LATIN NOMENCLATURE

Ashburton Guardian, Volume VII, Issue 2159, 27 June 1889, Page 3

LATIN NOMENCLATURE

At * reoent meeting of the Wellington Philosophical Society, the ohalrmaD, In •ddreMlng the otbor aolentifio fossils present orttlalsed the changing of the name of the kiwi of the North Island from Apteryx MantelU to Apteryz Buileslj and expressed the opinion tbat the change was altogether unwarranted . Vary likely it Is unwarranted (saya a contemporary), but If tbe innooeut kiwi mast be Apteryx, 999 people oat of 1000 sou't aero whether It Is Apteryx MantelU or Apteryx Bullerl. Neither Mantell nor Boiler discovered the klwf, and the Philosophical Sooiety, who seem to be dtsirous of handing their names down to future generations by tacking Latinised forms of them to those of animals, wbioh will be known when tho little lights of the sooiety are gone a»ur, have the aanotloo of nobody — not even ♦he kiwi — for their assumption. Bat wheD, too, will soientifio men dispense with the solemn jirgon of Latin names and tetms, and by adopting Ergliih throw down more than half the barriers to tbe learning of tbe idenoes now interposed between the mao.es and knowledge? We oould have a descriptive nomenclature of natural history without any MantelU or Bulled, Ihe Latin language is no longer tbe general medium for the international exchange of ideas that it ot| was, and the knowledge of modem languages possessed by scientists would enable them to communicate their Ideas tb each other without the oambrons names now given to thiogs bY rational translations into eaoh other's languages. If knowledge ia worth anything It is worthy of tho widest dlffailoo, end thero U . ■•••■. ». «•

nothing whioh would . tend to .bring about that result so muoh as the 00m plete and utter overthrow of the Latin nomenclature, and the substitution of English In Its stead, If onr tongue were the medium of communication, for only a small seotion of the homan r»on, we mlgh be willing to remain to oome extent nnder the dominion of a dead language, but the British language ie almost üblqui'cu*, is going to be tbe apeeoh of the great m- j rity In the future, and we may ihorefjre be excused the assumption of making English the language of science. Any way, the kiwi 8 o be oondnleil wl:h In is misfortunes. Ap oryx is enough to be*e without having to be hondlaapped with Mantelli or Bnlleri It <s easy to see now how our oelloate indigenous birds are being crushed and I annihilated.