great masters in zoology across the water, 
shall choose to trample upon us as they have hitherto done? It 
is indeed discouraging, after having, by a tedious and thorough 
investigation, determined the novelty of a species, to find, in some 
subsequent transatlantic journal, the same thing described under 
a different name, and with such authority as to give the prior de- 
scriber a very slight chance of regaining his own prior name. 
With this exercise of the right of the strongest, Americans are 
familiar. It must be acknowledged that, in very many instances, 
there is an adequate excuse for this, from the very obscure chan- 
nels through which the original descriptions have been conveyed 
to the public, and the very limited circulation such works have 
had. But this is not always the case; and now, there are scien- 
tific publications among us which no naturalist, whether native 
or foreign, should neglect to consult. Indeed, such works as the 
Journal of the Academy of Natural Sciences at Philadelphia, the 
Boston Journal of Natural History, not omitting this Journal, 
have become as indispensable to the zoological writer who would 
keep up with the level of science, as the Annals and Magazine 
of Natural History, or the Annales d’Histoire Naturelle, or Revue 
Zoologique. 
It is but too apparent, however, that courtesy and justice are 
not meted out where the plea above allowed cannot be made. If 
we look at the French, for instance, we find by their writings 
