Ma7-. 21, 1872] 



NATURE 



399 



a compound of any non-metal with. a metal is a salt of a 

 metal." This would, of course, include such bodies as 

 antimonetted and aisenetted hydrogen, hydride of copper, 

 and so on. The definitions of acids and bases, too, are 

 weak. It may almost be mferred that such is the case, by 

 the manner in which the author uses the term acid ; 

 N^03 is called nitrous acid ; LO5 iodic acid, and, in the 

 same line, HBrOj bromic acid ; B^O- boracic acid, and 

 so on. There is one thing which the author tells us which 

 is a curiosity in chemical history. On page 38 it is 

 stated " some few of the elements receive their symbols 

 from the names given to them by the ancients — e.g. Iron 

 (Fe.) from Fetrum, Sodium (Na.) from Natrium." We 

 certainly were under the impression that Sodium was 

 discovered in 1807 by Sir Humphry Davy. A number of 

 questions are appended to the book which will be found 

 very useful to those employed in teaching. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR 



[The Editor does not Jiold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents. No notice is taken of anonymous 

 communications. ] 



Ocean Currents 



Surely Mr. Ferrel must have misapprehended my arguments, 

 or he would not have advanced the case of the tides against me. 

 Undoubtedly the ocean will sink to its eld level when the lifting 

 force of the moon is withdrawn, even though the height to which 

 the waters are raised may not e.xceed an inch. I agree also with 

 what he says in regard to the improbability of ocean currents 

 being caused by the heaping up ol the waters by the winds. I 

 believe that this erroneous view of the matter has done more real 

 mischiei to the wind theory than all the arguments advanced by 

 the advocates of the gravitation theory put together. Tue notion 

 that because the winds are applied to the surface of the ocean 

 they can produce only surface drift is an error of a similar 

 character. 



I shall shortly refer to an important point bearing on the in- 

 fluence of rotation overlooked both by Dr. Coldmg and Mr. 

 Ferrel. In my last paper in the Pliil. Mag., October 1871, 

 p. 266, there is a trifling mistake to which I snail also refer. 



Edinburgh James Croll 



Science Stations 



Allow me to say a few words in reply to your editorial of 

 Feb. 29. It does seem to me to be a pity to " run the risk of 

 spoiling a good work " by multiplying suggestions and urging 

 counter claims. It is not quite fair that when biologists start a 

 proposal for obtaining a necessary but costly aid to their studies, 

 the devotees of other sciences should exclaim, "Oh, we must 

 have one, too ! " If all speak at once in this way no one will 

 be heard, and we shall get no stations of anysoit. Probably 

 the writer of the article is not aware of the expense and require- 

 ments of a zoological station, otherwise he would not propose 

 to increase the difficulty by thrusting a meteorological and astro- 

 nomical observatory on the backs of its promoters, and then ob- 

 serve that "the outlay need not be heavy." It is notorious that 

 there are meteorological and astronomical observatories in almost 

 every part of the globe ; but there is nothing of the kind for 

 zoology. .Under these circumstances it is to me a disappoint- 

 ment that the sugges'ion for zoological stations meets with what 

 looks like a somewhat selfish criticism, in place of unqualified 

 support, at the hands of physicists. 



As to the station in England, I do not gather from Dr. Dohrn's 

 article that he proposes to separate teaching entirely, or 

 even partially, from the stations. He leaves it alone. " Teach- 

 ing" can come or go just as those who deal in it may please ; 

 but that instruction in rudimentary zoology should be a chief 

 object of the station is a proposal of the same nature as w"uld 

 be that to make use of Greenwich Observatoiy for giving lessons 

 in the outlines of astronomy, and is not entertained by him for a 

 moment. It no doubt would be a very good thing that students 

 from Cambridije and Oxford and London should spend s ime 

 time in a zoological station ; and it would also be good for others 

 of them to work ia a lead or copper mine, or pass a few nights 



in an astronomical observatory ; but we cannot urge the wants 

 of these particular students as any reason for the maintenance 

 of these three things. The primary object for which zoological 

 stations will be erected — one for which it is to be hoped that 

 the Universities, as well as scientific societies and priva'e indi- 

 viduals, will be ready to subscribe money — is the prosecution of 

 science. 



'- We claim for biology now a place of far higher importance in 

 the scheme of human i<nowledge than she has occupied hitherto. 

 She has proved h-r claim to the respect and mo-t serious atten- 

 tion of men by the discovery of the principles and detailed laws 

 of evolution — a discovery which has more widely influenced 

 human thought than has any other produce of modern science, 

 and must continue long so to do. We are no longer content to 

 see biology scoffed at as "inexact," or gently dropped as "natu- 

 ral history," or praised for her relations to medicine. On the 

 contrary, biology is the science wh ise development belongs to 

 the day. At tliis moment s'>e U deserving of more attention, 

 more material aid, more assistance in her young growth, than 

 any other human science. Her youthful performances, her 

 hopeful stride onward=, promise more alracidmt results fr>m 

 pecuniary aid given to her than can be hop^d for from her older 

 sisters, who have "settled in life." If bology requires "stations," 

 she ought to be gladly supplied with them. 



I must protest against the notion — urged in your article only, 

 I imagine, as a joke — that without "teaching" (whatever that 

 may mean) there would be danger of a zo dogical station be- 

 coming the home of a narrow zoological clique. The connection 

 is not explained, .and I do not think any of your readers will 

 see it. Are observatories the homes of narrov astronomical 

 cliques? Are telescopes without professors liable to become the 

 resort of ambitious young persons, anxious chiefly to discover 

 hydrogen flames where nobody had foumt them before ? I do not 

 believe a bit in the narrow clique sugge-^tion. Teaching bodies 

 breed them much more rapidly and naturally than do working 

 bodies. And as to the privat-docenr, anxious to discover a 

 notochord, or the ama eur astronomer hunting for hydrogen 

 flames, I would most gla'llysee them multiplied exceeding abun- 

 dantly. Would that we could obtain the insutulion of " privat- 

 docents" in English Universities ; by simply erecting a zoological 

 station, would that we could infuse some of their kind of ambi- 

 tion — one of the best a man can have — into English students. 



Naples, March 4 E. Ray Lankester 



[*»* The article to which our correspondent refers was written 

 by a distinguished biologist. — Ed.] 



The Etymology of "Whin." 

 The following is from Jamieson : — "Quliyn, Quhin-Stanc, s. 

 i. Green-stone ; the name given to basalt, trap, &c. . . . 

 Isl. h'u'ijna, resonare, hwin, resonans, q. ' the resounding 

 stone.' " " Whin, whinstane, s. Ragstone or toadston^." 



Whin or gorse, the name given to Ulex euroisus. common 

 furze, is from a different root, being traced to Welsh elnuynyn — 

 weed. A. Hall 



Your correspondent, Mr. W. R. Bell, will find a derivation 

 given for "Whin" injamieson's " Scottish Dictionary, " where, 

 under the name Qiihyn or Qnhiii, it is referred to the " I-landic 

 liwijiia, resonare," "hwin, resonans, q. the resounding stone," 

 probably from the resonance emitted on its being struck. It is in 

 all likelihood the same as the word wiiiiie, and the root is present 

 in both Celtic and Teutonic tongues, e.g. : — 



Welsh .... Cmyno, to complain 



Irish .... Cuinead, mourning (?) 

 Islandic .... hwijna (as above) 

 Danish .... /nine, to whistle 

 German .... weinen, to weep 

 Compare also the Latin hinnio, to neigh. 



F. DE Chaumont 

 Oakland, Woolston, March 15 



Webster, in his Dictionary (9th edition, 1S62), says in ex- 

 plaining this word, which is known all over England, that it means 

 weeds, gorse, furze, waste growth, from the V\ elsh Clmyn. That 

 it is "a provincial name given to basaltic rock, and applied by 

 miners to any kind of dark coloured and hard unstratified rock 

 which resists the pick," 



