258 



[March, 



versive of the rule for compouna terms," but for the purpose of showing the necessity 

 ior caution in the retrospective application of the rule to current names. If Choero- 

 potamus is to be changed, Hippopotamus ought to go also ; if Choeropotamus is not 

 to be inverted, why should CorimeJcena or Derephysia ? 



There is a manifest distinction between the hippos potamios of Herodotus and 

 the hippopotamus of Strabo ; the former was a compendious description of a newly 

 discovered animal, fluvial in its habits, and supposed to be a horse ; the latter is 

 the name given to the animal when it was found not to be congeneric with the horse, 

 and to require a name of its own. 



8. My question as to rhinoceros was asked only in view of the abandonment of 

 hippopotamxis being insisted on. Both rhinoceros and ceratorhinus are correct, but 

 I think they are not quite " equivalent terms." The name Rhinoceros, " nose-horn," 

 was doubtless given to the animal from its " having a nasal horn ;" but Rhinoceros, 

 the name of the animal, is a substantive. So Monoceros, " having a single horn," 

 is a substantive, when used as the Greek name of the better-known Latin unicorn. 

 In diceros Selene, the two-horned moon, diceros is no doubt an adjective ; but as the 

 name of a genus of Cetoniidoe, Diceros* is a substantive. Mr. Marshall allows that 

 " such words, like our names of genera, become substantives conventionally " — it is 

 by the same convention which makes Hippopotamus a substantive, or Hippos a 

 substantive, which makes a substantive of the name by which we denote any other 

 existing thing. 



9. I am glad that attention has been again called to formicaeformis^ iipuloeformis, 

 &c. As bearing on this, and the intervening letter o in compounds from the Greek, 

 I may mention that when, in the " Accentuated List " before alluded to, Ourapteryx 

 was changed into Uropteryx, and formic oif or mis into formiciformis, a reverend critic 

 indignantly enquired (I forget in which of the then existing serials) upon what 

 principle such innovations had been made !— J. W. Dunnikg, 24, Old Buildings, 

 Lincoln's Inn, 13t7i February, 1869. 



[This paper must form not only " the beginning of the end," but the end 

 itself, of this most interesting controversy. May the spirit in which it has been 

 conducted by both gentlemen be emulated by all who enter the arena of argument 

 on scientific questions ! — Eds.] 



Entomological Society of London; Jam,uary 25</i, 1869. (Anniversary 

 Meeting.) — F. Smith, Esq., in the Chair. 



The Hon. T. De Grey, M.P., and Messrs. Pascoe, A. R. Wallace, and Wormald 

 were elected into the Council in the room of outgoing Members. The President 

 and other of&cers were elected as before. The Secretary read the report of the 

 Council, and also an address by the President (who was unavoidably absent) on 

 the progress of Entomology during the past year ; and the Meeting terminated 

 with the usual votes of thanks to the Council and OflBcers. 



February \st, 1869. ^H. W. Bates, Esq., F.Z.S., President, in the Chair. The 

 President nominated Messrs. Pascoe, Smith, and A. R. Wallace as his Vice-Presi- 

 dents for the ensuing year. 



* Unfortunately Oorj and Percheron mis-spelt It DicJiero$.—J. W. D. 



