April 29, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



415 



whicli on the coin is circumscribed by the 

 name MEFAPEON, i.e., of the Megarians, 

 has been published in the United States as 

 representing Euclid the mathematician. This 

 unintentional historical misrepresentation ap- 

 Ijears in the publication, " A Portfolio of Por- 

 traits of Eminent Mathematicians" (1896), 

 issued by the Open Court Publishing Com- 

 pany, in Chicago, a firm which in general has 

 done as much as any other in America to 

 advance a sound knowledge of the history of 

 mathematics. The picture of Euclid of 

 Megara is given as that of the mathematician, 

 Euclid. In the memorandum accompanying 

 the picture occurs the statement, " the name 

 Megara is frequently coupled with his [name] 

 on the early portraits as in this case." 



The statement just quoted, in so far as it 

 relates to the coin portrait in question, is in 

 conflict with numismatic authority. A speci- 

 men of the coin referred to is in the British 

 Museum and has been described by the great 

 authority on coins, Barclay V. Head, who 

 speaks of this coin as follows:^ 



MErAPEflN. Bearded head of the philosopher 

 Eucleides of Megara, veiled and wearing ear-ring. 

 . . . This remarkable type refers to the story that 

 Eucleides attended the lectures of Socrates in the 

 disguise of a woman, the Athenians having passed 

 a decree that no citizens of Megara should be ad- 

 mitted within their walls. (Aulus Gellius, Noct. 

 Att., VI., 10.) 



In his catalogue of Greek coins Head^ 

 quotes the Latin passage from Aulus Gellius, 

 the Roman writer of the second century A.D., 

 referred to above, who had studied at Athens. 

 The passage tells the story of Euclid's going 

 to Athens disguised in a "tunica longa 



' ' Corolla Numismatica ... in Honour of Barclay 

 V. Head," Oxford University Press, 1906, pp. 368- 

 386. 



2"Historia Numorum, a Manual of Greek 

 Numismatics," by Barclay V. Head, Oxford, 1911, 

 p. 394. 



3 ' ' Catalogue of Greek Coins, Attica — Megaris — 

 Aegina," by Barclay V. Head, D.C.L., Ph.D. 

 Edited by Reginald Stuart Poole, LL.D., London, 

 1888, p. 121. iSee a drawing of the coin in Attica, 

 etc., Plate XXI., 14. 



muliebri " to attend the lectures of Socrates 

 and of his returning to Megara the next day 

 in the same disguise. In this book Head 

 gives the date of the coin as " Cir. 146 B.C. 

 or later " ; in his Historia, quoted above, he 

 gives, " Imperial Times ? ". While Head thus 

 expresses uncertainty as to the exact age of 

 the coin, he entertains no doubt as to the 

 head-dress representing woman's apparel that 

 was worn by Euclid of Megara when on his 

 way to and from the lectures of Socrates. 



It is therefore established with as great 

 certainty that this coin does not give the bust 

 of the mathematician Euclid as it is estab- 

 lished that this mathematician was not Euclid 

 of Megara. 



Florian Cajoei 



Univeesity op California 



rainbow by moonlight 



To THE Editor of Science: In connection 

 with the case of the rainbow at night re- 

 ported by Frank L. Griffin in Science of 

 March 11, the following case may be of 

 interest: At Burge, Nebraska, a rural post 

 office about eighteen miles southwest of 

 Valentine, on September 4, 191Y, at about 

 9 P.M. a rainbow appeared. The moon had 

 risen about an hour previously and a thun- 

 derstorm was coming up in the west, the rest 

 of the sky being clear, A rainbow began to 

 form and it continued to become brighter 

 until a complete arch was formed. It was 

 very distinct, but was nearly white and 

 showed the prismatic colors very faintly if 

 at all. 



C. J. Elmore 



QUOTATIONS 



BRITISH DYESTUFFS CORPORATION 



The situation in which the directorate of 

 the British Dyestuffs Corporation finds itself 

 is a remarkable one. At the registration of 

 this company in May, 1919, as a result of 

 amalgamating British Dyes, Ltd., of Hudders- 

 field, with Messrs. Levinstein, Ltd., of Black- 

 ley, the appointment of Sir Joseph Turner as 



