August 21, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



273 



Gazella to the gazelles before it is attempted to be 

 used for the gemsbueks. 



Of course the name Gazella would remain 

 with the gazelles if Pallas applied it to them 

 before it was applied to the gemsbueks, but if 

 a suggestive passage in an older author 

 makes it " advisable to affix the nam.e " in ad- 

 vance of any formal nomenclatorial applica- 

 tion, why need we hesitate longer to restore 

 the classical names from Pliny, Virgil, The- 

 ophrastus, Aristotle, Homer, Solomon or 

 Moses ? 



Such improvements may not appear to lie 

 exactly in the direction of those that the In- 

 ternational Commission was expected to 

 supply, but why object to one good thing be- 

 cause we do not get another? It is evident 

 from these proposals for " fixation by fiat " 

 that the results reached by the International 

 Commission through the " Code of Nomen- 

 clature " will not command the unqualified 

 approval of the interested public. The under- 

 lying reason may be that the Code is not 

 based on consistent principles, but incorpo- 

 rates certain imperfect ideas that happened 

 to be current when the work was undertaken. 

 The general substitution of the method of 

 types for the method of concepts was then 

 only beginning and the fundamental nature 

 of this reform was not appreciated. In par- 

 ticular, there was a failure to see that the 

 custom of determining the application of 

 generic names through elimination was in- 

 consistent with the method of types.^ 



As soon as we admit that a name must, re- 

 late to a type, and agree to treat this rela- 

 tion as inviolate, there are no problems to be 

 solved by elimination. It is this that renders 

 the method of types so superior to the method 

 of concepts as a means of securing perma- 

 nence in nomenclature. The application of 

 a generic name is fixed as soon as the type 

 species is determined, and does not depend 

 upon the action of later writers. The histor- 

 ical names remain in their original places in- 

 stead of being transferred to other groups, as 



1 Cook, O. F., "Terms Relating to Generic 

 Types," The American Naturalist, 48: 308, May, 

 1914. 



often results from elimination. The attempt 

 to combine two methods that were essentially 

 inconsistent developed so many complications 

 that a court of experts seemed to be necessary, 

 and the Commission was established. But 

 now the "plenary power authority" relieves 

 the Commission from the task of applying its 

 own rules and allows names to be adopted or 

 rejected as may appear " advisable." 



Another advantage conferred by the method 

 of types is the right to exclude generic names 

 that were not applied to binomial type spe- 

 cies. In our specific nomenclature we con- 

 fine ourselves to binomial species, and there 

 is the same propriety in refusing to admit 

 generic names that did not have binomial 

 species as types. Many of the well-known 

 names that now figure in lists of nomina con- 

 servanda have been placed in jeopardy only 

 by ill-considered revivals of obscure, abortive 

 names that would have been left in oblivion 

 if this simple requirement had been observed. 

 With a code drawn in better accord with the 

 method of types, which is now in use by 

 nearly all systematists, there would be less 

 need of " plenary power authority " and 

 '■' fixation by fiat." 



0. F. Cook 



Washington 



museums of sounds 

 If museums of sights, why not museums of 

 sounds? The curator of that hot bed of new 

 and improved varieties of museum ideas, the 

 Children's Museum, in Brooklyn, New York, 

 reminded me that a large number of the chil- 

 dren who visited it were unable to get away 

 from the crowded city during vacation, and 

 stated that she thought a victor-victrola, in- 

 stalled in the museum with samples of the best 

 music would be appreciated by these children 

 and do them good. Some museum authorities 

 might think this quite improper, and not at 

 all dignified; although as a matter of fact 

 some of our leading scientific museums do 

 have study collections of phonograph records 

 of Indian music; but in the way of public 

 exhibitions a children's museum can freely do 

 things which only a brave and radical scien- 



