364 NATURAL SCIENCE [December 



can all unite in praising the perseverance of our Sydney friends and 

 the bold conception of Commander Sturdee, and in congratulating 

 them on their truly remarkable success. 



The Babel of Teeminology 



" The Witness of Science to Linguistic Anarchy " is the startling 

 title of a sixty-four page pamphlet compiled by Lady Welby and 

 printed for private circulation. By collecting from different scien- 

 tific writings a number of passages in which technical terms are 

 used in different senses, or in which such varying use is criticised, 

 she aims at showing : first, that the language employed by scientific 

 authors lacks that very consistency and precision which we have a 

 right to expect ; secondly, that concerted action ought to be taken 

 with the view of securing a general consensus in usage. The 

 extracts, chiefly from Nature, Science, and Natural Science, are 

 sorted under the headings : General, Physics, Biology, and [Taxo- 

 nomic] Nomenclature. These quotations, she believes, to constitute 

 " evidence of an almost incredible state of things in the scientific 

 world." 



Incredible though it may appear to " a humble layman," as 

 Lady Welby terms herself, the situation is painfully familiar to 

 every worker in science ; and there must be many who agree with 

 us that it is like to go on to the end of the chapter, despite every 

 well-meant effort towards reform. For, what are the causes of this 

 lawlessness ? They are mainly two, and those two are very distinct 

 in kind. The first, in the words of a great master of language, is 

 " pure ignorance, madam ! " Setting aside the half-educated 

 dabblers in science, how many of us there are who are sometimes 

 impelled just a little out of our depth. Ne sutor ultra crepidam, is 

 admirable advice more easily given than followed. This cause is 

 one for which remedies are conceivable. We might, for instance, 

 make publication a penal offence, only permissible to those who 

 had passed the severest examination, and we might burn in the 

 market-place all writings unlicensed by an international censorship 

 which should have absolute control over every new term proposed. 

 We do not say that these remedies are practicable, and we fancy 

 that even Lady Welby will not admit them to be desirable ; but 

 the facts of history permit us to imagine them. The second cause 

 is one that lies at the heart of the whole matter, and must persist 

 so long as scientific investigation continues ; it is, in fact, the 

 advance of science itself, and for it the only conceivable cure is 

 absolute stagnation, which is no cure at all. The widening of 

 knowledge renders it impossible for a term or a name to have 

 precisely the same connotation to-day as it had twenty years ago. 

 A new species may involve the rediagnosis of its genus ; a fresh 



