536 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1454 



strained to state in brief that what he says 

 does not carry conviction to my mind. . 



As to his first postulate I may indeed say 

 that "we can not be sure" of anything. 

 Fabrieius has been dead for over a centui-y, and 

 not even through Sir Oliver Lodge or Conan 

 Doyle can we get into touch with him and 

 ascertain definitely what he was thinking about 

 when he first coined the generic name we still 

 use. But we do know that he had the habit 

 of coining generic names from those of ancient 

 towns and cities. The word lingis had been 

 in existence two thousand years before 

 Fabrieius was born and in its Greek form 

 TtYYi; and in its Latin forms Tingi or Tinge 

 could be found in any dictionary Fabrieius 

 might have consulted. The word was no more 

 "his own" than hundreds of other words be 

 used in his writings. It is difScult for me to 

 believe that Fabrieius out of the depths of his 

 subconscious mind fished up an altogether arbi- 

 trary combination of letters, T-i-n-g-i-s, making 

 out of them, as Professor Parshley says, "his 

 own word." The nomenclatorists of the time 

 of Fabrieius had not yet reached the stage 

 attained at a later date by some of their succes- 

 sors, who took random combinations of letters 

 and then by various transpositions and com- 

 binations manufactured words without mea;n- 

 ing, which they emploj'ed for generic and spe- 

 cific terms. Fabrieius was a disciple of the old 

 Linnean school and used the Latin language. 

 I question whether he had a sense of "proprie- 

 torship" in words. 



The fact that he employs Tingis as the geni- 

 tive only shows that he thought that this was 

 the genitive, after the analogy of some other 

 words in the Latin language, and that he did 

 not take the trouble to ascertain what was the 

 true declension of the noun he was employing. 

 Humanum est errare. The genitive of the 

 Latin noun Tingi or Tinge (the equivalent of 

 the Greek Tifyi^, must have been Tingitis, as 

 shown by the adjectival form tingitanus, used 

 by Pomponius Mela, Claudius Mamertinus, 

 et al. Fabrieius simply made a slip in his de- 

 clension, which it was easy enough to do. 



With all due respect to the conclusions of 

 Professor Parshley I contend that we are deal- 

 ing with an old Latin word (found also in the 



Greek, where it has an i-stem) and that 

 TingitidcB is the correct form of the family 

 name, sanctioned by the use of such eminently 

 capable scholars as Stal (by the way, an ex- 

 cellent linguist), Champion, Oshanin, Hoi-vath, 

 Osborn, Drake and a multitude of others. 



W. J. Holland 



Caenegie Museum, 



A MINIATURE PHOTOGRAPHIC DARKROOM 



Necessity has mothered many an inspira- 

 tion. This trite exclamation was brought to 

 mind by the sudden need of providing dark- 

 room facilities when our commodious attie 

 quarters were closed in order to lessen fire risk. 

 Two alternatives suggested themselves, either 

 to partition off a corner of a room or to con- 

 struct a portable light-proof developing box. 

 Past experience with small stuffy darkrooms 

 was recalled, and the writer accordingly under- 

 took to 'build a dark box as a venture. The con- 

 venience of this box, its adaptability to many 

 photographic purposes, and the successful 

 results following its use have led to the pub- 

 lication of this announcement in the hope that 

 others, at present deterred from attempting 

 'photography through lack of facilities, may find 

 that the way is easily open. 



This miniature darkroom is constructed of 

 pressed wood-pulp board nailed over a light 

 wooden frame. Dimensions of 36 inches for 

 width 24 inches for depth and 20 inches for 

 height have proved to be entirely satisfactory. 

 At the lower part of the front face an opening 

 of about 24 by 10 inches admits the arms and 

 hands of the operator. This opening is ren- 

 dered light-proof by two thicknesses of close- 

 woven black sateen cloth continuous with two 

 sleeves. By having the cloth considerably 

 larger than the opening and shirring the 

 edges, free movement of the arms is afforded 

 by the bulging central portion. The ends of 

 the sleeves are made close fitting by elastic 

 bands. Black sateen bloomers «an be bought 

 ready made and are of the exact pattern and 

 size, with shirring and elastic fittings ready for 

 attachment to the box. Because of looseness of 

 weave, two superposed layers of cloth should 

 be used. 



The top of the box has a removable lighit- 



