WHY NOT USE COMMON NAMES? 



Individuals and societies, time without number, have protested against the 

 present scientific nomenclature. In vain have many attempts been made to in- 

 troduce common names. The result of all these efforts is to make the matter 

 more confusing. I am fully in accord with any movement which will simplify 

 the work of the beginner, but doubt if any one in this century will bring about 

 the adoption of common names instead of the so-called scientific names. You 

 will find it no great task to master all the names you require to know, and, having 

 learned these, you will be quite contented with the present system. It is just as 

 easy to say "Co-li-as eu-rith'-e-me" as "The Orange Sulphur," and you will 

 experience a feeling of comfortable superiority if you master the Latin name. Even 

 if you mispronounce a name, you will meet few scientists who will not give you 

 sympathy instead of criticism. 



THE REASON FOR LATIN FORMS. 



There is a story in general circulation to the effect that George W. Pullman 

 gave his daughter the task of finding euphonious names for his sleeping cars and 

 paid her one hundred dollars for each name. If you ever studied the names given 

 to these cars you would have been impressed with the care, taste and good judg- 

 ment displayed in their selection. After a great many thousand names have 

 been selected it must be a rather difficult matter to find others. If you had the 

 task of finding common names for all the butterflies and moths, all the beetles 

 and insects, all the living things in earth, air and sea, all the plants, of every- 

 thing which now bears a Latin name in the scientific world, and if you were 

 to be paid $ 1 00 per name upon the completion of your job, you would never 

 receive a dollar, for you could not perform the task in a lifetime. Scientists 

 estimate the number of insects in the world at ten million. But supposing 

 a large number of English-speaking scientists succeeded in accomplishing this 

 undertaking, would the learned men of Germany, Russia, Japan and other 

 foreign countries adopt your English names? Would not the people of each 

 country demand common names of their own particular language? Would not 

 this result in a veritable Babel of confused tongues? Were not the scientists wise 

 to select a dead language, the Latin, to supply the form of scientific nomenclature? 

 All nations have accepted this nomenclature, for the learned men of all nations 

 are familiar with Latin. Don't you think you had better give up the idea of 

 substituting "common" names? Don't you think it would be easier to learn the 

 few Latin names which you will require in your business? 



CONFUSION OF SYNONYMS AND GENERA. 



There are differences of opinion among scientists as to the names which 

 properly belong to certain butterflies and moths. Different names have been as- 

 signed to some insects by different men, and confusion arises. Fortunately for 

 the beginner, the names of many species of Lepidoptera are well established and 

 all authorities agree upon them. The difficulties and conflicts which arise re- 

 garding the particular name which has priority in the case of certain insects must 

 be settled by the scientists. The Entomological Society of America at its meeting 

 of March, 1914, at Columbus, Ohio, on request from the International Com- 

 mittee on Nomenclature of the Second International Congress of Entomology, 

 named Dr. E. P. Felt and Dr. H. T. Fernald as members to serve on the 



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