Zoological Nomenclature. 101 
When it is semua to form new words for this purpose, it is desirable to 
them bea 
make r some analogy to those which they are destined to supersede, 
as where t fins e genus of an. page rs ipsayies a. ; preoccupied i in nee ; 
is changed to Plectorhamphus. It e, the bounden duty of a 
<a when naming a new Pres - atari pe careful search that the 
e propo-es to employ ‘ul: ot been previously adopted in other 
Eraiecms of natural history.* B rh thai this precaution he is liable 
author who may detect the oversight, and for this result, however unfortunate, 
we fear there is no > seenbty , though such cases would fgtits pee ent if the 
detectors of these vin wo uld, as ms act of courtesy, pitt not fies to the 
author himself, if living, and lea to him to correct his nadverten 
ies.t This occasional har allie sek to us to be a less sith than to pet 
mit pe Ah aie of giving the same ‘ey name ad libitum to a multiplicity 
of g We submit, ‘therefore, that 
| § 10. A name should be changed which has before been pro- 
_ posed for some other genus in zodlogy or botany,{ or for some 
other species in the same genus, when still retained for such 
genus or species. 
[4 name whose meaning is glaringly false may be changed.]|—Our next pro- 
apie: os no other claim for adoption than - 2 o hen ng a concession 
an infirmity. If such proper names of ape as Covent Garden, Lin- 
PET eck Te tl eee 
a 
st 
S 
of ce fields, castles, or bridges, but refer 1 the mind with the oo 
of thought to the e particular localities which they respectively designate, there 
seems no reasons why the pr net names used in natural heey should not 
equally pecforn m the office of ¢ indication, even when their etymologi- 
cal meaning may be wholly tapohcais to the object which they ype. But 
we must remem se that we —- of science has but a limited currency, 
e it ith the same 
rapidity 6 w elon every-day life. The attention is 
y liable in scientific studies to be diverted from the contemp!l 
of the thing signified to logical meani e 
it is necessary to provide that the latter shall not be such as to propa, ac- 
t Instances of kind are in cases, 
uch as f odon, Caprimulgus, P: lus, 
they have acquired sufficient currency no longer to cause error, and are 
therefore retained without change. But when we find a Batrachian reptile 
named in violation of its true affinities Mastodonsaurus, a Mexican species 
This laborious and difficult research is now greatly facilitated by the very 
tal work of M. Agassiz, entitled * Nomenclator Zoologicus,” and ** Index Uni- 
versalis ” to that w ae. 
+ This slight setae Sos for negligence is, perhaps, one of the strongest incentives 
to greater caution. To point out an author’s errors, unless a personal friend, too 
since many men 
a eorreet every err te) 
st suitable opportunity, that its diffusion may be arrested as soon as possi- 
phic memoirs and general works are, however the most proper 
$.—Vv. 
ber of names now in use and well established in both botany woe 
Zomloey, is so great as to andar their change on this account very obj 
nearly impossible, as no concert of opinion is likely to-be obtained ois 
posit. But all appear to admit the ‘necesity of allowing the same name to be 
used but once in either kingdom.— : 
