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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1126 



alents in other modern languages to their 

 strictly taxonomic meanings, e. g., "type 

 species," " typical genus," " type specimen," 

 rejecting their use in their long recognized 

 more general sense. The attempt to restrict 

 a word in general use to a new technical mean- 

 ing is always difficult and rarely is wholly suc- 

 cessful. 



May I suggest a way around the difficulty 

 in the case of these words? If in its strictly 

 taxonomic use the word be given its Latin 

 form, typus, there will be no ambiguity. It 

 would accomplish the purpose if all zoologists 

 and botanists would abandon the use of the 

 English words type and typical or their equiv- 

 alents in other modern tongues, thus avoiding 

 all chance of confusion, but this can hardly 

 be secured. On the other hand, taxonomists, 

 who have in mind the taxonomic conventions, 

 might be expected to conform to a better 

 usage, if recommended, and use only the Latin 

 form for the technical meaning. It is easier 

 to bring taxonomists to this better usage than 

 it is to persuade all biologists to abandon the 

 ordinary non-technical use of the vernacular 

 equivalents of the word typus. 



Maynard M. Metcalf 



The Orchard Laboratory, 

 Oberlin, Ohio 



QUOTATIONS 



SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENT IN RUSSIA 



A review, however cursory, of scientific work 

 in Russia during the past two years must take 

 account of two features of outstanding inter- 

 est and importance. One is the appointment, 

 on the initiative of the Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences of Petrograd, of a commission to in- 

 vestigate and report on the natural resources 

 of the Russian Empire with a view to their 

 scientific and practical development and utili- 

 zation. 



Stated in one bald sentence this may not 

 appear particularly impressive, but looked at 

 through the lens of imagination it is revealed 

 as a stupendous project with far-reaching aims 

 and destined to lead to incalculable results. 

 The prime incentive is the fact that in Russia, 

 as elsewhere, the eyes of the nation have been 



opened and attention has been focused on 

 what was in times of peace known to many, 

 deplored by some, and passively acquiesced in 

 by all : the extent to which its economic life 

 has been honeycombed by the greater energy, 

 enterprise and initiative of the Germans. It 

 is now realized that this economic dependence, 

 extending to many things which might just as 

 well have been supplied by native industry, 

 went far beyond the limits of a natural and 

 legitimate exchange of products between 

 neighboring countries, and the empire is firmly 

 resolved to make a determined effort to put an 

 end to an intolerable anomaly. Russia stands 

 at the parting of the ways, and we in this year 

 of grace are, it may be, witnessing the eco- 

 nomic birth of a nation. 



As may be supposed, the development of 

 such a comprehensive scheme to the point of 

 effective utility has not been accomplished 

 without much discussion and some hostile criti- 

 cism. One critic "doubts if the time is well 

 chosen for embarking on such an ambitious 

 enterprise when the strength of the empire 

 is being taxed to the utmost by this terrible 

 war. The end proposed is highly desirable, but 

 . . . the program is so enormous that the pre- 

 liminary steps alone will take years, to say 

 nothing of the long interval that must elapse 

 between scientific investigation and practical 

 fruition . . . " ; and he goes on to point out 

 many problems to the immediate solution of 

 which the academy might in this crisis more 

 profitably apply its energies. However, the 

 commission has in a surprisingly short time 

 got to work — the first sitting took place only 

 in October of last year — and is issuing a series 

 of monographs, several of which have already 

 been published, each written by a specialist, 

 dealing, by way of a commencement, with the 

 vast field, in many directions undeveloped, in 

 others lying fallow, of Russian mining and 

 metallurgy. 



The other item of interest is the convening 

 of a conference by the Imperial Academy of 

 Sciences to consider the proposal to found a 

 Russian Botanical Society with its own official 

 journal. There is a great deal of botanical in- 

 vestigation carried on in Russia by various 



