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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LII. No. 1343 



The simplest method to distinguish between 

 two family or subfamily names that would 

 otherwise be spelled alike, would seem to be 

 to add idoe or incs to the full generic names 

 in the few cases in which duplication would 

 occur, as Picaidce and Picusidm. Other ex- 

 pedients would be to write 2d after the later 

 name, or the year in which the name was 

 published, or the Greek letter p. To make a 

 prefix as Pro a part of the family or sub- 

 family name and so cause the name to appear 

 in alphabetic lists far away from its logical 

 place and to lead the uninitiated into think- 

 ing of a Pro genus which does not exist 

 seems as absurd as it is unnecessary. 



M. W. Lyon, Jr. 



THE NEEDS OF MEN OF SCIENCE IN RUMANIA 



To THE Editor of Science : Please publish in 

 Science the following extract from a letter of 

 Professor Marinesco, a leading scientist and 

 physician in Eumania. 



.... I believe that our Ameriean colleagues, 

 whose country made such a noWe eontriljution to 

 victory, ought to take notice of the unhappy state 

 of the Rumanian men of science which is due to 

 the occupation of our country by the enemy. It is 

 probably unknown that after the occupation we 

 were in extreme distress, because all our instru- 

 ments were then taken away or destroyed. A part 

 of our libraries has been destroyed. Furthermore, 

 since Eumania has no chemical industries, we do 

 not possess the chemical reagents, etc., indispen- 

 sable for scientific research. Allied European 

 countries which would aid us, France for instance, 

 have been equally devastated. 

 . Perhaps the United States which has contributed 

 so largely to the restoration of Europe would make 

 a grand gesture and help the investigators of our 

 country by sending some instruments and a certain 

 amount of reagents as far as they are able to do 

 80. They can not be accepted gratuitously; but we 

 believe that we will be able to repay the debt later 

 when the unfavorable exchange no longer weighs 

 BO heavily upon our laboratory budgets. 



Hoping that my prayer will find a favorable re- 

 sponse among my American colleagues, we would 

 like you to be our spokesman. 



S. J. MelTzer 



EOCKEFELLEB INSTITUTE, NeW TORK, 



September 1, 1920 



QUOTATIONS 



SCIENCE AND THE PUBLIC 



This is the heading of a leaderette in the 

 Daily Mail, which states that " Light is to be 

 ' caught bending ' next week at Cardiff." It 

 goes on to say that " We have in Britain to- 

 day as original a group of scientific men as 

 any country in the world ; and they are begin- 

 ning at la^t to see the wisdom of coming out of 

 their caves and laboratories and applying their 

 brains to practical affairs; to the laws that 

 govern heredity, to wireless apparatus, to the 

 uses of alcohol, to the migration of fish, to 

 medicinal thought-reading, to the possibilities 

 of intensive cultivation — ^which bulks largely 

 this year — indeed to scores of practical themes 

 to which their more abstract studies are lead- 

 ing. 



" In any case, it is time most profitably 

 spent if for one week in the year our men of 

 science bend their united energies to the work 

 of interesting the public in the advance of sci- 

 ence. It is as much the duty of the public to 

 appreciate the men of science as of men of 

 scien-oe to come to meet the public." 



Now, what does the Daily Mail think " our 

 men of science " had been doing during the 

 period before they began to see the wisdom of 

 coming out of their caves and applying their 

 brains to practical affairs? Does it really 

 think that they have suddenly awakened and 

 hurriedly worked up papers on the laws of 

 heredity, on wireless apparatus, etc., just for 

 the purpose of interesting the public during 

 this British Association week? 



The Mail speaks of " our men of science " 

 with a patronizing air, a kindly condescension 

 which implies that they are rather weird un- 

 canny folk, not quite normal, who dwell in 

 " caves and laboratories," and do not usually 

 apply their brains to practical affairs — so un- 

 like the brainy trumpeters of the daily press, 

 who gaily talk of " catching light bending " 

 without having the faintest conception of the 

 significance of the allusion. This superior atti- 

 tude of the journalist who, in many cases, can 

 not even write English correctly, and whose 

 mind is blankly opaque to the most elementary 

 notions of physical science, is galling to those 



