December 1899] CORRESPONDENCE 463 



One might just as well say that the safest way to think of bicycle-riding is 

 as a habit of body expressing a habit of mind, though the cerebration is 

 unconscious — in the case of good riders — just as it is with accomplished 

 speakers in language. 



But wherein comes the element of safety pointed out by Mr. Wyld 1 I 

 should prefer to say that Mr. Wyld's way of thinking of language is a very 

 vague one, and vagueness of thought is not an element of safety in scientific 

 inquiry. 



It seems to me far safer for writers on the subject never to lose sight of the 

 fact that language (speech) is a human invention, and has nothing whatever to 

 do with biological analogy or biological phenomena. 



Then we shall probably hear a great deal less of the " life " and " growth " of 

 language, its " evolution," its " branches," its " offshoots "; that it is an " organ- 

 ism," that it has "roots," and that there are " mother-languages " and " sister- 

 languages " ; and all the rest of the jargon with which philologists becloud 

 their subject. 



Philologists will retort that these terms are merely metaphorical : but these 

 metaphors mislead, and have misled many who read books on philology to get 

 a knowledge of what language is. J. I. Hazeland. 



Kobe Club, Kobe, Japan, 

 Sept. 6, 1899. 



NEW MEXICO BIOL. STATION. 



Your note on p. 157 about the N. M. Biol. Station is incorrect. 

 The Biol. Station was conducted by myself and Miss Wilmatte Porter, and 

 concerned itself not at all with geology or anthropology. The students were 

 mostly public school teachers, and occupied themselves with the biology of 

 flowers, particularly the structure of flowers as related to insect visitors. Some 

 Avork was also done on the mouth-parts of bees, and a few other things. It 

 seemed to me Ave had as much success as Ave deserved, and the outlook for the 

 future is encouraging. It is regretted that there is no millionaire available to 

 endoAv the institution ; but the country is full of neAV and interesting things, 

 and is itself a laboratory better endoAved than that of many a wealthy college, 

 so that the naturalist avIio cannot find profitable occupation must be stupid 

 indeed. The station differs from most others in concerning itself with terrestrial 

 life (not fresliAvater, or marine), Avhich is especially Avorth the attention of the 

 student in this region, OAving to the desert conditions, resulting in such interest- 

 ing adaptations. 



Your notes on Dr. Judd's paper (p. 89) are interesting. Yesterday I saAv 

 a little spider Avhich beautifully mimicked an ant of the genus Formica. Now 

 you might say, Avhat for 1 The ant is a fairly soft, harmless thing, apparently 

 as good meat as the spider. But the great enemy of spiders is a certain Avasp, 

 Avhich stores up spiders for its young. Now the wasp doesn't ivant ants, doesn't 

 use that kind of meat. So the spider taken for an ant will escape, though the 

 ant is harmless. This couldn't be seen on general principles, one has to know 

 about the customs of the Avasp. Theo. D. A. Cockerell. 



Mesilla Park, New Mexico, U.S.A. 



