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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



an actual case. Last year two natural- 

 ists presented to the French Academy 

 of Sciences an account of their investi- 

 gations into the perivisceral fluid of 

 Phymosoma. The mention of perivis- 

 ceral fluid indicates that Phymosoma is 

 an animal and that it possesses viscera; 

 also that it is not a fossil. But neither 

 the title nor the paper itself gives any 

 further hint as to the zoological position 

 of the creature. We must, therefore, 

 have recourse to some work of reference, 

 such as Scudder's 'Nomenclator,' and 

 here we find Phymosoma given as the 

 name of a sea-urchin, better known as 

 Cyphosoma. This may be the reason 

 why the paper in question has been in- 

 dexed in a well-known bibliography un- 

 der the head of Echinoderms. But on 

 inquiring further into the matter we 

 find, first, that the sea-urchin Phymo- 

 noma is only known as a fossil, or if 

 ft does occur in the recent state, it is 

 by no means so common as readily to 

 afford material for biological investiga- 

 tion; secondly, that the phenomena ob- 

 served are not such as we have hitherto 

 been taught to associate with the Echi- 

 noidea. These considerations, while not 

 excluding the possibility that the Phy- 

 mosoma of the paper is a sea-urchin, 

 arouse our suspicion. But what is to 

 be done? We ransack the works of ref- 

 erence in a great library, we appeal to 

 our zoological friends, specialists in 

 various branches, professors, bibliog- 

 raphers. In vain. The resources of 

 civilization appear exhausted, and we 

 'Why on earth don't you 

 write to the authors?' says some su- 

 perior practical person. My dear sir, are 

 you not aware that the address of a 

 scientific writer is never affixed to his 

 publications, that if he is a Frenchman 

 with a common name his initials are 

 invariably replaced by M., and that, 

 with all respect to Messrs. Cassino, 

 Friedlander and other benefactors of 

 scientific humanity, it is still as difficult 

 to hunt down a budding author as to 



solve any other problem of scientific* 

 nomenclature? Before risking a letter 

 that, even should it arrive, may elicit 

 no reply, it occurs to us that the au- 

 thors, being French, are likely to follow 

 the names used by Prof. Edmond 

 Perrier in his large 'Traite de zoologie.' 

 Unfortunately this work, since it is still 

 in progress, has as yet no index. How- 

 ever, by dint of wading through the 

 probable groups of animals, we are at 

 last rewarded by finding Phymosoma 

 among the Gephyreans. No doubt a 

 specialist on that small section of the 

 worms will think all this fuss highly 

 absurd, for the name Phymosoma is 

 naturally quite familiar to him. So 

 much the worse, since no Gephyrean has 

 a right to it. True it is that A. de 

 Quatrefages, in 1865, obscurely printed 

 the name Phymosomum (not Phymo- 

 soma), as applicable to a subgenus of 

 the Gephyrean Sipunculus; but the 

 name Phymosoma was proposed for the 

 sea-urchin by d'Archiac and Haime, in 

 1853. If both names be objected to on the 

 score of etymology, and the more correct 

 form Phymatosoma be suggested, con- 

 fusion is certain to arise with a name 

 given to a beetle in 1831 by Laporte and 

 Brull6, viz., Phymatisoma, which is, in 

 fact, though erroneously, frequently 

 written Phymatosoma. At every turn, 

 then, there is risk of that very confu- 

 sion which it is the object of scientific 

 nomenclature to eliminate. 



Now it is distinctly to be understood 

 that this narration has not exaggerated 

 the facts one jot, and it is clear that 

 the experience may have been shared 

 by many others. All this loss of time, 

 vexation of spirit and promulgation of 

 actual error might have been spared by 

 the insertion of the single word 

 'Gephyreen' in the title, or, at least, by 

 some intimation in the paper itself. 

 Justly then do we stigmatize heedless- 

 ness in such matters as an agent in th* 

 retardation of science. 



An Editor. 



