October 15, 1009] 



SCIENCE 



527 



the nomenclatural muck-rakers exhume the 

 fossil names of a past age. We shall always 

 be at the mercy of forgotten names tucked 

 away in stray volumes unless there be some 

 " statutes of limitation " — the bugbears of 

 ■code makers. Let the upturning of the names 

 of obscure writers be stopped and the remodel- 

 ling of codes with fresh interpretations of 

 their canons be prevented. It is not justice 

 for the dead zoologist that we need so much 

 as justice for the living, and even now the 

 dead get no recognition if they violate the 

 rules of a game unknown in their day. The 

 ■" statute of limitation " needed at the point 

 where codes break down is a responsible body 

 of men whose rulings will be respected by 

 •every scientific man who cares more for sta- 

 bility in names than he does for his own 

 preferences. 



In my opinion, the nomenclature of the 

 future is likely to be eclectic and the names 

 fiat, the final court of appeal being an inter- 

 national committee. Such a committee, with 

 the flood of evidence available nowadays, could 

 soon put an end to all the tiresome quibblings 

 over the fixing of generic types, the preoccupa- 

 tion of names, the spelling of words and all 

 the other academic questions over which the 

 most spirited disputes have arisen. It should 

 publish authoritative lists of genera and spe- 

 cies; for zoologists want names as handles for 

 use, not toys to be played with according to 

 Ihis rule or that canon. If zoological names 

 are ever to be put on a stable basis, first of aU 

 a stable committee is needed — and it is to be 

 hoped the Nomenclatural Commission of the 

 International Zoological Congress may prove 

 to be such a committee — and then it should 

 publish lists that would spike the canon of 

 priority and obliterate individual opinion. 

 Details may not be worked out in a day, but 

 the thing can be done and once done it would 

 not have to be done again unless nomenclature 

 should evolve into something very diiferent 

 from what it now is. Probably zoologists have 

 followed beaten paths too long to allow of any 

 radical changes in the methods of determining 

 names, but it is little short of ridiculous to 

 bicker over the comparatively few names that 

 rules do not fix. It is for these names that a 



majority vote of a committee is needed. Sub- 

 committees in the different branches of zoology 

 could furnish the international committee 

 with approved lists of names for final revision 

 and publication, and the zoological world 

 should turn its back upon others than those 

 of the international list. In theory, at least, 

 the cure for nomenclatural instability is very 

 simple and the two essential elements for suc- 

 cess are a permanent, working committee and 

 funds for publication. We should be the 

 masters not the slaves of codes, remembering 

 that " zoological nomenclature is a means, not 

 an end, of zoological science." 



Jonathan Di^acHT, Jr. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 A HALF CENTURY OF DAR^V1NISM ' 



Op the many gatherings, large and small, to 

 commemorate the hundredth anniversary of 

 the birth of Charles Darwin, or the fiftieth 

 anniversary of the " Origin of Species," the 

 two most notable were the one held at Balti- 

 more in January, and the one held at Cam- 

 bridge in June of the present year. 



At the Baltimore meeting, ten addresses 

 were spoken, all relating to the lines of prog- 

 ress in our knowledge of evolution, and the 

 relation of Darwin to this knowledge. 



In connection with the meeting at Cam- 

 bridge, essays were presented covering the re- 

 lation of our knowledge of evolution to various 

 phases of modem thought. 



Except in brevity, the two volumes in ques- 

 tion are essentially similar. The same motive 

 is present in both. At Baltimore, all the 

 jers save one were American. At Cam- 



' " Darwin and Modern Science," essays in com- 

 memoration of tlie centenary of the birth of 

 Charles Darwin, and of the fiftieth anniversary 

 of the publication of the " Origin of Species." 

 Edited by A. C. Seward, Cambridge University 

 Press (twenty-nine essays). 



" Fifty Years of Darwinism," " Modern Aspects 

 of Evolution," centennial addresses in honor of 

 Charles Darwin, before the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science, Baltimore, Fri- 

 day, January 1, 1909. New York, Henry Holt & 

 Company (ten addresses, with an introductory 

 chapter). 



