Nomenclature

“ Judicious nomenclature is of immense importance in the framework of science, and a want of care in this has probably done as much as anything to impede the course of rational investigation. There is nothing, perhaps, in the whole range of science more to be lamented than many—indeed, I might say all—parts of medical nomenclature. If our ignorance prevents us from giving a name to a thing which is descriptive of its nature, we might easily avoid applying such as are calculated to mislead. ”

“ CHAPTER VI.
1ENGLISH SURNAMES.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER. To review the sources of a people’s nomenclature is to review that people’s history. When we remember that there is nothing without a name, and that every name that is named, whether it be of a man, or man’s work, or man’s heritage of earth, came not by chance, or accident so called, but was given out of some nation’s spoken language to denote some characteristic that language expressed, we can readily imagine how important is the drift of each—what a record must each contain. ”

“ For all the thousands of words in scientific and technical nomenclature which, apart from their nationality, the scientific men of all countries have been inventing for centuries according to very uniform principles, as well as the likewise largely international expressions of "unofficial" nomenclature, form a possession of modern scientific civilisation of such magnitude, importance, and value, that it cannot on any account be sacrificed. ”

“ Such are the strange humours that pass over the hearts of men and communities. Such are the changes that the nomenclature of peoples, as well as of places and things, undergo through the more extraordinary convulsions which sometimes seize the body corporate of society. Truly it is a strange story this that our surnames tell us. ”

“ Before, however, we enter into the history of these, and with regard to England that is the purpose of this book, it will be well to take a brief survey of the actual state of human nomenclature in preceding times. Surnames, we must remember, were the simple result of necessity when population, hitherto isolated and small, became so increased as to necessitate further particularity than the merely personal one could supply. ”

“ So great is the general dislike to change in nomenclature that after the publication of such a paper one finds that some people reject the changes altogether, while others adopt them, using the fresh names as occasion offers, the natural result being a long period of confusion and inconvenience. ”

“ In other sciences the nomenclature is not at present constructed on any system, either because the species to be named are not numerous enough to require one (as in geometry, for example) , or because no one has yet suggested a suitable principle for such a system, as in mineralogy; in which the want of a scientifically constructed nomenclature is now the principal cause which retards the progress of the science. ”

“ CODE Part I: Principles. 1.The primary object of formal nomenclature in systematic biology is to secure stability, uniformity and convenience in the designation of plants and animals. 2.Botanical nomenclature is treated as beginning with the general application of binomial names of plants (Linnaeus' Species Plantarum, 1753) . 3.Priority of publication is a fundamental principle of botanical nomenclature. Two groups of the same category cannot bear the same name. ”

“ In the adoption of the names of rocks and groups—the nomenclature as now known—there was scarcely a dissenting voice, and the names as then adopted were published in the final reports, and have become the nomenclature of the science in America.
As the field-work of the survey approached completion, the question of publication became a matter of deep interest to every one connected with the work. ”

“ LOCAL SURNAMES. In well-nigh every country where personal nomenclature has assumed a sure and settled basis, that is, where a second or surname has become an hereditary possession in the family, we shall find that that portion of it which is of local origin bears by far the largest proportion to the whole. ”

“ The nomenclature I have followed is, except in some instances for reasons given, that of the London Horticultural Society’s Catalogue, a valuable work prepared by that patient and indefatigable pomologist, Mr. Robert Thompson. The advantage of this identity of nomenclature is evident, as it sets at rest that mass of confusion, which so long existed as to the correct names of fruits. In describing each variety, the approved name, that is the name which shall serve as a standard by which that variety shall in future be distinguished, is printed in Roman Capitals ”

“ In this our Author has been thought, and not, I conceive, without justice, to excel; at least in comparison of any thing in that way that has hitherto appeared. `Tis to him we owe such an arrangement of the elements of Jurisprudence, as wants little, perhaps, of being the best that a technical nomenclature will admit of. A technical nomenclature, so long as it is admitted to mark out and denominate the principal heads, stands an invincible obstacle to every other than a technical arrangement. ”

“ Any student of our family nomenclature must be struck by the fact that the number of foreign names now recognizable in England is out of all proportion to the immense number which must have been introduced at various periods of our history. Even the expert, who is often able to detect the foreign name in its apparently English garb, cannot rectify this disproportion for us. The number of names of which the present form can be traced back to a foreign origin is inconsiderable when compared with the much larger number assimilated and absorbed by the Anglo-Saxon. ”

“ The words Genus, Order, Class, as well as those applied to the most comprehensive division of all in the animal kingdom, the primary branches or types, were used indiscriminately, and often allowed to include under one name animals differing essentially in their structural character. It is only since it has been found that all these groups are susceptible of limitation, according to distinct categories of structure, that our nomenclature has assumed a more precise and definite significance. ”

“ An indispensable branch of nomenclature is Synonymy, 131which, briefly, is the chronological list of the several names under which species or genera may have been known. This diversity of names has originated in several ways,—from indolence, or ignorance, or excessive refinement. The views of systematists will differ in the collocation of creatures ”

“ The necessity for these rules of nomenclature arose from the great confusion that has existed through the many different botanical names for the same species or genera. Some species have had from 10 to 20 different names, and, worse still, different plants have often had the same name. For about 200,000 known species of plants there are not fewer than 700,000 recorded names. ”

“ Though we can not indicate the distinctive properties of the Kind, we may indicate its nearest natural affinities, by incorporating into its name the name of the proximate natural group of which it is one of the species. On this principle is founded the admirable binary nomenclature of botany and zoology. In this nomenclature the name of every species consists of the name of the genus, or natural group next above it, with a word added to distinguish the particular species. ”

“ In the hope of settling it by some system which should be as nearly as possible automatic and should leave the least possible to the inclination or choice of the individual worker, there was formulated what is called the rule of priority. The valid name of a genus or species is that name under which it was first designated, but with the conditions first that the name was published and accompanied by an indication, definition or description, and second that the author applied the principles of binary nomenclature. ”

“ There is a comforting fact, however, for the novice, that while scientific nomenclature has been and is constantly changing, the common names, that science also recognizes, remain practically unchanged. ”

“ But there is another class of surnames we may fitly introduce here, which, I doubt not, forms no small proportion in the aggregate mass of our nomenclature—that of sign-names. We in a cultivated age like that of the present fail, as we must, to realize the effect of these latter upon the current life of our forefathers. ”

“ A point at which they have laid themselves more open to criticism is, that for want of antiquarian research, they have adopted some changes of the commonly received nomenclature,which do not yet attain to the ultimate Q. E. I. of the very earliest scientific nomenclature. ”

“ Thirdly, as, besides the artificial classes which are marked out from neighbouring classes by definite properties to be arrived at by abstraction, there are classes, viz. kinds, distinguished severally by an unknown multitude of independent properties (and about which classes therefore many assertions will be made) , there must be a name for every kind. That is, besides a terminology, there must be a nomenclature, i.e. a collection of the names of all the lowest kinds, or infimæ species. The Linnæan arrangements of plants and animals, and the French of chemistry, are nomenclatures. ”

“ The roughest humour of those rough days is oftentimes found in these early records, and the surnames which, putting complimentary and objectionable and neutral together, belong to this day to this class, form still well-nigh the largest proportion of our national nomenclature. ”

“ The inconveniences arising from the want of a good Nomenclature were long felt in Botany, and are still felt in Mineralogy. The attempts to remedy them by Synonymies are very ineffective, for such comparisons of synonyms do not supply a systematic nomenclature; and such a one alone can enable us to state general truths respecting the objects of which the classificatory sciences treat. ”

“ After all, however, it is, perhaps, complexion which has occupied for itself the largest niche in our more general nomenclature. Nor is this unnatural. It is 444still that which, in describing people, we seize upon as the best means of recognition. Sobriquets of this kind were so numerous, indeed, that there was no term in the vocabulary of the day which could be used to denote the colour of the dress, the hair, or the face, which did not find itself a place among our surnames. ”

“ If the peculiar manufactures of such places at home as ‘Kendall’ and ‘Lindsey’ and ‘Wolsey’ have left in our own nomenclature the marks of their early renown, we should also expect such foreign cities as were more especially united to us by the ties of industry to leave a mark thereof upon our registers. ”

“ The use of abbreviations and signs is often a convenience and sometimes a temptation. It is a saving of time and labor which is entirely justifiable under certain conditions, one of which is that all such short cuts should be sufficiently conventional and familiar to be intelligible to any person likely to read the printed matter in which they occur. Scientific and technical signs and abbreviations are part of the nomenclature of the subject to which they belong and must be learned by students of it. ”

“ Every nomenclature dependent on artificial classifications is necessarily subject to fluctuations; and hardly any thing can counterbalance the evil of disturbing well-established names, which have once acquired a general circulation. ”

“ Synonymy and Priority.—Synonymy is the record of the names applied at different times to the same group or species. With characteristic pungency Dr. Coues defines synonymy as "a burden and a disgrace to science." It has been found that the only way to prevent utter confusion is to use for each genus or species the first name applied to it and no other. The first name, once properly given, is sacred because it is the right name. All other later names whatever their appropriateness are wrong names. In science, of necessity, a name is a name without any necessary signification. ”

“ The history of LOCAL NAMES is one of the most capricious and fortuitous in the history of man; the etymologist must not be implicitly trusted, for it is necessary to be acquainted with the history of a people as much as the history of languages, to be certain of local derivations. We have recently been cautioned by a sojourner in the most ancient of kingdoms,5 not too confidently to rely on etymology, or to assign too positively any reason for the origin of LOCAL NAMES. No etymologist could have accounted for the name of our nation had he not had recourse to our annals. ”

“ Kemble was the first to call attention to the fact that very many of the names of places in England, as disclosed by the forms in which these names appear in ancient charters, consist of a personal name in a patronymic form. Some of these names consist simply of a nominative plural in ingas, as Æscingas, the sons or descendants of Æsc, others of a genitive plural in inga, with ton, ham, &c., appended, as in Billingatun, the town of the Billings, i.e. sons or descendants of Billa. ”

“ The foregoing illustrations were examples of Anglicized foreign prefixes. When the prefixes are to genuine foreign names they require careful consideration and varying treatment according to their character. If "De" is part of a name undoubtedly French, it is not the entry word, but the [Pg 126] name which follows or precedes it. If a prefix embodies the definite article in it, as "Du," then that is the entry-word, whether the name be English or French, so also is the definite article of "de la", as shown in the de la Brète item below. ”

“ In a card catalogue the names should always be given in full; in printing, initials are often used to save room; but the saving is small, and the advantages of full names are so considerable that any cataloguer who is relieved from the necessity of the greatest possible compression ought to give them. For the more common forenames fullness can be combined with economy by the use of the colon abbreviations (C: = Charles, etc. See Appendix V.) Under subjects it is rare that two persons of even the same family name come together and initials are sufficient ”