18 
NOMENCLATURE AND SYNONA’MY. 
s^Diibol set upon objects to distinguisli tlieni from otliers, ami is not 
a defiiiitiou of their characters. Many scientists, however, owing to 
the difficulty of finding appropriate and characteristic names which 
express some quality pecnliar to the species, not slurred in a greater 
or lesser degree by otliers in the same genus, decidedly prefer and 
advocate names which are only arbitrarily connected with the 
organism and denote or inqily no character or peculiarity of the 
object. It is, however, very desirable that an uniform and conveir- 
tional code of names should be used to indicate the same mode 
of variation in the different species ; thus (lUxi could be used to 
designate the pure white or albine shells, the term albhla being 
reserved for the whitish forms, when it is considered necessary to 
give them a special designation ; rufa could be employed for the 
rufous specimens, luqnitica for the liver-coloured ones, roM-a for the 
pink ones, etc., etc. Variations of form, sculpture, size, thickness, 
markings, etc., could be similarly indicated by appropriate, ex- 
pressive, and euphonious terms, the great aim being to ensure as far 
as practicable the application of the same term to the same character 
of variation, in every species. 
LITERATURE. 
Uei)ort of a Coininittee a])pointe(l “ to consider the rules hy wliicli the 
Nomenclature of Zoology may he estahlished on a uniform and j)er- 
uiaueut basis.” — IJejiort of the Twelfth Meeting of the IJritish Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, 1842, ))p. 105 — 121. 
Report of a Committee “ appointed to report on the changes which they 
may consider desirable to make, if any, in the Rules of Zoological 
Nomenclature, drawn up by Mr. H. E. Stidckland, at the instance of 
the Riitish Association, at their Meeting in Manchester in 1842.” — 
Report of the Thirty-Fifth Meeting of the Rritish Association for the 
Advancement of Science, 1865, pp. 25 — 42. 
Dali, W. H. — Nomenclature in Zoology and Botany. —A Report to the 
American Association for the Advancement of Science at the Nashville 
Meeting, August 31, 1877. — Salem, Dec. 1877. 
Tryon, G. W., jr. — Structural anil Systematic t'onchology, 1882. 
Regies de la Nomenclature des ctres organises adoptees par le Congrcs 
International de Zoologie. — Zoologischer Anzeiger, No. 3.31 ,Mch. 31 , 1890. 
Regies de la Nomenclature adoptees jiar let'ongrcs Zoologiipie de Moscou. 
— Zoologischer Anzeiger, No. 406, Nov. 28, 1892. 
Synonymy. 
From the wide distribution of many .species, tlie great number of 
scientific publications in many languages, and tlie earnest pursuit of 
scientific study by a constantly increasing number of students, it 
almost necessarily follows that many species have names bestowed 
upon them by more than one person, either from ignorance of each 
