October 26, 191 1] 



NATURE 



549 



impressed as he ought to be with the importance of 

 the issue. The use of the word " saturating " (p. 197) 

 •does not make for clearness. The working of the 

 second tendency is to be seen chiefly in those parts of 

 the book which deal with social analogies and appli- 

 cations. These appear to us, although interesting and 

 unconventional, to be somewhat far-fetched. But the 

 book is a good one, and will make a strong appeal 

 to the thoughtful. F. A. D. 



The Evolution of Kingston-upon-Hull, as shown by 

 its Plans. By Thomas Sheppard. Pp. 203. (Hull : 

 A. Brown and Sons, Ltd., 191 1.) Price 35. 6d. net. 

 When this island first became the home of man the 

 site of the city of Kingston-upon-Hull bore an aspect 

 very different from that which it assumes at present. 

 The North Sea washed a long line of cliffs extending 

 from Hessle to Bridlington, and the Humber, even 

 then a mighty river, ran straight out to sea. Then 

 followed the great Ice age, which left behind it masses 

 of glacial drift, the foundation of the present city. 

 The milder climate which succeeded produced 

 abundant vegetation, which gave rise to the bed of 

 peat which covered the site. A single bronze axe 

 found in it was probably dropped by some visitor 

 from a canoe, and supplies the only record of pre- 

 historic man. Then the water encroached on the 

 land and laid down great deposits of silt along the 

 present valley. The Romans do not appear to have 

 iccupied the place, and the first attempt tc embank 

 it is attributed to the Danes, who have left marks 

 of their occupation in the plan of the older parts of 

 the 1 ity. In time the place gained increased im- 

 portance by the absorption of the adjoining villages, 

 and in the fourteenth century the site was surrounded 

 by a wall, of which, and of the old manor and palace 

 of the King, whence the name of the city was 

 derived, only a few stones remain. The later develop- 

 ment of the city can be traced in the fine series of 

 reproductions of old maps and drawings which illus- 

 trate this useful contribution to local history. 



Proceedings of the American Society for Psychical Rc- 

 search. Vol. v., part i., April: A Case of Hys- 

 teria. By Dr. W. II. Hamilton, Dr. J. S. Smyth, 

 Dr. Louis Millard, and James H. Hyslop. Pp. 672. 

 (New York: The Society, 1911.) Price 6 dollars. 

 Is ii worth while? Here is a tome' of 660 pages 

 devoted to the investigation of an apparently healthy 

 young woman. Miss Burton (pseudonym), aged 

 twenty-two, who is supposed to be able to pass into a 

 trance-like state at will in order to become a 

 "medium" in communication with the spirit world. 

 ["here are the usual stories of raps, touchings, 

 whistling, singing, combined whistling and singing, 

 whispering, tambourine-playing, table levitation, &c, 

 all by the spirits. The investigations show that the 

 whole thing is trickery; but the investigators con- 

 cede that this young damsel was perfectly honest so 

 far as her phenomenal consciousness is concerned, but 

 that her subconscious self was deceitful. 



.•1 Revised Catalogue of the Indigenous Flowering 

 Plants and Ferns of Ceylon. By Dr. J. C. Willis. 

 (Peradeniya Manuals of Botany, Entomology, Agri- 

 culture, and Horticulture, No. 2.) Pp. 1S8. 

 (Colombo : H. C. Cottle, Government Printer, 1911.) 

 A catalogue of Ceylon plants was prepared by Dr. 

 Trimcn, and published in the Journal of the Cevlon 

 Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society in 18S5 ; this has 

 long been out of print ; hence the necessity for the 



new catalogue now issued by Dr. Willis. The I k 



is divided into two sections, enumerating respectivel) 

 XO. 2 19 1, VOL. 8/] 



native and introduced plants ; the latter section includes 

 nearly all the valuable economic pants. The cata- 

 logue supplies Sinhalese and Tamil names, also refer- 

 ences to the pages in Trimen's "Flora of Ceylon," 

 where descriptions of the species can be found. It is 

 noticeable that very few new species have been dis- 

 covered recently. The total numbers amount to 1095 

 genera and 3074 species in the first section, and in the 

 second to 285 genera and 387 species. About twenty 

 genera and very many species are endemic. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



[The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions 

 expressed by his correspondents. Neither can he undertake 

 to return, or to correspond with the writers of, rejected 

 manuscripts intended for this or any other part of Nature. 

 No notice is taken of anonymous communications.] 



The Scientific Misappropriation of Popular Terms. 



In his interesting address to the Conference of Delegates 

 at the Portsmouth meeting of the British Association, 

 as reported in Nature of October 19, Prof. J. W. Gregory 

 makes certain remarks to which I venture to take excep- 

 tion. I comment on them partly because they push the 

 principle of priority further than it need be pushed, and 

 partly because I am afraid that Prof. Gregory's advice " to 

 admit that the spider is an insect " may be taken to heart 

 by some of his audience at Portsmouth or by some of his 

 in Nature. 



Zoologists will not be surprised to learn that the word 

 " insect " formerly had a wider application than al 

 Many of them will feel that Messrs. J. H. and A. B. 

 Comstock are not fairly treated by being taken to task for 

 telling their readers, in a general manual, that a spider is 

 not an insect. So far as the account of the use of the 

 word " insect ' is intended to be a historical account of 

 the subject, and no more, criticism is unnecessary. But if 

 it is a serious attempt to reinstate " insect " in its former 

 meaning, I think it should be resisted on the ground that 

 this procedure would introduce confusion where everything 

 is at present clear, and that it has no compensating 

 advantages to recommend it. 



We are, fortunately, not obliged to apply the rules of 

 priority to zoological names of higher value than genera.- 

 no compulsion to substitute Insecta for Arthro- 

 poda on nomenclatorial grounds ; and it cannot be disputed 

 that to do so would be productive of endless confusion. I 

 am prepared to follow Prof. Gregory in thinking that it may 

 be inconvenient to employ a familiar popular term in an 

 signification in scientific writings. But in the 

 present instance the wider use of " insect " has been so 

 long abandoned in literature that even in popular works 

 (be majority of authors understand " insect " exactly as it 

 i^ understood by a zoologist. 



For one reason or another it is not unusual for a word 



in popular use to change its meaning during the gradual 



evolution of a language. It would be simply pedantic, in 



many of these cases, to attempt to go back to what is 



10 be the original meaning. Would Prof. 



recommend us to use the last word in "mice and 



rats, and such small deer," in its earlier signification in 



to the meaning it has acquired in modern 



times? 



Prof. D'Arcy Thompson has put zoologists under a deep 

 debt of gratitude by the recent publication of his transla- 

 tion "I lie' " Ilistoria Animalium " of Aristotle. Those 

 whom the original has hitherto been practically 

 a sealed book may iearn from this translation that 

 in a professedly zoological work, used y4uos in 

 practically the sense in which we use "class." I will 

 conclude by asking whether the principles of priority are 

 in hi- held to givp any countenance to the substitution of 

 " genus " for " class " in systematic zoology. 



Sidney F. Harmer. 



58 Albemarle Road. Beckenham, October 21. 



