86 NOTES AND COMMENTS [august 



should write accordingly. There is a certain tendency to brevity, born 

 either of natural slothfulness or of a more laudable thrift, but in all 

 cases to be kept under restraint. This tendency is very noticeable 

 when an author begins to quote from others. Nowadays mere shame 

 prevents one from omitting the bibliographic reference altogether ; but, 

 oh ! how easy it is to keep it short and to render it just so unintelli- 

 gible that the reader will never bother to verify it ! With what 

 apparent sincerity, what underlying artfulness, we allude to " a 

 ridiculous statement by M. Chose (C.K. CIX. '87, p. 20)" or to "the 

 great discovery by A. M'Grabham (P.E.S.E., V. p. 25 1) "! These cabal- 

 istic letters are in themselves enough to give an air of supreme authority 

 to our estimate. A few such references constitute an impregnable line 

 of fortifications. 



A further instance of the obscurity begotten of brevity is furnished 

 by that peculiar convention which forbids the zoologist and botanist 

 to write a fellow-worker's name in full when quoting him as authority 

 for a generic or specific name. To write " De Candolle " instead of 

 " DC," " Linnpeus " instead of " L." or " Danielssen and Koren " instead 

 of " D. & K." would stigmatise one's work as that of a mere beginner, 

 unworthy of serious consideration. Naturally the constant repetition 

 of the same name or names many times on every page of a systematic 

 work would be intolerable, and if it really be absolutely necessary to 

 quote the authority for every specific name each time it is used, then 

 some fairly intelligible abbreviation is forced upon one. We, however, 

 have often expressed our opinion that such repetition is an idle 

 absurdity. But, just in those cases where the citation of an author's 

 name would be useful, there the customary abbreviation is apt to 

 deprive it of any value. The visitor to a museum sees a label " Wood 

 of Abies nobilis Ldl." ; the reader of a natural history book finds under 

 a figure " Shell of Valuta nivosa Lam." What, beyond mere bewilder- 

 ment, can these symbols convey to his mind ? And in these places 

 brevity is not needed, for there is nearly always plenty of space to spare 

 in a label or a legend. Here are some contractions taken at random 

 from a text-book of zoology ; we should like to know how many pro- 

 fessed zoologists, to say nothing of university students, can say straight 

 off what they mean :— M. & W., W. & M., Fbs., Trie, Stp., Mas. & 

 Ale, Wr., M. & T., Gm., M. V. K. To attempt to regularise these 

 contractions, as the Germans have done, by the publication of a list of 

 authors' names, is only to emphasize the evil. A new edition of such 

 a list would be needed each year, and even if it were rigidly adhered 

 to by systematists, one could not expect every field-botanist or every 

 lover of birds to keep a copy perpetually at his elbow. No ! let us 

 give up this attempt to put natural science on a par with the missing 

 word competition. Do what we may, the Annals and Magazine of 

 Natural History will never attain the popularity of Answers or 

 Pearsons Weekly. 



