296 



SCIEXCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 165 



unprecedented. The Darling River, in 1839, was 

 merely a chain of water-holes ; and again, ten 

 years later, it was but little better ; in 1851 the 

 river was so dry that grass had grown in it, and 

 in fact it was the only feeding-ground available ; 

 in 1863 and 1865, and again in 1868, the water 

 was very low. In 1870 the great wet season 

 began, and it was this superabundance of rain 

 which led to the overstocking of the country and 

 the consequent disaster. It is clear that those 

 who occupy the western part of the colony have 

 to encounter some very bad seasons, intermixed 

 with some very good ones ; and arrangements 

 should be made by which the stock which in wet 

 years may be supported, may be transferred to 

 more favorable regions when the grazing fails, or 

 to abattoirs, where it can be killed, and turned 

 into canned or frozen meat. There now seems to 

 be some hope for a return of rain, as the natives 

 are reported to be moving to higher ground, and 

 the white ants are said to have commenced build- 

 ing their curious elevated dwellings, which serve 

 them as places of refuge during wet weather. 

 These two indications are referred to by Aus- 

 tralian journals as unfailing evidences of a prob- 

 able change in the weather. 



Perhaps in no other branch of zoology has 

 the instability of nomenclature become more bur- 

 densome than in ornithology. He who, after a 

 lapse of even a few years, attempts to renew his 

 acquaintance with our bird fauna, is depressed and 

 disheartened by the innumerable strange names 

 and tedious lists of synonymes that he everywhere 

 encounters. The Ornithologists' union has recently 

 published a new check-list of North American 

 birds that calls attention forcibly to this evil, but 

 which also contains an excellent code of the prin- 

 ciples and canons of zoological nomenclature, that, 

 it is hoped, will be of some avail in lessening it. 

 The committee appointed to draught this code was 

 composed of five of our best students of vertebrate 

 zoology, and may thus fairly represent the views 

 held by the great body of zoologists. The most im- 

 portant of the principles therein laid down are : the 

 strict and rigid enforcement of the lex prioritatis, 

 without any ' statute limitations' whatever of time ; 

 that a ' synonyme once is a synonyme always,' 

 and that the same name cannot be retained for 

 more than one genus in the animal kingdom ; 

 that a generic or subgeneric name may be based 

 upon a designated recognizably described species ; 



and that the original orthography of a name is to 

 be rigidly preserved, unless a typographical error 

 is evident. "With most of these principles zool- 

 ogists in general will agree. The necessity of 

 inflexibility in the law of priority has steadily 

 become more and more apparent ; there is no 

 mean position that does not admit of all manner 

 of abuses, and the same may be said of the use of 

 names that have once been synonymes. The last- 

 mentioned principle is also a very important one. 

 In entomology at least, and especially among 

 many German purists, infractions of this safe rule 

 have become in many cases almost unendurable. 

 Those who, in their zeal for philological rules, 

 amend* alter, or even reject names altogether, 

 forget that nomenclature is not the end, but 

 the means, of science. The Greek might write 

 aluo'ppayia, but the modern zoological classicist 

 would insist upon haematorrhagia. The principle, 

 however, that virtually admits catalogue generic 

 names to recognition, will, we believe, receive 

 vigorous protest from many zoologists, as sub- 

 versive of the essential rule that a species or genus 

 must be described in order to be accepted. A 

 specific description does not necessarily contain 

 higher characters, and such characters must be 

 given before a generic name can obtain currency. 

 Students in distant parts of the world cannot 

 depend upon specimens. A tyro can say such 

 and such a species belongs to another genus, and 

 give it a name, but it requires scientific discrim- 

 ination to point out reasons. As well give to the 

 bird-specimen No. 999 in the national museum a 

 specific name, and leave the student to find out 

 the characters as best he can. Ornithologists 

 sometimes forget that rules applicable to their 

 much-studied class may be intolerable in less- 

 known groups. 



PASTEUR AND HYDROPHOBIA. 

 The place Mr. Pasteur now occupies in the minds 

 of the world affords a striking example of the ex- 

 tremes to which the popular judgment is liable. 

 On the one hand, we have in the 1 Pasteur insti- 

 tute ' an organization w T hich proposes to put the 

 new method of curing hydrophobia into operation 

 on the largest scale in all civilized countries. At 

 the other extreme we hear from many points the 

 cry that all of Pasteur's pretensions are fraudu- 

 lent. These extreme views are equally unwar- 

 rantable, and equally illustrative of the lack of 

 sober judgment with which the world receives 



