97 



THE 



JOURNAL OF CONCHOLOGY. 



Vol. II. OCTOBER, 1904. No. 4. 



ON SOME QUESTIONS OF NOMENCLATURE. 



By a. J. JUKES-BROWNE, B.A., F.G.S. 



(Read before the Society, September 14, 1904). 



There is a rapidly increasing sense of dissatisfaction among zoolo- 

 gists and palaeontologists with regard to the existing state of things in 

 the matter of nomenclature. The enforcement of the rule of priority 

 has led to the digging up of so many ancient authorities and to the 

 alteration of so many names, that one feels there are few of our old- 

 established generic names which may not be dethroned and 

 supplanted and one wonders which will be the next to go. 



Now, if these changes of name were based on universally acknow- 

 ledged principles, so that once altered there could be no doubt of the 

 new name being accepted and adopted by all zoologists in every 

 country, the inconvenience of the change could be endured, and 

 zoological nomenclature would gradually become fixed and definite. 

 But this is far from being the case. There are several points of prime 

 importance which have never yet been decided by any authoritative 

 body or congress ; moreover, changes are constantly being proposed 

 by individuals without the sanction of any national committee or 

 council. The consequence is that there is often a conflict of indi- 

 vidual opinion, and in the absence of any tribunal to which appeal 

 can be made, the ordinary naturalist is uncertain which name ought 

 properly to be used. 



