1000 



isClENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXIX. No. 756 



other question of science properly so called. 

 And equally of course nomenclature can never 

 be definitely settled. But its puerile and yet 

 forbidding aspect can be vastly altered for the 

 better. 



Is there any real practical difficulty in the 

 way of doing all I have suggested and doing 

 it at once ? Emphatically no ! Men more 

 trained to cooperation than scientific men — 

 business men, administrators, lawyers, politi- 

 cians — would have done it long ago. 



Francis N. Balch 



Jamaica Plain, 

 May 21, 1909 



PERSONAL NAMES AND NOMENCLATURE 



The use of personal names in nomenclature 

 which has been somewhat criticized by various 

 correspondents is perhaps defensible under 

 certain circumstances. While its objections 

 in many instances have been pointed out yet 

 the absurdity of the practise becomes stri- 

 kingly apparent when one notes such a paper 

 as that on Paleozoic Ostracods in a recent 

 volume of the Proceedings of the National 

 Museum. In all, sixteen generic names are 

 used in the article; nine of these are old and 

 seven new. Among the old names, five are 

 certainly personal in origin, four may not be, 

 although two of these probably are. Among 

 the seven new names, absolutely every one is 

 personal. Either this indicates an extraordi- 

 nary number of distinguished men in this 

 field or an unfortunate lack of mental energy 

 on the part of the authors. 



X 



SIR WILLIAM GAIRDNER's PAPERS 



To THE Editor of Science: In response to 

 the wishes of Lady Gairdner and her family, 

 I have undertaken to edit the medical and 

 scientific papers and articles of the late Sir 

 William Tennant Gairdner, and to preface the 

 collection with a biography. 



In order to render the work as worthy as 

 possible of the memory of the late professor, 

 I am desirous of enlisting the sympathy and 

 help of his friends. I venture therefore to 

 request through your columns that any one 

 who has in his possession any letters or other 



literary remains of Sir William Gairdner will 

 be so kind as to communicate with me. 



G. A. Gibson 

 3 Deumsheugh Gardens, 

 Edinburgh, 

 May 12, 1909 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 The Booh of Wheat. By Peter Tracy Dond- 

 LiNGER, Ph.D., formerly Professor of Mathe- 

 matics in Fairmount College. With 60 

 illustrations. Pp. xi + 369. New York, 

 Orange Judd Company; London, Kegan 

 Paul, Trench, Triibner & Co., Limited. 

 1908. 



When we think of the great importance of 

 the cereal wheat in the food economy of na- 

 tions it is surprising that there has not been 

 more written on the subject. The book now 

 before us is something that might well have 

 been looked for years ago. The author has 

 furnished portions of his manuscript at dif- 

 ferent times to the writer of this review, and 

 the latter has, therefore, known something of 

 what was to be expected in the book itself. 



Naturally a writer is lilvely to give more 

 prominence, in discussing a subject, to those 

 features with which he has come most often in 

 daily contact, and so in this instance there is 

 proportionately not as much space given to 

 the discussion of wheat as a plant as to the 

 milling operations, the commercial and eco- 

 nomical position, etc. The work is particu- 

 larly lacking in its presentation of wheat 

 classification, discussion of varieties and 

 other matters of botanical and agronomic 

 interest. On the other hand, there is a very 

 full discussion of the machinery for harvest- 

 ing and threshing, crop rotations, fertilizers, 

 marketing, milling, prices, movement and 

 consumption. A commendable feature, also, 

 is the addition of a very complete bibliog- 

 raphy, though it must be said that the proof- 

 reading of this bibliography was very faulty. 

 Considerable attention is also properly 

 given to the topic of diseases and insect ene- 

 mies. 



In making use of the map (page 9) showing 

 wheat distribution, which was formerly pub- 

 lished by the U. S. Department of Agricul- 



