482 SOME QUESTIONS OF NOMENCLATURE. 



OTHER GROUPS. 



Time does not permit of the consideration of the other groups — order, 

 suborder, class, subcla ss, superclass, branch, etc. Nevertheless a caveat 

 is in order that there appears to be no reason why the principle of 

 priority now so generally recognized for the subordinate groups should 

 not prevail for the higher. Why should the name Amphibia disappear 

 and Batrachia and Reptilia usurp its place? Amphibia is a far better 

 name for the Batrachia and in every way defensible for it. The name 

 had especial relation to it originally, and it was first restricted to it as 

 a class. Why should the names Sauria and Serpentes give place to 

 Lacertilia and Ophidia ? The first are names familiar to all, and cor- 

 rectly formed; the last are, at least, strangely framed. Why should 

 not Meantia be adopted as an ordinal name by those who regard the 

 Sirenids as representatives of a distinct order, as did Linnseus ? Why 

 should not the ordinal names Bruta, Ferae, Glires, and Cete prevail 

 over Edentata, Carnivora, Rodentia, and Cetacea? If the rules formu- 

 lated by the various societies are applied to those groups, the earliest 

 names must be revived. 



COMPLAINTS OF INSTABILITY OF NOMENCLATURE. 



Frequent are the laments over the instability of our systematic 

 nomenclature; bitter the complaints against those who change names. 

 But surely such complaints are unjust when urged against those who 

 range themselves under laws. We are forcibly reminded by such com- 

 plaints of the ancient apologue of the wolf and the lamb. The stream 

 of nomenclature has indeed been much muddied, but it is due to the 

 acts of those who refuse to be bound by laws or reason. The only way 

 to purify the stream is to clear out all the disturbing elements. In 

 doing so mud that has settled for a time may be disturbed, but this is 

 at worst anticipating what would have inevitably happened sooner or 

 later. We are suffering from the ignorance or misdeeds of the past. 

 In opposing the necessary rectifications and the enforcement of the 

 laws, extremes may meet; conservatives and anarchists agree. But 

 the majority may be depended upon in time to subscribe to the laws, 

 and the perturbed condition will then cease to be. 



It is unfortunate that our nomenclature should have been so wedded 

 to systematic zoology, and devised to express the different phases of 

 our knowledge or understanding of morphological facts. Even under 

 the binomial system the disturbing element might have been made 

 much less than it is. The genera of Linnteus recognized for the animal 

 kingdom were generally very comprehensive; sometimes, as in the case 

 of Petromyzon, Aster las, and Echinus, answering to a modern class; 

 sometimes, like Testudo, Bana, Cancer, Scorpio, Aranea, Scolopendra, and 

 Julus, to a modern order, or even more comprehensive group, and rarely, 

 among Vertebrates, to a group of less than family value. The usage of 



