192 



Bather : Dates of Publication. 



The one date that is of interest to other scientific workers 

 is the date of pubUcation. By this is meant the date on which 

 any work is first obtainable by purchase in the usual way ; or, 

 in certain cases, the earliest date of gratis distribution to any 

 member of the pubhc. Private distribution is not publication. 

 In every case this date of pubhcation must affect more people 

 than does the date of reading ; but in the case of some works, 

 the suppression of this date need cause no great inconvenience, 

 except to bibUographers, historians, and plagiarists real or 

 alleged. It is in the case of work involving the giving of new 

 names that the real importance of the date of pubUcation first 

 appears. All such names, whether zoological, botanical, 

 stratigraphical, petrographical, m.ineralogical, or chemical, are 

 now-a-days selected for use according to their priority ; and 

 this priority is decided by the year, month, day, or even, it 

 may be, the hour of publication as defined above. With the 

 modern increase of scientific work and publication, there is also 

 an increased probability that two authors may independently 

 but synchronously propose the same name for different things, 

 or call the same thing by different names. No serious student 

 needs to be reminded of the appalling confusion and waste of 

 time caused by these coincidences. Such accidents must 

 always be happening, but we can reduce, if not entirely do away 

 with, their evil effects by issuing no volume, part, or paper, 

 without the correct date of publication printed on it, by repeat- 

 ing the same date on all reprints, and by quoting it in our 

 bibliographies. That there need be no difficulty about this, 

 even in the case of the Yorkshire Geological Society, is proved 

 by the fact that Mr. Carter yielded to my pressure so far as to 

 have printed on page 3 of the wrapper of the last number of the 

 ' Proceedings ' issued by him, the words ' Published February 

 14th, 1907.' This was not ideal, since a careless binder or an 

 incompetent hbrarian could destroy the wrapper, but it was a 

 step in the right direction, and did so far serve the cause of 

 priority. If Dr. Dwerryhouse still ' fails to see ' how it did so, 

 perhaps he might look at Mr. C. D. Sherborn's ' Notes on 

 Bibhography, &c.' in the January number of ' The Naturahst.' 

 But, at the risk of excessive length, I have tried to make this 

 letter clear, and I hope all Editors and Publishers will under- 

 stand that it is not an expression of my private opinion alone, 

 but of that of eminent naturalists in all parts of the world, and 

 indeed of the large majority of scientific workers. 



Naturalist, 



