i8 4 NOTES AND COMMENTS [march 



of modern anatomists. Huxley, who is known to his fellow-country- 

 men for some other achievements, is here immortalised as guilty alike 

 of " Direct Pecilonymy " and of " Pecilonymy by Permutation." 

 Others, whose names are as yet concealed, are guilty of " Perissology," 

 of " Magnilogy, which is the same as Anatomic Esotery," of the use of 

 " Polychrestic terms," of indifference to the " Paronymic advantages of 

 Mononyms " ; nay, worst of all, of " attempting to check terminologic 

 progress by ridicule." Prom which and all other " verbifactive sins " 

 may we and our readers be delivered ! But to those who, blinded by 

 ignorance, refuse to accept forthwith Mr. Wilder's nomenclature, one 

 other argument may be addressed. Be it known, that it is they and 

 they alone who prevent the coming of that millennium when " every 

 child of ten shall have a somewhat extended personal acquaintance with 

 the gross anatomy of the mammalian brain." Those whom this argu- 

 ment fails to convince are beyond hope. 



Into the details of Professor Wilder's nomenclature we cannot 

 enter here ; no doubt we have said enough to induce our readers to 

 seek it at the fountain-head, but one point we cannot pass unnoticed. 

 It is proposed to avoid the use of proper names in terminology, save 

 where these are recommended by their peculiar euphony. Of such 

 " euphonious " names " Johnny M'Whorter " is given as an example. 

 Deep as is our sympathy with the author's aims, we cannot but feel 

 that there is something invidious in this mention of a single example. 

 Those of us who have a standard of euphony which is different, will 

 find some difficulty in deciding exactly what proper names are legiti- 

 mate ; in determining whether it is the affectionate modification of the 

 first name, the prefix of the second, or the fine full sound of its 

 penultimate syllable, which to the Professor's ear imparts the special 

 charm to the example. A list of suitable names would, we think, be a 

 valuable addition to the next paper. 



Early Life on Earth. 



Captain F. W. Hutton's presidential address to the Geological Section 

 of the Australasian Association for the Advancement of Science has at 

 last reached this country in its printed form. It deals with " Early 

 Life on Earth," and gives a short account of the oldest known fossils. 

 Eozoon is rejected from the organic world, while the limestone and 

 graphitic beds of the Grenville series of Canada do not appeal to 

 Captain Hutton as evidence for contemporary life ; they may, he 

 thinks, have been due to the decomposition of calcium carbides by hot 

 water. The radiolarian and sponge spicules found by C. Barrois and 

 L. Cayeux in the Archaean rocks of Brittany are regarded as the 

 earliest undoubted traces of life, but necessarily indicate the existence 

 of organised protoplasm at a far earlier period. 



