NOTES AND COMMEN' 



DEC n^m\ ^ 



SCIENTIFIC PUBLICATION. \. i/ ^^ 



On this subject, Dr. F. A. Bather has an artiH^^O^^^Wal^S^ ^ 

 recently, from which we extract the following: — ' Many" 

 scientific journals, especially those started in years of pros- 

 perity, are needlessly sumptuous. No journal need cut out 

 matter so long as it allows a quarter of a page or more to the 

 author's title and titles. The illustrations in these journals 

 are often on an absurdly large scale, and there is too much 

 printer's ' fat.'. Footnotes are generally a sign of undigested 

 matter and chaotic thought. Sensible and succinct methods of 

 referring to literature ai»e being adopted and enforced by 

 modern editors, but there is room for improvement. Some 

 authors have a habit of writing a separate paper on each aspect 

 of a single subject ; and three such papers may appear in one 

 number of a journal, each with its quarter-page heading and 

 half-page blank at the end. This habit is much in evidence 

 in the modern journals to which I have referred. There are 

 other authors who write slight variants of the same article for 

 several periodicals. Since they are not paid for their trouble, 

 they have no excuse for thus inflicting themselves on a weary 

 public. Suppress them, Mr. Editor ! The preliminary notice 

 is frequently a form of this self-advertisement. 



DACTYLOGRAPHY AND PINE -APPLES. 



We have received No. i of a new Journal entitled ' Dactylo- 

 graphy : a bi-monthly Journal dealing with Identification 

 by Finger-prints and other methods. Detection of Crime by 

 Scientific Means, etc' (20 pages is.), published by Messrs. 

 Webberley, Ltd., Hanley. The' publication deals with 

 ' Chemical Evidence in Criminal Trials,' by C. A. Mitchell ; 

 ' Social and Anti-Social Significance of Tattooing,' by W. D. 

 Hambly ; ' The Dawn of Dactylography,' by the Editor, and 

 other subjects. The following paragraph taken from the 

 Editorial Notes seems to indicate that the title Dactylography, 

 covers a fairly wide area : — ' Medical men often prescribe 

 pine-apple for some forms of dyspepsia. We have not all 

 lived like Colonel Altamont, in Pendennis, where " pigs were 

 fed on pines," but invalids even of the poorer classes can now 

 afford to get tinned pine-apple. A new variety, however, I 

 find, has now come on the market. If pine -apple contains 

 active pepsine, as it should do, it may be tested by its speedily 

 curdling milk. Now this brand is tasteless, and is inert, so 

 far as the milk test goes. I think the tissue is that of pine- 

 apple. Has the pepsine then been extracted? It is still 

 more certain that the fruit is genuine pine-apple when it is 

 tinned in cross sections. But one can tell by the flavour, 

 and by the milk curdling when mixed with the fruit or its 

 juice.' 



1921 Dec. 1 



2 C 



