

electrons, and also the power of forming four non- 
be formulated as (ZrO) ,O(OCO-C,H;),, with a structure 
Gods” (NatuRE, May 5, p. 591) we are told that 
‘and its functions are to be replaced by education. 
forward my own views. 
omer, V. B 
the double link ae carboxyl group remains per- 
manently attached to one particular oxygen atom, 
the most symmetrical configuration of the molecule 
is one that exhibits a threefold axis of symmetry, 
and consequently is enantiomorphous; but if the 
double link oscillates between the two oxygens, then 
the symmetry is that of a regular tetrahedron. 
Tanatar and Kurowski have described (l.c.) a 
compound Zr,0,(OCO’C,H;),, which is soluble in 
benzene. Now zirconium can form 6 non-polar links, 
and in the group Zr:O two of these form the double 
link to the oxygen, which also absorbs two of the 4 | 
zirconium valency electrons. Thus the group ZrO 
resembles a beryllium atom in having two free valency 
polar links. The zirconium compound can therefore 
exactly analogous to that of the beryllium compound. 
It would be interesting to know whether this zirconium 
benzoate has, as one would expect, a crystal structure 
similar to that of the basic beryllium acetate. 
N. V. SrpGwick, 
Dyson Perrins Laboratory, Oxford, May 15. 

Biology of Man. 
IN the review by J. S. H. of Mr. Wells’s ‘‘ Men Like 
even domestic-minded leopards and tigers are not 
lightly to be dismissed after recent experiments on 
the inheritance of tameness and wildness in rats. 
Almost in the next paragraph we are further informed 
that the réle of eugenics is to be reduced to a minimum, 
Wildness in the lower animals is to be removed by 
selective breeding, wildness and brutality in man is 
to be cured by education, by environment, and that 
mysterious process a “‘ change of heart.’’ It is very 
strange how dominant is the wholly unwarranted 
belief that man is an animal for whom other laws 
hold than for his huambler mammalian kindred, 
Kart PEARSON. 
Galton Laboratory of National Eugenics, 
University of London. 

In referring to the reduction of eugenics to a 
minimum I was quoting Mr. Wells, not putting 
Later on, in criticising 
Mr. Wells, I expressly referred to the possibility of 
the ‘“ control of heredity ’”’ in man as well as in lower 
organisms. : 
n the second part of his letter Prof. Pearson is 
ambiguous. He refers to “ the wholly unwarranted 
belief that man is an animal for whom other laws 
hold than for his humbler mammalian kindred.” 
In one sense of the word other this is of course wholly 
unwarranted—if, that is, we take it to mean ‘“‘ wholly 
different.’’ If, however, we mean that, besides the 
laws applicable to lower organisms, there are ‘‘ other ”’ 
additional laws at work in the sphere of human evolu- 
tion, then I venture to say that we are enunciating 
a truism. To take the simplest and most important 
example. No other organism can transmit tradition 
for more than one generation: man can. Or to 
take another example cognate to the “ change of 
heart ”’ (which need be no less important for being 
“mysterious ’’), you do not find cows or sheep or 
other of man’s mammalian kindred stopping the 
business of their existence to look at the sunset or 
at a work of art ; whereas man (or rather many men) 
do so. 
NO. 2798, VoL. 111] 


arker has pointed out to me that if 
809 

One of the chief human characters of man is his 
greater modifiability (in the strict biological sense). 
This implies that alteration of environment, especially 
of social environment, must co-operate with eugenics 
if any human progress is to be achieved. J. S. H. 

_ Official List of Fourteen Generic Names of Fishes. 
THE Secretary of the International Commission on 
Zoological Nomenclature has the honour to notify 
_ zoologists, especially ichthyologists, that Prof. David 
Starr Jordan and the U.S. Fish Commission concur 
in recommending the adoption of the general principle 
that names now current are not to be discarded unless 
the data show this to be a clear-cut necessity. Under 
this general principle they propose that the following 
fourteen generic names of fishes, in regard to which 
a difference of opinion exists, shall be provisionally 
legitimised with the types indicated : 
Aétobatus Blainv., 1816 (type, Raja narinari 
Euphrasen) ; Conger Cuv., 1817 (Muraena conger 
L.) ; Coregonus Linn., 1758 (Salmo lavaretus L.) ; 
Eleotris Bloch and Schneider, 1801 (gyrinus Cuv. and 
Val.) ; Epinephelus Bloch, 1792 (marginalis Bloch) ; 
Gymnothorax Bloch, 1795 (recticularis Bloch) ; 
Lampetra Gray, 1851 (Petromyzon fluviatilis L.) ; 
Malapterurus Lacépéde, 1803 (Silurus electricus L.) ; 
Mustelus Linck, 1790 (Squalus mustelus L. { =Mustelus 
laevis]); Polynemus Linn., 1758 (paradisaeus L.) ; 
Sciaena Linn., 1758 (umbra L. =Cheilodipterus aquila 
Lacép. as restr. by Cuvier, 1815); Serranus Cuv. 
(Perca cabrilla L.); Stolephorus Lacép., 1803 (com- 
mersonianus Lacép.); Teuthis Linn., 1766 (javus L.). 
The Secretary of the Commission will delay the 
vote on this case until one year from date, in order to 
give to the profession ample opportunity to express 
concurrence or dissension as respects any or all of 
these names. C. W. STILEs, 
Secretary to Commission. 
25th and E. Streets, N.W., 
Washington, D.C., May to. 

Tertiary Brachiopods from Japan. 
WitH reference to the notice of Ichiré Hayasaka’s 
memoir on “ Tertiary Brachiopods from Japan” in 
NaTurE of May 12, p. 647, may I add my testimony 
as to the extreme importance of this work, and, at 
the same time, direct attention to one or two dis- 
crepancies ? To do full justice to this memoir is 
beyond the scope of this letter, and one can only 
deal with the matter in the briefest possible way. 
Mr. Hayasaka is to be congratulated upon having 
provided us with such an excellent list of Japanese 
Tertiary Brachiopoda, many of which seem to be 
correctly placed as to genus and species. There are 
some forms, however, which one is surprised to find 
included in the list, for example, Hemithyris psittacea, 
Terebratulina caput-serpentis, T. septentrionalis, Magel- 
lania (Neothyris) lenticularis, and Magadina cumingi. 
With regard to H. psittacea, considering its wide 
circumpolar distribution, it might reasonably be 
expected to occur as an Upper Tertiary fossil in 
Japan; but the figures given by Hayasaka do not 
suggest this species to me. They show a much 
larger shell, without the characteristic beak. 
Terebratulina caput-serpentis (now retusa) is North 
Atlantic in its distribution, and a variety (v. emargin- 
ata) inhabits the Mediterranean. It ranges from the 
Miocene in Europe. 
Terebratulina septentrionalis is also a North Atlantic 
species, occurring on both the American and North 
European shores. The geological history of this 
2A2 
