New Precepts of Zoological Nomenclature

Abstract

The naming of familiar animals was undoubtedly one of primitive man's early attempts at communication. As time passed and modern man came to recognize many kinds of animals, he sought a nomenclature that would permit worldwide communication regarding them. A step in this direction was the Systema Naturae of Linnaeus-itself an adumbration of a code of zoological nomenclature. Thereafter appeared the so-called Stricklandian code,1 published in 1843 by the British Association for the Advancement of Science (2); the Dall code, published in 1878 by the American Association for the Advance-