October 5, 191 1] 



NATURE 



465 



present their greatest defect, which is especially marked 

 in this case, as they are indispensable in the study of deep 

 leads. 



The map accompanying Mr. Gee's report on Tanami is 

 also heightless. That report tells a very different story. 

 The field was only discovered in 1900, and the great 

 • difficulties in its development are in access and scarcity 

 of water. The locality is 50 miles from the frontier of 

 West Australia, Soo miles from the end of the South 

 Australian railways at Oodnatta, and 696 miles from Port 

 Darwin, on the northern coast. The goldfield was visited 

 by Mr. H. Y. L. Brown, the Government geologist, in 

 1909, and in consequence of his favourable report and the 

 increased number of prospectors, the Government sent Mr. 

 L. C. E. Gee there as warden and magistrate. Mr. Gee 

 has now furnished a very interesting report on the district, 

 the prospecting mining work, the rainfall, climate, and 

 aborigines, with lists of plants collected and birds observed. 

 In spite of its tropical position, Mr. Gee describes the 

 climate as very healthy. The rainfall observed in ten 

 months was 15A inches, and a good supply of water is 

 often obtained from wells at about the depth of 150 feet. 

 The surrounding country is called desert, but Mr. Gee 

 describes it as containing much fair and some good pastoral 

 country. The mining results hitherto have done little to 

 fulfil the original expectation that at length a great gold- 

 field had been discovered in South Australia. 



J. W. Gregory. 



ENTOMOLOGICAL NOTES. 

 "THE U.S. Department of Agriculture is anxious lest 

 the mango-weevil (Cryptorhynchus mangiferae), which 

 does so much harm to mango-plantations in other parts of 

 the world, should be introduced into those recently estab- 

 lished in Florida. The larva burrows into the seed while 

 soft, where it remains for a considerable period, and is thus 

 carried all over the tropics. In a circular issued by the 

 Bureau of Entomology it is recommended that all mango 

 seeds introduced into America should be opened and 

 examined, and those selected for planting made to 

 germinate under a wire-gauze screen. 



The advent between 1900 and 1902 of the sugar-cane leaf- 

 hopper (Perkinsiella saccharicida) into the sugar-cane 

 plantations of Hawaii was the beginning of a great 

 calamity which has befallen sugar-growers in four of those 

 islands; for by February, 1903, the insect had spread over 

 the whole area devoted to sugar-culture, and had become so 

 numerous as to constitute a serious pest. Its spread was 

 greatly facilitated by the fact that in those islands only 

 half the crop is harvested at a time, so that there is a 

 continuous supply of nutriment. Moreover, there was an 

 absence of indigenous enemies, although some native species 

 have since taken to preying on the leaf-hopper. The 

 species was introduced from Queensland; and the loss to 

 planters in Hawaii during 1903 and 1904 from this and 

 other insects is estimated at three million dollars. Bulletin 

 No. 93 of the U.S. Bureau of Entomology is devoted to an 

 account of the life-history of the leaf-hopper and the best 

 means of checking its ravages. 



In part ii. of the sixth volume of Records of the Indian 

 Museum Dr. J. J. Kieffer continues his description (in 

 French) of the gnats and midges of the family Chironomidae 

 in the collection of the Indian Museum, naming eighty- 

 i seven species as new, the majority of which come from 

 the Oriental region, although others are from the Suez 

 Canal. 



Parasitic Hvmenoptera from the Transvaal form the sub- 

 ject of a paper by Mr. P. Cameron in vol. i,i., No. 4, of 

 Annals of the Transvaal Museum. In a previous paper the 

 author was able to record, from material in the museum, 

 only thirteen local representatives, but, thanks to a collec- 

 tion made by Mr. A. J. T. Janse, he now describes a very 

 large number, some of which represent peculiar generic 

 types, as new. The larval hosts of many of the species 

 are likewise recorded. In this connection it may be noted 

 that the serial quoted suffers from the absence of a table 

 of contents or index to the various numbers. 



Mr. J. W. Shoebotham has favoured us with a copy of a 

 paper by himself from the July number of The Annals and 

 Magazine of Natural History on spring-tails (Collembola) 



NO. 2l88, VOL. 87] 



new to the British fauna, with the description of a new 

 species of Oncopodura, typically from Berkhampstead, 

 Herts. The collection on which the paper is based was 

 mainly made in the counties of Hertford, Buckingham, and 

 Stafford. 



Another addition to the British fauna is a coccid taken in 

 ants' nests in Somersetshire by Mr. H. St. J. Donisthorpe, 

 and identified by Mr. E. E. Green, in The Entomologist's 

 Monthly Magazine for August, with Ortheziola rejdovskyi, 

 a species hitherto apparently known only from Bohemia. 

 At the conclusion of his paper Mr. Green discusses the 

 serial homology of the segments of the antennae in various 

 members of the Coccidae. 



THE CULTIVATION OF LUCIDITY IN 

 SCIENTIFIC WRITING. 1 

 A CCORDING to the reports of examiners for medical 

 ■^ degrees, many students seem unable to write an 

 essay or thesis exhibiting any literary quality and style. 

 The fault is not entirely that of the candidates. What- 

 ever subjects they may have learnt at school, the writing 

 of their own language has, in general, not been one of 

 them. Even during their university career the use of the 

 written English language, except as a machine for taking 

 notes or answering examination questions, has not formed 

 any regular part of their course. 



The teaching of English is often understood to mean the 

 attempt to teach a literary style by the imitation of good 

 models ; but what is really wanted is the power of express- 

 ing clearly one's own ideas in one's own language, and 

 this ought now to be within reach of every English-speak- 

 ing man and woman. The usual methods of teaching 

 English still leave the average boy and girl singularly 

 deficient in the art of saying what they mean on paper, 

 however ready they may be in expressing themselves by the 

 spoken word. This is largely due to the want of systematic 

 practice in writing ; moreover, essays are generally 

 criticised by the teacher from the point of view of style 

 rather than in respect of intelligibility. Students should 

 learn to express their own meaning in absolutely clear and 

 intelligible language before they think about the manner in 

 which that language is to be manipulated. A split in- 

 finitive is a less important fault than a failure to make 

 the meaning clear. Teachers and examiners of scientific 

 subjects often say of a pupil or an examinee that he 

 evidently understands what he is trying to say, but i> 

 merely unable to express his meaning, and then give him 

 full credit for the knowledge and pardon him the failure 

 to express it. 



In these circumstances it is not surprising that much 

 scientific writing of the present time is loose and un- 

 intelligible in its expression. The remedy is to cultivate 

 the quality of lucidity ; this will lay the foundation for a 

 good style. 



There cannot be clear writing without clear thinking, 

 and he who learns to write clearly will in the process learn 

 to think clearly. Except in the drafting of resolutions and 

 telegrams, most people have little practice in making their 

 meaning absolutely clear. Letters in the daily papers and 

 many books and memoirs on scientific subjects fail 

 singularly in the quality of lucidity. It would be a good 

 thing if schools and universities had societies which gave 

 their students the same valuable training in the use of the 

 pen which their debating clubs give in the practice of fluent 

 speaking. 



In the scientific revival of the nineteenth century the 

 great expositors who wrote with such admirable lucidity 

 led the public to see that the study of science, like that 

 of philosophy, is an education in clear thinking ; but now 

 that so much scientific writing is badly expressed, the 

 impression is conveyed that the studies which lead to such 

 loose writing cannot really be conducive to accurate and 

 clear thought. The remedy is in the hands of students 

 themselves, who can, by constant practice in everything that 

 they write and by determination to make their meaning 

 clear, cultivate the essential quality of lucidity before they 

 try to acquire the graces of a good style. 



1 From the introductory address delivered at St. George's Hospital on 

 October 2 by Dr. H. A. Miers, F.R.S., principal of the University o 



