590 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 95. 



name was taken for a genus, to substitute 

 a new specific for the one so diverted. 

 There was some reason for this, for some- 

 times the specific name covered several 

 forms, or at least was equally applicable to 

 several; of late, however, the acceptance of 

 both the generic and specific names, that is, 

 the duplication of a name, has been quite 

 general, and various precedents have been 

 adduced in favor of the procedure. '' In 

 the solemn anthem musicians have been 

 known to favor such repetitions, the orator 

 uses them, in poetry they occur without 

 offence, and even our English aristocracy 

 sometimes bears them as an added grace. "^^ 

 It is also a frequent custom in many bar- 

 barous and half-civilized races, as well 

 as the young of our own, to double the 

 name for a given subject ; and this analogy 

 may be regarded by some of you as a per- 

 fect one. But in the last cases some re- 

 gard is had for euphony, and it is a short 

 word that is repeated, as in the case of the 

 Kiwi-Kiwi and Eoa-Eoa of the Maoris of 

 New Zealand, the Pega-Pega of the indi- 

 genes of Cuba, the Willie-Willie (water 

 spout) of the Australians, and our own 

 familiar Pa-pa and Ma-ma. Many scienti- 

 fic names repeated are long — some very 

 long — but even for such I would now yield 

 the point. Stability of nomenclature is a 

 greater desideratum than euphony or ele- 

 gance. But here let me add that there is a 

 history behind the Scomber Scomber, which 

 has been frequently cited as an example of 

 the duplication of a name by Linnaeus. It 

 was Scomber Scombrus that was used at first 

 by the early nomenclator, and that occurs 

 in the tenth edition of the ' Systema 

 Naturae ' (p. 297), as well as in the ' Fauna 

 Suecica' (2d ed., p. 119). Linnaeus thus 

 combined the old Latin and Greek names 

 of the mackerel, which were formally differ- 

 ent, although of course traceable to one and 

 the same root. The name is therefore not 

 * Stebbing in Nat. Science, viii. 255. 



repulsive, but interesting as a historical re- 

 miniscence of past usage by two great peo- 

 ples. It was only in the twelfth edition of 

 the ' Systema ' (p 492) that Linnaeus exactly 

 duplicated the name as Scomber Scomber, and 

 thus vitiated the last edition in this as he 

 did in other cases. But it is at least possi- 

 ble that the exact duplication of names in 

 the twelfth edition is the off-spring of typo- 

 graphical inaccuracy or clerical inadver- 

 tence.* At any rate, those who recognize 

 the tenth edition of the ' Systema ' as the 

 initium of nomenclature will adopt the more 

 elegant form. 



VARIANTS AND SIMILARITY OF NAMES. 



The case of Scomber and Scombrus natur- 

 ally suggest consideration of another rule 

 adopted by various societies. By the Ger- 

 man Zoological Society it is provided that 

 "names of the same origin, and only differ- 

 ing from each other in the way they are 

 written, are to be considered identical. "f 

 Words considered identical are Fischeria and 

 Fisheria, as well as Astracanthus and Astera- 



*In the last part of the Proceedings of the Zoological 

 Society of London (1896, II. ) received, September 5th, 

 the suggestion that Scomber Scomber was a lapsus is 

 coniirmed. According to Dr. Sclater, "on referring to 

 the two copies of the twelfth edition, formerly belong- 

 ing to Linnseus himself, and now in the library of the 

 Linnsean Society, it will be found that the second 

 Scomber is altered, apparently in Linnseus' own hand- 

 writing, into Scombrus (See note on this subject, 'Ibis,' 

 1895, p. 168)." P. Z. S. 1896, 310, 311. (New note.) 

 t " Etymologisch gleich abgeleitete und nur in der 

 Schreibweise von einander abweichende Namen gelte- j^ 

 nals gleich. n 



\ Beispiele : silvestris = sylvestris ; cceruleus = cseru- 

 leus; Knnsei = linnei; Fischeria = Fisheria; Astracan- 

 thus = Asteracanthus. 



a. Dagegen konnen neben einander verwendet wer- 

 den Picus und Pica ; Polyodon, Polyodonta, und Polyo- 

 dontes ; fluvialis, fluviatilis, fluviaticus, fluviorum ; mo- 

 luccensis und moluccanus. 



b. Bei Neubildung von Namen moge man solche 

 vermeiden, welche leicht mit schon vorhandenen ver- 

 wechselt werden konnen." Eegeln * ^ ^ von der 

 Deutsch. Zool. Ges., | 4. 



