NATURE 



[September 5, 19 18 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 [The Editor does not hold himself responsible for 

 opinions expressed by his correspondents. Neithei 

 can he undertake to return, or to correspond with 

 tlie writers of, rejected manuscripts intended for 

 litis or any other part of Nature. No notice is 

 taken of anonymous communications..] 



German Naturalists and Nomenclature. 



I TRUST that the great majority of naturalists will 

 read with approval the following sentence in Sir 

 George Hampson's paper on " Pyralidse," published in 

 the Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 1918 

 (P- 55) : — " No quotations from German authors pub- 

 lished since August, 1914, are included. ' Hostes 

 humani generis.'" 



I have heard it argued that as we owe much to 

 the industrious researches of German naturalists in 

 the past, it would be discourteous to show any pre- 

 judice against accepting their assistance in the future 

 towards that extension of knowledge which we all 

 desire. 



It may be remembered by those who were present 

 at the meeting of the International Zoological Con- 

 gress at Monaco in March, 1913, how persistently the 

 representatives of German scientific societies en- 

 deavoured on that occasion to dominate the discus- 

 sions, especially on the subject of the rules of nomen- 

 clature, and insisted that the names habitually em- 

 ployed in Germany should receive the sanction of long 

 usage, to the exclusion of all attempts to trace out 

 the literary history of each species and to preserve for 

 it the name bestowed by the first author who described 

 or. figured it. The attempt was one which, had it 

 been successful, would have obliged the naturalists 

 of other countries to accept German nomenclature and 

 place themselves thus far unreservedly under German 

 regulations and restrictions. In the Catalogue of 

 Lepidoptera, published in 1871 by Staudinger and 

 Wocke, precedence is improperly but deliberatelv 

 assigned to Germa-n names in preference to earlier 

 ones given by* French authors. 



Now, as to the question of discourtesy, what will 

 be the position at some future Zoological Congress? 

 Are American, English, French, or Italian naturalists 

 to be expected to meet Germans and to join them in 

 friendly discussion on the various questions that max 

 arise? Considering that before the war every man, 

 11,111. and child in Germany, with scarcely an ex- 

 ception, was intent upon war, as has been amply 

 -tinted by the evidence of innumerable wit- 

 nesses, it is impossible to dissociate the menial atti- 

 tude of the population of that countrv, bv no means 

 excepting the highly educated and scientific classes, 

 from the world-conquering aspirations of their rulers, 

 or from the barbarous atrocities committed by them 

 in pursuit of that national ideal. A conspicuous 

 instance is that of a certain learned professor with 

 whom I was on terms of friendship, who was honoured 

 bv the Universities of Liverpool and Dublin, and rl - 

 lwered lectures in London under the auspices of the 

 London University, turning out eventually to be a 

 German spy engaged in fomenting rebellion in Ireland 

 and antagonism In England and her Allies in the 

 United States. If an individual in anv community 

 commits murder or robbery, or is mm plausibly sus- 

 pected of swindling or cheating at raids, the unavoid- 

 able .i\m\ universally recognised nennlly is that no man 

 with a grain of self-r«Spect will ever again associate 



ih him. 'ihake his hand, or converse villi him in 

 Isriip. 



trust that for the next twenty years at least 

 all G mans will be relegated to the category of per- 



NO. 2549, VOL. I02] 



sons with whom honest men will decline to have anv 

 dealings. 



It should be fully understood that this is no measure 

 of vengeance. We do not honour thieves by vows of 

 vengeance; we desire to punish them. Any German 

 who may be permitted to attend an international 

 zoological congress in the near future should be made 

 to feel extremely uncomfortable by the urgent neces- 

 sity of at leasl partial camouflage. 



If Sir George Hampson's suggestion by example 

 should be adopted and followed, it could add but a 

 small measure to the punishment which must inevit- 

 ably form part of anv conditions that will be attached 

 to a public peace when granted by dictation, not bv 

 negotiation, to the offending nation. 



None but a German would use the German language 

 by preference for scientific descriptions of species or 

 genera ; thus any inconvenience that might arise from 

 a general refusal on the part of others to accept 

 descriptions worded in German could fall only upoa 

 those who have inflicted far more than mere incon- 

 venience upon the world beyond them. 



To those Germans, if any there be, who are honestly 

 well disposed, and who put the interests of science 

 before the greed for worid-domination, it can be no 

 hardship to publish their descriptions in the English 

 or French language, with which the great majority 

 of their scientific workers are more or less intimately, 

 acquainted. 



Inestimable damage has been done during the war 

 to historical, monuments and priceless works of art. 

 The Germans in Italy were found to have instituted 

 a complete organisation on the Austrian front for 

 securing valuable pillage in the course of the ex- 

 pected advance on Venice; fourgons, under trie charge 

 of specially appointed officers with adequate staff, 

 were in readiness to convev to Germany the pick of 

 the art treasures which they believed they would 

 find at their mercy. Collections in various branches 

 of natural history have suffered damage or destruc- 

 tion among other objects. In Russia the paid agents 

 of Germany have brought about, or at least connived 

 at, the wanton destruction of treasures innumerable; 

 some of the finest entomological collections in the 

 world were in Russia, in Belgium, and in Rumania. 

 I would urge that it is the nlain duty of the Allies 

 to insist not only that all objects removed shall be 

 replaced, but also that equivalent value in kind shall 

 be rendered for everything destroyed or damaged, and 

 this should anplv to specimens illustrating the study 

 of natural history (best . represented in value by 

 original author's types), as well as to pictures, statues, 

 and other objects of art or antiouitv, for the selection 

 of which from German museums special commis- 

 si, mers should be appointed. Walsingham. 



6 Montagu Place. Portman Square, YV t, 

 August 20. 



The Value of Insectivorous Birds. 



Tiif. reflections in a letter to Nature (August 15) on 

 shortcomings in the administration of the Wild Birds' 

 Protection Acts, in so far as they relate to the eggs 

 of the lapwing, which, it is stated, appear on the pro- 

 hibited lists of only eight Scottish authorities, are 

 now happily at variance with the facts. Far from 

 such being the state of the case, at the present time 

 and for more than ten years past no fewer than twenty- 

 eight — out of thirty-four — Scottish county councils havi 

 protected the eggs of this bird, after certain dates which 

 permit of only the first layings being taken for food 

 put poses. 



\s regards tin- skylark, the taking of eggs is alto- 

 gether prohibited, not bv twentv-three authorities in 



