.893.] 93 
OXTOCENY 
[Hyatt. 
Messrs. Buckmaii and Bath?r have proposed to substitute a 
set of improved terms for those previously used b}^ myself^ ; tliey 
give the following table : — 
OxTOGKXv, Table (I). 
Hyatt 18S8. Burkman and Bather 1S92. 
(1) Embi-yologic (1) Embryonic (1) Embryniiic 
(2) Naepionic (2) Brephic (2) Infantile or larval 
(3) Nealogic (3) Neanic (3) Adolescent 
(4) Ephebolic (4) Ephebic (4) Adult or mature 
(5) Geratolojiic (5) Gerontic (5) Senile 
(a) Clinologic (a) Catabatic («) Declining 
(b) Nostologic (h) Hypostrophic (b) Atavic 
It would be a waste of tiuie, even if I felt so disposed, to 
attempt to defend the nomeiu-lature of the fii-st eolumn in this 
table. The use of terminations derived from Xd^os in this way is 
not defensible and was due to the careless habits of the earlier 
history of terms still extant in the use of "morphological" instead 
of "morphic" and in the obligatory use of "physiological" and 
"geological," etc. The nomenclature of 1888 is inadequate not 
only on account of etymological faults, which do not, however, 
trouble me so much as they do those who regard linguistic purity 
with higher respect, but because it is insufficient and nnsymmet- 
rical. 
This last object applies with equal force to some of the terms 
proposed by Buckman and Bather. These gentlemen were ham- 
pered hj the desire to perpetuate the older terms now in use in 
this country and for which I am alone unluckily responsible. 
This also is my own condition, and although I would willingly 
now suggest an entirely new method, I find after having framed 
and tested a new one, that it is better not to interfere any farther 
than is absolutely necessar^^ with the nomenclature of 1888. 
1 See Values iu classification of the stages of groAvth and decline, with propositions 
fin- a new nomenclature, Amer. nat., v. 22, p. 8"-2-884, 1888, and Genesis of the 
Arietidae, Smithsonian contributions to knowledge, v. 26, 1889; also, Mem. mus. 
comp. zool., V. 16, 1889. 
