November 9, 191 1] 



NATURE 



41 



student's armoury. Such, for example, are the two 

 chapters on the classification of compounds. 



The treatment throughout is simple and lucid, and 

 there is nothing that is likely to puzzle or mystify 

 a reader. The contents will give him a good, useful 

 store of information relating to the theoretical side 

 of chemistry, though it will be meagre on the topics 

 which have come to the front during the last twenty 

 jears, and to which, in a mere revision, it has scarcely 

 been possible to do justice. In some cases the faults 

 pass beyond those of omission, as in the confusion 

 between dissociation and hydrolysis on p. 172, the 

 account of "palladium hydride" on p. 171 and the 

 definition of cryohydrates on p. 255. A. S. 



Marvels of the Universe. A Popular Work on the 



Marvels of the Heavens, the Earth, Plant Life, 



Animal Life, the Mighty Deep. By various authors. 



In about twenty- four fortnightly parts. Part i., pp. 



48. Part ii., pp. 48. (London,: Hutchinson and 



Co., n.d.) Price 7^".' 'net each part. 

 Ok the attractiveness of this serial publication it would 

 be diflficult to write too highly. Each part contains 

 four full-page illustrations in colour, remarlcable alike 

 for their beauty and accuracy, and a profusion of 

 excellent pictures in black and white, most of which 

 are from photographs. 



The contributors are well-qualified authorities on 

 the subjects they have undertaken, and what thev 

 "have written is appropriate to the work. The selection 

 of topics has been guided entirely by what is likely 

 to arrest the attention of the non-scientific general 

 reader, with the result that instead of an orderlv 

 introduction to science, we have a series of short, 

 bright views of some of the wonders of nature, 

 arranged in no logical sequence, but partaking of the 

 character of a scientific scrap-book, using the term to 



press disjunctiveness rather than depreciation. 



I'nrelated as the articles are, they may serve a 

 very useful purpose and succeed in attracting 

 readers to the more serious study of some science in 

 which they will be led themselves to observe and 

 record what is happening in the world around them, 

 as well as to take an interest in the explorations of 

 others. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



The Scientific Misappropriation of Scientific Terms. 



While fully sympathising with Prof. Gregory in his 

 ^uiidemnation of the scientific misappropriation of popular 

 terms, and, indeed, objecting to the scientific appropria- 

 tion of such terms where it would be better to employ a 

 universally intelligible technical language, still, it seems 

 to^ me that even more deserving of condemnation is the 

 misappropriation by one group of scientific workers of the 

 scientific terms used by another group. This procedure 

 IS the more objectionable when the two groups of workers 

 are in adjoining fields. It does not greatly hurt anyone 

 that an astronomer should mean by an " asteroid " some- 

 thing quite different from that which a zoologist means ; 

 but it does matter when one biologist uses a term in a 

 •different sense from another biologist. 



Of late years some of us have felt driven to protest 

 against Prof. II. de Vries's use of the term " mutation " 

 in a sense differing in an apparently trivial, yet philo- 

 sophically important, way from the use of the term by its 

 •original inventor — the palneontologist Waagcn. Now we 

 find the followers of Prof, de Vries, notably Prof. 

 Johanssen, robbing the systematic biologists of their term 



genotype." First proposed by Prof. C. Schuchert in 



XO. 2193, VOL. 88] 



1897, this term has come into very general use to denote 

 the type-species of a genus. There has been in the past 

 so much confusion between the different senses of the 

 word " type," and this confusion has given rise to so 

 much regrettable confusion of thought, that this latest 

 malappropriation should only need pointing out to be at 

 once stopped. Unfortunately, this simple action has not 

 had the desired effect, and therefore I am impelled to make 

 a protest in your widely read pages. F. A. Bather. 



Wimbledon, November 2. 



The Electro-vegetometer. 



Experiments with electricity as a stimulant to plant 

 growth were made with alleged success 165 years ago, 

 when Mr. Maimbray, of Edinburgh, electrified two 

 myrtles throughout October, 1746, for several hours a day, 

 with the consequence that next summer they blossomed 

 sooner than their neighbours (Priestley's " History of 

 Electricity," part viii., sec. 4). 



Shortly after this the Abb6 NoUet made similar experi- 

 ments with electrified seeds in pots, and claimed equally 

 successful results. M. Achard, of Berlin, and other in- 

 dependent observers confirmed the experiments ; and the 

 beneficial effect of electrification on plant life was almost 

 an accepted discovery when a Dr. Ingenhousz, after 

 exhaustive experiments, completely refuted all the con- 

 clusions hitherto arrived at, and proved that the only effect 

 of electrification was to hinder plant life ! 



Dr. Carmoy and the Abb6 Ormoy later resumed the 

 investigation, and testified to favourable results. 



Next the Abb6 Berthelon reconciled these divergent con- 

 clusions by announcing that electricity in a moderate 

 application was beneficial, but could be applied in excess 

 with harmful results ; and he advocated as the safest 

 method the utilisation of atmospheric electricity, which he 

 said rarely rose to a strength injurious to the most delicate 

 plant. He published a suggestion, recently credited by 

 Sir William Ramsay as a new and ingenious theory of 

 Sir Oliver Lodge's, that the pointed leaves of plants acted 

 as conductors of atmospheric electricity, and were an 

 important factor in the prolific vegetation of forests. 



The Abb6 Berthelon, who utilised both natural and 

 artificial electrification, devised what he called the " electro- 

 vegetometer," which consisted of an insulated series of 

 sharp iron points projecting vertically upwards at a mast- 

 head and connected by chains with similar iron points 

 pointing downwards just over the plants to be experimented 

 on. He states that " the happiest effects were perceived, 

 viz. different plants, herbs, and fruits in greater forward- 

 ness than usual, more multiplied, and of better quality." 



Until lately all these alleged successes were sup- 

 posed to have been imaginary ; and the question is, Will 

 the recent experiments prove that there was more in the 

 earlier ones than has been supposed, or will the present 

 trials turn out to be, with their predecessors, further 

 examples of myths of science, like the Blondlot rays and 

 Mrs. Somerville's supposed discovery of a magnetising 

 power in solar light? Charles E. Beniiam. 



Colchester, November 5. 



November Meteor-showers. 



The early part of November does not present anything 

 very noteworthy as regards meteoric phenomena, which 

 may be said to begin about November 9, the following 

 being the principal meteor-showers of the month : — 



Epoch November 9, 6h. (G.M.T.), first order of magni- 

 tude. Principal maximum, November 11, oh. 30m.; 

 secondary maxima, November 9, iih. 50m., and 

 November 10, loh. 40m. 



Epoch November 10, i^h. 30m., twenty-second order of 

 magnitude. Principal maximum, November 11, iih. 30m.; 

 secondary maxima, November 11, i9h. 2oni.. and 

 November 12, 7h. 40m. 



Epoch November 13, i6h., thirtieth order of magnitude. 

 Principal maximum, November 14, 22h. 50m. : secondary 

 maxima, November 15, qh. 30m., and November 16, 

 i3h. 15m. and i7h. 3orru 



Epoch November 16, loh., thirteenth order of magnitude. 

 Principal maximum, November 15, aih. lom. ; secondary 

 maximum, November 15, 7h. T5m. 



