November 10, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



535 



Dr. Manfred Call, formerly professor of 

 clinical medicine, has been elected dean of the 

 medical department of the Medical College of 

 Virginia, ait Richmond. 



Dr. H. M. Jennison, for several years as- 

 sisitant professor of botany at the Montana 

 Agricultural College, Bozeman, has become 

 associate professor of botany in the University 

 of Tennessee. 



ANDEEVf Kaesten (Ph.D., Univer.sity of 

 Ohio), has recently entered upon his work -as 

 heiad of the department of chemistry at ithe 

 South Dakota School of Mines. 



ITredehick p. Vickeey, formerly of Leland 

 Stanford, Jr., University, has been appointed 

 assastan-t professor of geology and head of the 

 department at the Southern Branch of ^tiie 

 University of California; at Los Angeles. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPOND- 

 ENCE 



STELLAR DIAMETERS 



The determination of star diameters has 

 been a matter of considerable interesfc since the 

 first measures of Betlegeuse were published 

 from the Mount Wilson Observatory. Various 

 predictions have been made for the apparent 

 diameter of stars by Eddington, Russell, 

 Wilsing and Hertzsprung, based 'directly or 

 indirectly upon visual estimates of brightness, 

 color and spectral type. The recent work of 

 Coblentz at the Lowell Observatory has afford- 

 ed means of determining new curves of spectral 

 intensities giving data for a revised correla- 

 tion of temperatures_ and spectral types. Such 

 information, together with the direct thei-mo- 

 eleetric measures of stellar radiation made by 

 Coblentz both at the Lick and the Lowell 

 Observatories, affords the basis for the calcula- 

 tion of a star's surface area if its distance is 

 known, or, wanting accurate parallax deter- 

 minations, the apparent angular diameter can 

 be computed on the grounds of blaek body 

 radiation. This serves at least as an inde- 

 pendent method of checking star diameters, and 

 the results of its application to the three stars 

 whose diameters have thus far been measured 

 by the interferometer method may be of gen- 

 eral interest, and are given below : 



Eddington K'Jssell 



a Orio^nis 



(Betlegeuse) .... 0.045" 0.047" 0.051" 0.031" 

 a Seorpii 



^ (Antarea) 0.036" 0.040" 0.043" 0.028" 



(X Bootis 



(Areturus) 0.018" 0.022" 0.020" 0.019" 



The agreement between the diameters com- 

 puted from the galvanometer deflection deter- 

 mined by Coblentz {Sci. Papers Bureau of 

 Standards, Nos. 244, 438) and the actual 

 measured diameters is surprisingly good. It is 

 ■not easy to suppose that a star can radiate 

 as a black 'body. Since, however, this assump- 

 tion js fundamental in applying the laws of 

 radiation from which ithe diameter is com- 

 puted, it is rather remarkable to find stars 

 radiate as nearly lilce black bodies as the bit of 

 evidence herein contained would seem to show. 



H. T. Stetson 

 Harvard University, 



Astronomical Laboratory 



TINGITID/E OR TINGIDjE AGAIN 

 "To be or not to be" — Tingitida or Tingidce? 

 Logomachy is a "war about words." It seems 

 . that I have involved myself in such a 'merry 

 war, driven thereto by my desire as a scientific 

 editor to get at the bottom facts as to what is 

 the correct scientific family-name to give to 

 those insignificant, but very interesting and 

 beautiful little creatures, commonly known as 

 "lace-bugs." In a little article published in 

 Science (N. S.), LVI, 1922, pp. 334-335, I 

 found in favor of the family name Tingitida. 

 Now comes that excellent entomologist. Pro- 

 fessor H. M. Parshley, of Smith College, and 

 reminds us that in an article published in 

 Psyche, XXIII, 1916, p. 129, he had found in 

 favor of Tingidce. His argument in brief is 

 founded upon the statements : 



1. "We can not be sure that Fabricius did 

 in fact adopt the Greek word TiYyt?, the name 

 of a city." 



2. "His use of the genitive Tingis [in a foot- 

 note] shows us that he considered the word his 

 own and indicates what its Latin declension 

 should be." . 



I regret that I had completely overlooked 

 Professor Parshley's article, and duly apolo- 

 gize for the oversight. I am, however, con- 



