BLANCHARD : INTERNATIONAL RULKS OF ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. l8l 



task ; it had established a body of rules which marked indubitable 

 progress. These rules were adopted by the Zoological Society of 

 France, by other learned societies, and by a number of zoologists. 



Nevertheless, these rules were at variance in certain particulars with 

 those which had been independently promulgated by the German 

 Zoological Society in 1894. Agreement was urgent, and at the third 

 International Congress at Leyden, in 1895, Professor Schultze called 

 attention to this pressing need. He proposed the nomination of a 

 Commission whose duty it should be to combine in a single code with 

 a common text, issued in three languages, the rules for the denomina- 

 tion of animal forms, established and recommended in different coun- 

 tries and different languages. 



The proposal of Professor Schulze was adopted, and on the i8th 

 September, 1895, a Commission was elected, composed of Professor 

 R. Blanchard (Paris), Professor J. V. Carus (Leipzig), Dr. F. A. 

 Jentink (Leyden), Dr. P. L. Sclater (London), and Dr. C. 

 Wardell Stiles (Washington). 



This Commsssion met at Baden-Baden from the 5th to the 9th of 

 August, 1897. It decided to propose at the Fourth Congress, which 

 was to meet at Cambridge in 1898, the creation of a Permanent Inter- 

 national Commission, composed of at least seven members, which 

 should take account of all propositions regarding nomenclature which 

 might be addressed to the Fifth and any subsequent Congresses, and 

 should also make a report to the Conference on these propositions. 

 The Commission also resolved to ask the Congress at Cambridge to 

 resolve that no project, modification, amendment, or addition to the 

 rules adopted by the International Congress should be brought before 

 the Fifth or any subsequent Congress without having been submitted 

 to the Permanent International Commission at least a year before the 

 meeting of that Congress. 



The Conference at Baden-Baden further discussed the code of 

 Nomenclature which the Congress at Leyden had authorized it to 

 establish. Excepting on some secondary questions, it adopted unani- 

 mously a body of rules which were to be, and eventually were, 

 submitted to the Congress at Cambridge in 1898. It was further 

 decided to present to the Congress three official versions of these rules 

 — the German by Professor J. V. Carus, the English by Dr. C. W. 

 Stiles, the French by Professor R. Blanchard, and it was ruled that 

 in case of doubt regarding their interpretation, the French text should 

 be the standard. 



These decisions were faithfully carried out. The three versions 

 above-mentioned were published shortly after the Conference of 



