418 General Biology 



The botanists use a somewhat different classification, but the one 

 here given is the one of greatest value and importance to the student. 

 All zoologists, although accepting this classification, do not necessarily 

 classify the same animals under the same heading. This often leads to 

 considerable confusion for the beginner. 



The student of medicine will find that during the past twenty years 

 a definite nomenclature has been adopted in the study of human anatomy 

 known as the B. N. A., so called because it was brought about at an 

 International Anatomical Conference at Basle, Switzerland, and there- 

 fore called the Basle Nomenclatura Anatomica. 



The Linnaean system designates the species by two Latin or Latin- 

 ized names: the generic name, a noun; and the specific name, usually an 

 adjective. To this is added a third, if a subspecies is recognized. A sub- 

 species is usually more or less synonymous with variety in classification, 

 although variety is sometimes used ; in fact, in one group, ants (family 

 Formicidae), there are usually four words in the name. 



The rules applying to the nomenclature, although following Linaeus 

 are set forth in various codes. These are the British Association Code, 

 the American Ornithological Union Code, the Code of the German 

 Zoological Society, and the Code of the International Zoological Con- 

 gress. The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature, adopted by 

 the International Zoological Congress and governed through a Commis- 

 sion on Nomenclature is used almost everywhere now. Professor Schull 

 has summed up the principal rules as follows: 



"The first name proposed for a genus or species prevails on the con- 

 dition that it was published and accompanied by an adequate description, 

 definition or indication, and that the author has applied the principles 

 of binomial nomenclature. This is the so-called law of priority. The 

 tenth edition of the Systema Naturae of Linnaeus is the basis of the 

 nomenclature. The author of a genus or species is the person who first 

 publishes the name in connection with a definition, indication, or de- 

 scription, and his name in full or abbreviated is given with the name; 

 thus, Bascanion anthonyi Stejneger. In citations the generic name of 

 an animal is written with a capital letter, the specific and subspecific 

 name without initial capital letter. The name of the author follows the 

 specific name (or subspecific name if there is one) without intervening 

 punctuation. If a species is transferred to a genus other than the one 

 under which it was first described, or if the name of a genus is changed, 

 the author's name is included in parentheses. For example, Bascanion 

 anthonyi Stejneger should now be written Coluber anthonyi (Stejneger), 

 the generic name of this snake having been changed. One species con- 

 stitutes the type of the genus ; that is, it is formally designated as typical 

 of the genus. One genus constitutes the type of the subfamily (when a 

 subfamily exists), and one genus forms the type of the family. The type 

 is indicated by the describer, or if not indicated by him, is fixed by 



