ON ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE. 
9 
a statement of the bearing of the responses to the circular upon 
each rule is included in the discussion following the rule. There 
are also some comments for which the writer is responsible. 
A serious mistake appears to have been committed at the outset 
by divorcing Zoological from Botanical nomenclature, as was done 
by the committee of the British Association. The signal success 
which has attended the efforts of botanists to unify their nomen- 
clature, when compared with the confusion reigning in some de- 
partments of zoology, is sufficient proof of this. Your Reporter, 
therefore, has endeavored to combine both in a symmetrical man- 
ner in one general whole. The principles and almost all the de- 
tails are essentially identical in both. In performing this labor 
great dependence has been placed on the admirable memoir of De 
Candolle, and the writer is indebted to Dr. Asa Gray for kind sug- 
gestions in regard to doubtful points. 
The rules and examples for the proper construction of com- 
pounds and derivatives from classical roots, for properly Latinizing 
vernacular terms, and the table of equivalent letters in Greek and 
Latin, have been amplified beyond the extent previously attempted 
by any writer on nomenclature, and also submitted for criticism to 
a competent professor of languages to insure accuracy. It is be- 
lieved that this feature will prove useful to those naturalists not 
especially familiar with the classical languages. 
While it has seemed necessary to criticise, in one or two mat- 
ters of detail, the rules put forward by the two committees of the 
British Association, yet the wisdom and advisability of their re- 
commendations in general must be fully conceded. 
While the forms of expression, used by authors cited, have been 
frequently somewhat modified in translation or for harmony of 
diction, great care has been taken not in any way to modify the 
opinions expressed by each writer. For the Reporter’s comments 
he is of course solely responsible. The few suggestions which he 
has ventured to make are open to free criticism ; from which and 
from a study of the broad principles underlying' the whole subject, 
a more satisfactory understanding on the matters in controversy 
can hardly fail to come about. 
It will be readily understood that the labor involved in the prep- 
aration of this paper has not been slight, yet it seemed that in no 
other way could the matters concerned be brought before those 
interested in a satisfactory and impartial manner. 
