98 Prof. Newton on the Assignation 
nseus, and with him only at a late period of his life, begins 
the binomial* method of nomenclature which we employ ; and 
assuredly I have no desire to set aside, or even to impugn, that 
system of terminology which naturalists have for more than 
a century found so useful and have so generally adopted. But 
it must not be forgotten that great men lived before Linneeus; 
and every one who wishes to interpret him must study the 
works by which he was so much guided. I have heard it 
rumoured that the principle I am now advocating is of a 
most revolutionary tendency, and that its effect will be 
to upset the foundations of the so-styled science 99 of no¬ 
menclature. I would therefore beg a little space to see if this 
be so or not. I have tried to find how that principle, if ac¬ 
cepted, would work; and here is the result. 
According to this view, I take it that the type species of 
* It surprises me to find that there are still some who write and speak 
of the “binominal” method of nomenclature. A “binomial” method 
signifies a method involving the use of two terms —that is, in biological 
nomenclature, a generic and a specific term which, together, make up 
the name of the object. A “ binominal ” method, as almost any dic¬ 
tionary would tell us, would mean a method in which each object should 
have two names. Unfortunately far too many species are in the strict sense 
“binominal,” or even “multinominalj” for there are comparatively few 
which have not a synonym, or synonyms, as well as a name. The hero 
who was indifferently known as Ascanius or lulus, the river called by 
some Eridanus and by others Padus, may be each properly spoken of as 
being “ binominis ,” i.e. “binominalj” but that appellation could not be 
applied to Numa Pompilius or iEgos Potamos. Consider, too, the awk¬ 
wardness of the work “ binominal ” in the sense that some would use it. 
We should have a “ binominal ” name—a name, that is, having two names! 
Now a “ binomial name ” is an expression grammatically and logically 
correct, a name composed of two terms, just such a name as botanists and 
zoologists use for the creatures they study and speak of. But then it may 
be objected that “binomial” is a hybrid word, and, accordingly, not to 
be used by any writer who cares for the purity of his style. Such an ob¬ 
jector, if he exists, ought in consistency to eschew such words as “ nomen¬ 
clature ” and “ terminology,” and certainly ought not to use such a bar¬ 
barism as “ polynominalism ” ! Sufficient to say that nomos had been 
engrafted in Pliny’s time on the Latin tongue to render its composition 
with bi- classical or semiclassical; but even if this were not the case, who 
could justly object to a word which has been in universal use since the 
greatest of mathematicians bestowed it on the Binomial Theorem ? 
