Fw: More code stuff

Ron Gatrelle rgatrelle at home.com
Sat Oct 28 00:18:46 EDT 2000


----- Original Message -----
From: "Ron Gatrelle" <rgatrelle at home.com>
To: "Leps-l" <Leps-l at lists.yale.edu>
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2000 7:44 PM
Subject: More code stuff


> From Ron (a hardened taxonomist)
>     To some this is an exercise in futility. To others it is seen as
> fruitful. This is why e-mail comes unopened. If you want you click -- if
you
> no want you no click.
> I see this as fruitful as good thought and ideas are being exchanged.
>
> Anne Kilmer jposted some very good thoughts today. A tiny part is this.
> We have, however, a dunderheaded rule for scientific names, which we are
> apparently attempting to extend to "common" names; that the first name
> assigned to an organism is its name until Hell freezes over.  (I'm still
> bitter about the loss of the brontosaurus.) So the scientific name of
> Gillett's checkerspot has to be spelled as the first guy did it, whether
it
> will please Gillett or not. And late rules don't count. Or perhaps they
> do....
>
> Now Ron
> First, Anne, I am in pain over brontosaurus also. The rules of Zoological
> nomenclature are not rules for rules' sake. They are to insure that all
> scientists with all of our differing language and culture -- speak the
same
> thing AND operate in the same way, yes, till Hell freezes over. This year
I
> published a scientific name *insularus* (masculine genderization). Dr.
> Rawlins of the Carnegie Museum called this spelling into question saying
it
> should have been spelled *insularis* (feminine). Even though I am the
author
> (and by the code will always be the author regardless of the spelling)
this
> name's spelling  must be changed if I spelled it contrary to the rules of
> the code.
>
> The Code not only has rules it has penalties. Example. I have often said
> that the ten commandments (rules) are not ten suggestion. A rule without a
> penalty is only a suggestion. Common names are only suggestions. Which is
> why they are also called popular names. Ten thousand, or one, year from
now
> when X is no longer in vogue, we will just get another common name (e.g.
> Killette's wife's checkerspot). The Code was created to eliminate  vogue,
> common, vernacular, etc. as much as humanly possible, and install a system
> of science.
>
> So some technical stuff. The 2000 code in section 31.1.2 states: A
> species-group name, if a noun in the genitive case formed directly from a
> modern personal name, _is to be_ formed by adding to the stem of that
> name -i if the personal name is that of a man, -orum if of men or of man
> (men) and woman (women) together; -ae if of a woman, and arum if of women;
> the stem of such a name is determined by the action of the original author
> when forming the genitive."  This is a rule not a recommendation. *is to
be*
> means one i not two.
>
>


 
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