428 



NATURE 



[March 5. 1896 



/.oology. Nor can names already proposed as subgeneric be 

 employed also as generic names in another sense. 



(25) When several generic names are proposed for a genus at 

 nearly the same date, so that their priority cannot be settled, 

 the name for which a type-species is given is to be preferred. 

 In all uncertain cases the decision of the author who first 

 arranges the synonymy is to be followed. 



(26) When a genus is separated into several genera the old 

 name must be retained for the type-species. If this cannot be 

 positively ascertained, the author who splits up the genus must 

 select one of the species originally in the genus as the type. 

 When a subgenus is raised to generic rank the subgeneric name 

 becomes the generic name. 



E, Rules for the Names of the Higher Systematic 

 Groups. 



(27) Names for higher systematic groups of animals must 

 have a plural termination. 



(28) Names of families and subfamilies must henceforth be 

 taken from the name of one of the genera belonging to the 

 group, and formed from the stem of that name, with the 

 addition of -idee (plural of -ides [Gr. -e<5»js], masc.) for the 

 families and -ince (fem.) for the subfamilies. 



Mr. Sclater pointed out the principal points in which these 

 rules conflict with the Stricklandian Code commonly used in 

 this country. These were three in number, namely : — 



(i) The German Rules (Sect, i) disclaimed any relation to 

 botany, so that, according to them, the same generic names 

 might be used in zoology and botany. This was contrary to the 

 Stricklandian Code (Sect. lo). 



(2) Under Sect. 5 of the German Rules the same term was to 

 be used for the generic and specific name of a species, if these 

 names had priority. This was contrary to the Stricklandian 

 Code (Sect. 13). 



(3) The German Rules (Sect. 7) adopted the tenth edition of 

 the " Systema Natura; " (1758) as the starting-point of zoo- 

 logical nomenclature, whereas the Stricklandian Code (Sect. 2) 

 adopted the twelfth (1766). 



After a few remarks from the President (Sir W. H. Flower), 

 Mr. Hartert spoke in favour of the modifications proposed in 

 the German Rules. The debate was continued by Prof. Lan- 

 kester, Mr. H. J. Elwes, Dr. D. Sharp, Mr. Blanford, Dr. 

 H. O. P'orbes, and others, but no final resolution was adopted. 



SCIENCE IN THE MAGAZINES. 



T' 



'IIE eleventh instalment of Mr. Herbert Spencer's admirable 

 series of papers on " Professional Institutions" appears in 

 the Contemporary, the profession of which he traces the develop- 

 ment this month being that of the painter. Mr. Spencer does 

 not concern himself with the rude drawings made by prehistoric 

 man, but deals rather with the development of pictorial art 

 from the point at which the early civilised stage is connected 

 with the uncivilised, illustrating his arguments by reference to 

 the remains and records of historic peoples. The first step in 

 the development appears to have been the painting of the image 

 of a dead man, to be placed on his grave. Priests painted as 

 well as carved these effigies ; in fact, an examination of available 

 evidence shows that " pictorial art in its first stages was occupied 

 with sacred subjects, and the priest, when not himself the 

 executant, was the director of the executants." Painting was 

 originally subordinated to sculpture, which fact accounts for its 

 relatively slow development. It became secularised in the later 

 stages of Grecian life. Mr. Spencer traces these changes, as 

 well as the differentiation of the lay painter from the clerical 

 painter, and the differentiation of lay painters from one another. 



Short descriptions of the chief discoveries of Edison and Tesla 

 are given in Scribner, by Mr. E. B. Andrews, in the course of 

 his " History of the Last Quarter- Century in the United States," 

 his article being a continuation of previous ones contributed by 

 him to the same magazine. " Edison," he remarks, " is famous 

 less for originality than for dogged patience and subtle insight, 

 enabling him to fructify others' devices. ... A more original 

 genius than Edison, veritably a wizard, is his young disciple, 

 Nikola Tesla, who was born in Servia, and found employment 

 with Edison on landing in America." Scribner also contains an 

 illustrated article on "Carnations," by J. H. Connelly. 



Under the title "Ways and Means in Arid America," Mr. 

 W. E. Smythe contributes to the Cen'.Jiry an account of the 



NO. 1375, VOL. 53] 



influence irrigation has exerted upon the development of Kansas 

 and her sister States during the past fifteen years. The adop- 

 tion of irrigation in a territory which had hitherto depended 

 entirely upon the rainfall "extended the known limits of arid 

 America hundreds of miles to the eastward [of Garden City] and 

 more than one thousand miles north and south, thus adding to- 

 the empire of irrigation all the western portions of the Dakatos, 

 Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, together with eastern 

 Colorado." Mr. Smythe's description of what has been 

 achieved during the past few years in these States, and in 

 several widely separated localities in America, is a valuable 

 object-lesson for farmers and fruit-growers. 



The following are among other articles of scientific interest in. 

 the reviews and magazines received: — "The Increase of In- 

 sanity," by Mr. W. J. Corbet, in the Fortnightly, and an 

 article in the Humanitarian, on " The Multiplication of the 

 Unfit," by Mr. Arnold White, having much the same teachings ; 

 " The Baltic Canal, and how it came to be made," by Mr. W. H. 

 Wheeler, in Longman'' s ; "The Development of Dodos," in the 

 National, in which Miss Mary Kingsley shows some of the 

 effects of European culture on the West African, her paper sup- 

 porting the views expressed at the British Association meeting 

 last year, when a formal discussion took place on the results of 

 interference with the civilisation of native races ; " The Tint- 

 ometer," and "An Old Geography," in Chambers's Journal : 

 " Niagara Falls and Water Power," by Mr. Alex. Richardson ^ 

 in Good Words. 



SMITHSONIAN INVESTIGATIONS. 



w 



R. S. P. LANG LEV'S report of the operations of the- 

 Smithsonian Institution during the year ending with. 

 June 1895, has come to hand. The report includes a general, 

 account of the affairs of the Institution during the period it 

 covers, and also descriptions of the work accomplished in the 

 U.S. National Museum, the Bureau of Ethnology, the BureaUi 

 of International Exchanges, the National Zoological Park, and 

 the Astro-physical Observatory. We extract from it the follow- 

 ing brief statement with reference to three investigations carried 

 on under the supervision of the Institution :— 



The investigation of the infra-red spectrum has been con- 

 tinued in the Astro-physical Observatory during the past year 

 with increased energy, and Mr. Langley says that though only 

 provisional results have yet been published, which are intended 

 merely to show the character and progress of the. work, it is- 

 because the means of giving greater exactness are constantly 

 growing, so that the result it is now hoped to present will be 

 given with the aim of a still higher standard of precision ; an aim* 

 which it may be trusted will be considered a legitimate cause for 

 the delay in the appearance of the final results. 



It is stated that a larger number of holographic records has- 

 been obtained than in any previous year, and that these con- 

 tinuous observations have been accompanied by further im- 

 provement in the apparatus, a higher standard of accuracy, and 

 a nearer approach to the completion of the research ; but that 

 they have also shown beyond a doubt that the limit of accuracy 

 which is desirable can never be reached in the present most 

 unsuitable, provisional site, which is subject to every kind oF 

 disturbance due to the neighbourhood of the streets of a busy 

 city. 



Prof. E. W. Morley's investigations on the density of oxygen^ 

 and hydrogen, referred to in previous reports as aided in part 

 by the Institution, have been completed, and his memoir has 

 been published. The atomic weight of oxygen may be called 

 the base upon which practically our entire system of atomic 

 weights rests, and a small error in its measurement becomes 

 large by multiplication in the higher parts of the atomic weight 

 scale. Hence its accurate determination is of fundamental 

 importance. In his investigation Prof. Morley has studied the 

 problem by two methods: (i) By the synthesis of water, in 

 which he, for the first time, has achieved completeness by 

 actually weighing the hydrogen, the oxygen, and the water 

 formed, whereas all his predecessors took one or another of 

 these factors by difference. (2) By the density ratios between 

 oxygen and hydrogen. In this method he has weighed the 

 gases of greater purity and in larger quantity than hitherto,^ 

 and he has in some instances operated without the intervention 

 of stopcocks, and therefore with no possibility of error due to 

 leakage. He has also, as a correction to the density ratio^ 



