A Penny Weekly Magazine of Natural History. 



No. 87. 



JULY 9th, 1881. 



Vol. 2. 



SCIENTIFIC NAMES. 



NOTWITHSTANDING all that 

 lias been said, we still receive 

 letters from readers who complain of 

 the constant use of Latin names, 

 especially for insects. One gentleman, 

 who writes us a long letter on the sub- 

 ject, tells us we have " missed our 

 vocation," and that we will never suc- 

 ceed in popularizing Natural History 

 unless we change our method, and use 

 English names only. He defends his 

 position by various arguments, most of 

 which appear to us to tell against him 

 rather than for him. Another old 

 friend makes the same complaint, but 

 from a different standpoint. He has 

 taken to Natural History from a 

 natural taste for it, and living in a 

 small village where there is no one of 

 kindred pursuits, he has collected eggs, 

 and birds, and insects for years, with 

 very little communication with anyone. 

 He tells us he is too old to learn the j 

 Latin names, and, without any sarcastic ! 

 meaning, says he has no doubt our 

 paper is very interesting, but he very 

 seldom can make out what it is about. 

 We are, however, glad to saj 7 , we have I 



had no complaints on this score from 

 that much more numerous class of 

 readers who are " Young Naturalists " 

 both by reason of their age, and by 

 being beginners. The subject is really 

 not open to discussion, for there is and 

 can be no doubt, that if our readers 

 want to be k< Naturalists " they must 

 learn to call the objects of their study 

 by the names by which other people 

 know them. Whether we have mis- 

 taken our vocation or not, one thing is 

 certain, that if we cannot attain our 

 object by the use of the scientific 

 names, we will never be able to attain 

 it at all, and it appears to us that what 

 we really have to convince these 

 friends is, that they have capacity 

 enough to use the Latin names if they 

 only would. Standing the other day 

 at a street corner, waiting for a friend, 

 we listened with some degree of interest 

 to the earnest and excited conversation 

 of some dozen idlers, who were stand- 

 ing about. The subject was horse- 

 racing, betting was going on, and the 

 names of horses were being freely 

 bandied about. This is a matter on 

 which, we must confess, we are not 

 sufficiently versed to write freely, but 



