426 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
On the one hand, the man who has had the trouble of 
examining and describing a species has much more right to be 
regarded as the “‘author”’ than one who has merely suggested a 
name. On the other hand, an author should not be deprived of 
his credit because his work happens to be incorporated in another 
man’s publication. The majority of the Commission append a 
recommendation—for it can scarcely be intended for a rule—that 
the name of the author should follow the specific name “ without 
the interposition of a comma.” There is nothing to be said 
against this except that sometimes an author’s name may come 
into a ludicrous combination with an uncomplimentary remark 
intended for the Snake, or the Cockroach, or some other low- 
minded species. Another recommendation, posing as a rule, 
prescribes the use of italics for distinguishing between the names 
of the species and the name of the author. It would be better 
to proscribe italics than to prescribe them. They are less legible 
than many other forms of type, and, as old books show, they are 
the worst 1n wear. 
Coming now to the recommendations, specified as such, the 
third deals at great length with words which may be taken as 
generic names, and mentions first: “a. Greek substantives, for 
which the rules of Latin transcription should be followed.” Many 
examples are given. 
In regard to transcription, a word may be said in behalf 
of the English-speaking peoples. Our pronunciation vividly 
accentuates the difference between a long vowel and a short one, 
yet we have but one symbol for both sounds throughout our vowel 
system. There is nothing in the form of the letters to prevent a 
man’s saying Amphibola, Hydrophilus, or Hippopotamus. How 
much the young have suffered through false quantities is an 
untold sum of human misery. But they harass not boys alone. 
Of university men who acted classical plays in his day, Milton 
says bluntly, ‘“‘They mispronounced, and I misliked; and, to 
make up the atticism, they were out, and I hissed.” The men 
he derided were victims to tortures of the tongue, which, as far 
as speakers are concerned, “The bad affright, afflict the best.” 
Long ago an absurdly simple remedy was proposed for appli- 
cation to scientific names. It directed that the penultimate 
syllable of a name should be accented when that syllable is long, 
