PROCEEDINGS OF THE OHIO ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 345 



emphasis upon the experimental method of research which has 

 almost revolutionized the viewpoint of the science. We shall 

 attempt to trace in rough outline some of the specific contribu- 

 tions of these three underlying causes. 



SYSTEMATIC ZOOLOGY AND NOMENCLATURE. 



To some of us, of over-specialized morphological and 

 physiological interests, systematic zoology has looked a dry and 

 barren Sahara ; to others zoological nomenclature has appealed 

 as a delightful toy for the unscientific amateur instead of a 

 complex piece of apparatus to be used, indeed, by all but to be 

 repaired or modified only by the skilled systematic technician. 

 The very magnitude of numbers and their rapid increase suggest 

 the danger and damage resulting from confusion in this field. 

 Linnaeus knew only four thousand animal species ; Ludwig, five 

 years before the founding of our Academy, estimates the known 

 number of species of animals at 273,220, while Pratt, in 191 1, 

 raises the number to 522,400. The number of known species of 

 animals has thus approximately doubled since 1891. 



And with this enormous complex each tyro has been at 

 liberty to trifle ; it is like turning a child loose in the card catalog 

 of the library across the street. No wonder that a friend should 

 exclaim in cynical disgust that he has given up the scientific 

 nomenclature in favor of popular names on the ground that the 

 latter are more definite and less confused. 



Here was a loud and insistent demand for improved tech- 

 nique; and the call was answered by the Leyden meeting of the 

 International Zoological Congress in 1895 by the appointment 

 of an International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. 

 For twenty years this Commission has been working to bring 

 order out of the chaos of the past. The work must needs be 

 slow and conservative, and cannot suit the individual taste of 

 every systematist. But the establishment of an international code 

 of nomenclatorial rules, adopted by the Congress and referred 

 to the Commission for administration, the publication of sixty- 

 six judicial "opinions" on disputed points in nomenclature, and 

 the establishment of a list of officially recognized zoological. 



