April 21, 1899.] 



SCIENCE. 



567 



statements may cany their own correction. 

 Certain points were presented two years 

 ago.* If, in a few instances, I repeat what 

 I have previously published, precedent for 

 so doing may be found in these words of 

 Huxley : 



" "When objections ai-e ignored without 

 being refuted or even discussed, I suppose 

 the best way is to emphasize them afresh." 

 Zool. Soe. Proceedings, 1883, p. 139. 



Misapprehendon J.f That the ' Majority Re- 

 port ' embodies the positive convictions of one 

 member and the merely passive acquiescence of 

 the other two. — Such an impression not only 

 might be, but actuallj' has been, produced by 

 the ' Minority Report.' Nothing could be 

 less accurate or just! 



The members of this Association need 

 only be reminded that the two other signers 

 of the ' Majority Report ' are among the 

 more active of our associates ; that they 

 are writers, and are, or have been, practi- 



* Neural Terms, International and National, Jour- 

 nal of Comparative Neurology, VI., December, 1896, pp. 

 216-352, including seven tables. Parts VII. -IX. have 

 also been reprinted under the title 'Table of Neural 

 Terms, with Comments and Bibliography,' including 

 also ' Suggestions to American Anatomists.' Copies 

 of the entire paper and also of the 'Tables,' etc., 

 were sent to all members of all committees on nomen- 

 clature, here and abroad, and to many other anato- 

 mists and neurologists. To them were also sent copies 

 of the 'Table,' etc., and the latter was still more 

 widely distributed to others more or less directly in- 

 terested in the subject. My reprints of the entire 

 paper are exhausted; of the 'Table,' etc., some 

 copies remain that will be sent upon application. The 

 larger part of the paper is contained in the lecture 

 'Some Neural Terms,' in 'Biological Lectures' 

 [at the Marine Biological Laboratory] for 1896-7. 

 The ' Errors and Omissions ' detected in my Lists of 

 Neural Terms have been corrected in the Journal of 

 Comparative Neurology, VIII., pp. li-lii, July, 1898 ; 

 a leaflet reprint has been inserted in copies of ' Neu- 

 ral Terms ' and of ' Table of Neural Terms ' dis- 

 tributed since March 30, 1898, and will be sent upon 

 request to those who received copies prior to that 

 date. 



tThe succeeding misapprehensions will be desig- 

 nated simply by Roman numerals. 



tioaers; and that they are teachers of anat 

 omy in long- established medical schools. 



But even more significant in this connec- 

 tion is something best known to those who 

 know them best. These men, in a notable 

 degree, combine intellectual independence 

 with liberality; in other words, they are con- 

 spicuously free from two qualities shared 

 by the human species with certain other 

 mammals, viz., uncritical imitation, on the 

 one hand, and, on the other, hostility toward 

 what appears to be new merely because 

 they are personally unfamiliar with it. 



With regard to the matter in question, as 

 was expressly stated in the ' Majority Re- 

 port ' (p. 31 , § 2, 5), " with few exceptions 

 the terms recommended had been adopted 

 by each member individually, and prior to 

 the conference at which joint action was 

 taken." * 



Notwithstanding the nature of their con- 

 victions, if the larger number of those in 

 attendance at the present session decide to 

 materially modify or even reverse the action 

 of a year ago, the majority of your com- 

 mittee will offer no factious opposition, f 

 They will, however, feel none the less proud 

 of their work and confident of its eventual 

 readoption. Their sentiments may be com- 

 pared, although somewhat remotely, with 

 those of the surgeon who had devised a new 

 flap for amputation of the thigh. Upon the 

 first trial, just as the operation was trium- 

 phantly completed, an overdose of chloro- 

 form killed the patient. " Too bad," said 

 the surgeon, "but at any rate he'll go to 

 heaven with the best flap that ever was 

 made." 



* For the complete appreciation of the situation it 

 should perhaps be added that the two other signers of 

 the ' Majority Report ' were appointed on the Com- 

 mittee respectively by the two signers of the ' Minor- 

 ity Report ' while serving as Presidents. 



tAt the closing session (December 30, 1898) of 

 the eleventh meeting the second Report of the Ma- 

 jority of the Committee was adopted by the Associa- 

 tion. 



