January 9, 1902] 



NA TURE 



in manufactures and commerce depends on very many elements, 

 as you know, one of the most important of which is the " item " 

 "carriage or transport." British superiority in many manu- 

 factures and markets has depended, and will henceforth largely 

 depend, on that one item principally (take the case of iron ores), 

 and to maintain superiority it must receive in the immediate future 

 more careful attention and scientific treatment. Roads in their 

 diflfetent forms enter largely as factors into the general question of 

 " transport,'' and if trade superiority is to be maintained they 

 must be looked after and treated, all over these countries, in a 

 more scientific and skilled manner than that now prevalent in 

 the United Kingdom. For that end there must be attained, 

 as soon as possible, uniformity of make, treatment and control, 

 and the highest efficiency as regards care and maintenance, and 

 to ensure these results they should be placed under the charge 

 of a body of trained engineers, such as those of the " ponts et 

 chaussees ' of France. The question to a certain e.\tent resembles 

 that of the currency of the realm, and as there is a perfectly 

 uniform coinage for every part of it, so should the make and u.se 

 <'f the roads be of one standard all over the kingdom, in the 

 best interests of all who travel or convey goods. The Board of 

 Trade controls the railways, why not a Board or Department 

 for the roads ? and thus oliviate the many absurd and scandalous 

 practices which exist and are allowed to prevail, to the great 

 discomfort and loss of the community. Allow me to give my 

 experience of what is taking place in the township of Pembroke 

 (Dublin). The road "metal" mostly in use is simply the 

 coarser riddlings from the drift gravel so abundantly and cheaply 

 worked in the neighbourhood of the Town Hall. The stones, 

 perfectly rounded, incapable of taking bond and largely com- 

 posed of entirely rotten elements, are loosely thrown here and 

 there, where prominent holes appear. Mr. Beete Jukes, the 

 former head of the Geological .Survey of Ireland, remarked 

 «hen he saw the material used, that boiled potatoes might as 

 well be employed, and the rapid wear fully bears out the correct- 

 ness of this judgment, and hence a large staff of scavengers and 

 carts, discomfort for all classes of road-users, and steady increase 

 of rates. In a southern county I have seen the road surface 

 worn into the form of the section of an inverted arch, and was 

 informed by a competent authority that the county surveyor, a 

 Whitworth scholar, secured the place as the result of a Civil 

 Service examination, the pay being about 800/. per annum, and 

 thus secured, proceeded to develop a private practice as civil en- 

 gineer, leaving the roads to attend to themselves. Many other 

 examples of this nature might be given. As to the importance 

 of good roads from a military point of view, it should be un- 

 necessary for me to refer to it. I see from time to time the Dublin 

 garrison companies and battalions out on marching exercise and 

 notice the draggled appearance in which the men come home 

 when the weather is in any way moist or rainy, and reasonably 

 associate this condition with the bad state of the roads about 

 Dublin. The Romans certainly knew better on this branch of 

 military engineering, and might still be copied. As for agriculture, 

 the Americans have gone thoroughly and systematically into the 

 question, and are taking effective measures to put their road 

 systems into a proper working state, and to have them kept up 

 to it. I trust. Sir, that you will excuse these rather extended 

 observations and that you will see your way to urging the 

 pressing importance of a uniform and general system of road 

 making and maintenance for the kingdom on the grounds of 

 high State utility, commercial importance and agricultural 

 necessity. J. P. O'Reilly. 



Dublin, December 28, igor. 



Preoccupied Names in Zoology. 



Tills afternoon I spent a Utile more than half an hour over 

 the "Zoological Record ' for 1899, looking for preoccupied 

 generic names proposed in that year. "The result was as 

 follows : — 



Baris, Loos, for a plathelminth in the alimentary canal of 

 Chelonia is untenable because of Baris, Germ., a genus of 

 iljeetles. •* 



Astia, Loos, for a worm in gut of Tetrodon ; nee Astia, Koch, 

 an arachnid. 



Brotella, Roverto, new name for Acrostoma, which was pre- 

 occupied ; nee Brotella, Kaup, in fishes. 



Cumopsis, Roverto, new name for Cuma, Humph., preoccu- 

 jiied ; nee Cumopsis, Sars, Crustacea. 



Eichwaldia, Smitt, new subgenus of Gobius ; nee Ei chwaldia. 

 Hill., Mollusca. 



NO. 1680, VOL. 65] 



Goniopsis, Melichar, new genus of Fulgoridie ; nee Goni- 

 opsis, Haan, Crustacea. 



Halticella, Jacoby, new genus of beetles ; nee Halticella, 

 Spinola, Hymenoptera. 



Xenus, Peringuey, new genus of beetles; nee Xenus, Kaup, 

 in birds. 



I left off with the feeling that by taking time such instances 

 could be multiplied almost indefinitely ! 



This is a condition of aflairs which is becoming intolerable. 

 None of the authors of the above names had even taken the 

 trouble to consult the " Nomenclator Zoologicus." Such names 

 become current for a number of years, until someone happens 

 to discover that they have been used before. The result is an 

 inconvenient though necessary change and a useless synonym. 

 Sometimes authors will not even correct these errors of nomen- 

 clature when their attention is directed to them, and if they do 

 propose a substitute there is no telling whether it will be valid. 



Would it be practicable for some representative body, such, 

 for instance, as the staff of contributors to the " Zoological 

 Record," to examine every new generic name ^ifoposed and 

 issue from time to time a list of substitutes for names found un- 

 tenable? Or, if it were preferred, the author in each case 

 could be asked to propose a substitute, and then all the 

 substituted names could be given in an appendix to the " Zoo- 

 logical Record." Whatever is done, it seems necessary that 

 these errors .should be promptly corrected, and equally plain 

 that this cannot be left to the unaided intelligence of authors. 



T. D. A. COCKERELL. 



East Las Vegas, New Mexico, U.S.A., December 16, 1901. 



A Luminous Centipede. 



Mr. R. I. PococK, to whom I sent the subjoined extract from 

 notes made by me on June 5, 1S97, has suggested that the 

 observation would be of interest to readers of Nature. He 

 remarks : " The two new facts you have observed — namely, the 

 defensive purpose of the substance and its irritating properties — 

 are, I think, sufficiently important to put upon record." The 

 notes are as follows : — 



" Under the entrance gate, in the gravel, I saw a light of a 

 brilliant greenish-bluish tint ; it moved forward, leaving behind 

 a trail of light which, gradually separating, became a scattered 

 mass of brilliant points. The leading light had the form of a 

 living, curving thread. .^ lighted match soon showed what the 

 scattered points of light in its trail were, a dozen or so of red 

 ants pursuing the Geophilus ; one was clinging to it, each 

 ant shone like a spark in the gravel, the centipede had dis- 

 charged its fluid over them. I picked up the centipede and 

 dropped it into a tumbler, where it splashed out a mass of light. 

 Hurriedly placing my hand over the tumbler to prevent the 

 insect from escaping, I felt suddenly a strange prickly sensation 

 such as is caused by a slight contact with electricity, so that I 

 hastily removed my hand, calling to a friend who, placing her 

 hand over the tumbler, felt the same thing. 



"I lit another match and watched the Geophilus writhe the 

 light out of its body in blue-green flashes. It soon ceased to 

 shine, having probably exhausted all the luminosity on its 

 enemies. 



" Defence seems certainly to be one of the uses of this 

 secretion, attributed by some authors merely to purposes of 

 attraction. Rose Haig Thomas. 



"The White House, Basildon, Reading." 



The New Planetoid. 



The note on Prof. Pickering's announcement of the discovery 

 of a new planetoid moving in a very elliptic orbit, in the 

 Astronomical Column of your issue of December 19, 1901, was 

 read by me with much interest. 



I should, however, like to point out that the orbit of the new 

 planetoid is not the most elliptic yet known, that place being 

 held, I believe, by .Ethra n.'A for which ^ amounts to 22^ 32' 

 (Watson's orbit), while for the new planetoid (p is 22° 8'. 



Andromache nrs) might also be included among those for 

 which ^ exceeds 20°, in addition to the two named in the note> 

 Eva and Istria, its excentricity being 0'348 (Watson). 



S. B. Gaythorpe. 



Prospect Road, Barrow-in-Furness. 



