254 THE AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
genus universally called Esox, but in these vélumes the name Esox is 
transferred to the genus known since 1817 as Belone, while to the 
genus containing the pikes the name Luccius is applied. These 
changes are based upon the writings of Rafinesque, and if perse- 
vered in will lead to endless confusion. A few such changes and the 
scientific literature of America will be unintelligible to the students 
of Europe. 
That the scientific world is not a unit in regarding the law of 
priority as inviolable is shown by their treatment of a somewhat 
similar case, where the attempt was made to change the names of 
many of the Lepidoptera upon the authority of Hubner’s Tentamen. 
A strict adherence to the rule must result in the adoption of the Hub- 
nerian names, but our entomologists will have none of them. If 
our systematists must have immutable laws, would not a law of limi- 
tation be a good one? Would it not be well to say that if a certain 
name has been in common use for, say fifty years, it shall not be 
replaced by some long-forgotten name, resurrected by some delver in 
antiquarian lore. That our radicals will not be followed by the more 
conservative Europeans is shown by numberless facts. No European 
naturalist will discard Amphioxus ; Triton will hold its own in place 
of Triturus or Molge; and Dr. Boulenger hopes that a similar con- 
servative spirit will work in the interests of stability in the nomen- 
clature of the tailless batrachians of Europe. 
t 
