424 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
form. It should surely be the object of an International Code to 
interfere with individual liberty as little as possible, and to pro- 
tect accepted names from any change that can be avoided. But 
in correcting names which may be considered to offend against 
grammar or philology, more inconvenience than advantage is 
likely to arise. A longer name, as in the examples quoted, will 
often have to be substituted for a shorter one. The practical 
nuisance of this will be well understood by those who have to 
write labels for small bottles and glass slips. It is also contrary 
to the tendency of language, which is constantly condensing 
instead of expanding its forms—reducing, for instance, the five 
syllables of “ Mea domina” to the monosyllabic ‘“‘ Ma’am,” or 
“Mum,” or “M’m.” The zoologist need not encourage the 
geographer to change back Brighton into Brighthelmstone. By 
correction a name will sometimes receive a different initial, as 
in the change of Oplophorus to Hoplophorus or of Upogebia to 
Hypogebia, which is apt to be very confusing when an index has 
to be consulted. The principle of priority is weakened when the 
original form of a name is relinquished not in the interests of 
science, but of scholarship. On the other hand, it is so easy to 
let the names alone, carrying with them their small but interesting 
touches of autobiography, and no possible harm is done if we do - 
leave to the polished scholar some little occasion for chuckling 
over us untutored sons of science. 
In section III., the second rule begins by declaring that 
‘‘ Specific names are of three kinds: a. Adjectives which must 
agree grammatically with the generic name.” On this it may be 
diffidently asked whether it would not be simpler to regard all 
generic names in zoology as masculine? This would avoid any 
necessity for changing the termination of a specific name on its 
transfer from one genus to another. It would put an end to a 
frequent confusion arising between Latin feminine and Greek 
neuter forms which happen to have the same vowel-ending. The 
most sensitive ear need not be offended, since Agricola, Aurelia, 
Cyphostoma, under the present rule, require an adjective re- 
spectively in the masculine, the feminine, the neuter. An animal 
does not become more one gender than another because of its 
name, and the grammar of the Greeks has wisely recognized what 
is called ‘‘ the construction according to the sense,” 
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