"The Committee does not wish by this expression of opinion to encourage the insertion of authors' names in general writing, except when they are needed to avoid ambiguity. Mr. Moulton's devices are best suited for such systematic lists as those in which he has employed them."
The type to be used is of some importance. In criticism of my method it has been suggested that capitals and small capitals would be better than small capitals and italies, because italics are so generally used to denote a synonym. The disadvantage of this is that capitals are so often required in systematic lists for subfamily names that it is desirable to reserve a less prominent type for the genus and species when written together in this way. Small capitals or clarendon would appear the most suitable for the genus and species with italics for the subspecies.
The inclusion of authors' names undoubtedly has a cumbersome effect and should only be employed in systematic lists or detailed monographs. In other works it is reasonable to omit them altogether; in fact for general purposes it should often suffice to give only the specific name and omit the subspecific name unless there is any point in drawing attention to the subspecific distinction of the particular form under discussion.
The usual method of abbreviation in writing Latin names for well-known genera and species, or for genera which have been discussed already in any particular paper, is to give the initial letter of the genus instead of the name in full; thus Elephas maximus, becomes E. maximus. This system can be extended with advantage in the case of subspecies: thus, in discussing the subspecies of the Asiatic Elephant. reference would be made to the Sumatran forn as E. m. sumatranus. In systematic lista, according to the method introduced by me and approved for such purposes by the British Association Committee on Zoological Bibliography and Publication, this would read: Elephas maximus Linn. sumatranus Temm., but for general purposes the abbreviated form as written above is regarded as more suitable.
