Mabch 8, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



365 



ination as to fitness is passed, no license or 

 certificate is obtained. Nowhere is a state- 

 ment as to minimum training necessary. 

 A decision once rendered in print is there- 

 after to be quoted forever. The decision 

 may, indeed, be reviewed and set aside, but 

 the reviewing judge may be inferior in age 

 and experience to the reviewed. Despite 

 the fact that many of the judges are men 

 of great learning and conservatism, the re- 

 sult of this uncontrolled cooperation has 

 been and is infinite confusion. Only a 

 small proportion of us here have anything 

 to do in making biological systematic no- 

 menclature, but all of us have to use it. And 

 we are tired of the reproaches of our no- 

 menelatorial brethren that, in referring to 

 some species, we have overlooked a (usually 

 his) recent change of a name. As biologists, 

 we are to blame not for having overlooked 

 a change of name, but for permitting the 

 names of species to be changed by the whim 

 of any one. As biologists, we are respon- 

 sible for systematic nomenclature. It will 

 not suffice to disdain the species monger. 

 We are responsible for his existence. We 

 may scoff at the condition of our nomen- 

 clature, but we can not forget that we per- 

 mit it to be what it is and that here in con- 

 gress assembled we could to-day take steps 

 toward putting it on a rational basis. A 

 commission should be appointed composed 

 of representatives of both sides of the 

 house, which should work with other com- 

 mittees already in existence, and which 

 should report on the best method of con- 

 trolling, here in America, the naming of 

 species and the changing of established 

 specific and generic names. It seems to me 

 clear that such a commission would seek in 

 vain for a universal natural basis of spe- 

 cies. Arbitrary rules must be made and 

 enforced by outlawing new names not in 

 accord with them. It is time to stop the 

 changes and adjustments of names to meet 

 different ideals. We have a nomenclature 



which, in most groups, accords closely 

 enough with nature for our purpose. Let 

 us henceforth arbitrarily protect such a 

 nomenclature. Some steps have been taken 

 in this direction. As indicated above, the 

 international congresses of zoology and bot- 

 any have established certain very general 

 suggestions as to nomenclature. American 

 ornithologists have gone further and laid 

 down the rules under which new species 

 shall be created. They have even published 

 a list of specific names which are to be 

 recognized. The international congress of 

 botanists last year approved a series of 

 rules and recommendations, enacting that 

 'a name contrary to a rule can not be kept 

 up.' It passed a list of generic names, 

 which, from long-established usage, are to 

 be retained, though on the principle of pri- 

 ority they should be rejected. This action 

 is important, in my opinion, because it af- 

 fords a precedent for establishing generic 

 names by vote of a congress. While an 

 American hiological commission on nomen- 

 clature is desirable, in order to begin the 

 immediate consideration of reforms in our 

 methods of naming species and to gain ex- 

 perience, we should work toward a perma- 

 nent international committee on hiological 

 nomenclature. 



Important though nomenclature is, it 

 can not command the same interest as re- 

 search. There are large undertakings in 

 the field of general biology that require a 

 more systematic cooperation than yet ex- 

 ists. The greatest of these is the experi- 

 mental study of the factors of evolution- 

 experimental evolution, in brief. The sta- 

 tion established by the Carnegie Institution 

 of Washington has done something to enter 

 into cooperative relations with workers in 

 this field both in America and abroad. 

 These associated workers would doubtless 

 be very glad to serve as a committee to 

 report to a society of biologists. 



The matter of the significance and con- 



