1890.] Editorial. 1047 
XIL, p. 387, 1890.—No new genera are characterized. — Keys 
are given of the species of Eristicus, Hemiteles, Cryptus, Ortho- 
pelma, Limneria. Many new species are described. 
EDITORIAL. 
EDITORS, E. D. COPE AND J. S. KINGSLEY. 
ER fifty years ago the British Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science adopted certain rules for the guidance 
of nomenclators in science. These rules were based partly on 
customs which had become prevalent, but all were designed to 
secure fixity in consonance with the other interests of science. 
These other interests of science may be embraced under two 
heads: First, the maintenance of a high standard of scientific 
work; second, justice to the investigator. In accordance with 
these views, fixity is secured by the strict adhesion to the law of 
priority, without exception. The standard of scientific work is 
sustained by the requirement that names adopted shall represent 
work done or ideas worked out, and not prospective discoveries 
to be made or not made at some future time. Justice to the 
investigator is secured by the two requirements just mentioned, 
viz., that the originator of ideas and the discoverer of facts, and 
not some other person, shall be credited with them. 
These rules have been carried more and more fully into prac- 
tice as time has advanced. The American Association in 1876 
' adopted similar rules, and the Congress of Zoologists of Paris 
has followed the same example. The attempts made by scientists 
holding important positions in the governmental or other educa- 
tional organizations to ignore and override the work of private 
and perhaps humbler citizens, which were not uncommon in the 
early part of this century, have fallen to the ground. In fact, 
we are now confronted with the opposite extreme, viz., the dis- 
Amer. Nat.—November.—5. 
