ZOOLOGICAL IfOMEJrCLATUKE. 335 



now the rule is set up that the old specific name must be 

 restored, so that the species will be Crangon erangon (Linn.). 

 Coupling this determination with new rules about subgenera 

 and subspecies, it is apparently possible to have a creature called 

 Apus (Aptis) apus apus, which seems to me calculated to bring 

 nomenclature into contempt. The equitable plan would be to 

 accept the terminology which our scientific ancestors employed 

 in Crangon vulgaris and the like, while ruling that in future 

 specific names are to be left in their places and not transferred 

 to a higher grade. This is not setting aside the essential law of 

 priority, but upholding in the interest both of equity and 

 euphony what our predecessors did, when they had a perfect 

 right to do it, against ex post facto legislation. 



Some points more easy to follow in print than in speech are 

 relegated to an appendix. My main argument has been directed 

 to enforcing upon your attention the overwhelming importance 

 of agreement, the difficulties in the way of arriving at it, the 

 desirability of keeping naturalists in touch with the best con- 

 clusions, and, finally, the claim which the subject of scientific 

 nomenclature in its broadest aspects has upon the interest of this 

 Society. None have a better right, none have a higher duty 

 than ourselves to work for the improvement of the Linnean code 

 till it wins the consent of naturalists in general as the best and 

 most polished instrument of its kind for the advancement of 

 science. 



Appendix on points op detail. 



1. To signify that a specific name is combined with a generic 

 name other than that with which it was originally published, 

 might not botanists and zoologists agree to have a method of 

 notation in common ? 



2. To simplify synonymy, it is suggested that all new generic 

 names of animals should be regarded as of the masculine 

 gender. It is no essential part of natural history to discover 

 that 3feUcerta is masculine, Ino feminine, Gallisoma neuter ; 

 that p>lanus and plana are adjectives, but nanus and nana 

 substantives ; or that you may say longimana, to signify long- 

 handed, although mana in Latin means, not a hand, but a 

 goddess or a sponge. 



3. In regard to generic and specific names of more than 

 two syllables, it would be a boon, at least to English-speaking 



