September 1, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



309 



plans during the war, but the council has 

 already made recommendations which, if 

 adopted, will, it believes, secure that all that 

 is practicable in existing circumstances shall 

 be done. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



An endowment of $70,000, to create the 

 " Howison Foundation," has been given to the 

 University of California by George Holmes 

 Howison, professor of philosophy, emeritus, in 

 the University of California, and Lois Caswell 

 Howison, his wife. Subject to an annuity 

 during their lifetime, the endowment is to 

 maintain the Howison Traveling Fellowship, 

 of $1,200 to $1,500 a year, $600 a year to con- 

 stitute the Lois Caswell Fund for the Dean 

 of Women to aid deserving women students, 

 and three or four Anne Sampson scholarships 

 or fellowships, in honor of Mrs. Howison's 

 mother, for women students in English litera- 

 ture and criticism. 



Dr. Alice Eohde has been appointed in- 

 structor in research medicine in the George 

 "Williams Hooper Foundation for Medical Ee- 

 search of the University of California. A 

 graduate of the University of Chicago of 1903 

 and of Johns Hopkins Medical School of 1910, 

 Dr. Eohde has had special training in research 

 medicine under Professor Walter Jones and 

 Professor J. J. Abel at the Johns Hopkins 

 University and under Dr. Emil Fischer at 

 Berlin. 



Dr. Joseph H. Grossman, of Cleveland, has 

 been appointed lecturer on diagnosis of tuber- 

 culosis in the school for applied social sciences 

 of Western Eeserve University. 



At the last meeting of the corporation of the 

 Massachusetts Institute of Technology the fol- 

 lowing assistant professors were promoted to 

 be associate professors: Daniel F. Comstock, 

 theoretical physics; George L. Hosmer, topo- 

 graphical surveying; C. L. E. Moore, mathe- 

 matics; Ellwood B. Spear, inorganic chemis- 

 try; William E. Wickenden, electrical engi- 

 neering. The following instructors were made 

 assistant professors: James M. Barker, struc- 

 tural engineering; Ealph G. Hudson and 

 Waldo V. Lyon, electrical engineering, Earl B. 



Millard, theoretical chemistry; Thomas H. 

 Huff, aeronautical engineering. 



Mr. T. E. Gordon has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of surgery in Trinity College, Dublin, 

 in succession to Professor E. H. Taylor. 



Professor J. J. van Loghem has been ap- 

 pointed to the newly founded chair of tropical 

 hygiene in the University of Amsterdam. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



AMBLYSTOMA NOT AMBYSTOMA 



To the Editor op Science : In a letter 

 printed in Science for June 30, 1916 (43: 929), 

 Dr. M. W. Lyon, Jr., presents and defends the 

 thesis, " Amby stoma not Amblystoma." If so, 

 the spotted salamander has another spot on 

 his name. Amby stoma is a dark saying. Dr. 

 Lyon refers to the original paper of the author, 

 Tschudi, 1839 (Scudder gives 1838), and says 

 that the name is " written by him Ambystoma 

 in four different places in his work, and only 

 in that manner." He adds : " The derivation 

 of the word is not given by him, and there is 

 nothing to indicate that he intended Ambly- 

 stoma and made a lapsus calami." 



But outside of Tschudi's print, there is 

 something to indicate that he intended Ambly- 

 stoma, and made a lapsus of some sort; namely, 

 the fact that Ambystoma has no assignable 

 meaning in any known language, while Ambly- 

 stoma has an assignable meaning in the lan- 

 guage of science — that European or cosmo- 

 politan Latin which has supplied the main 

 vocabulary of science, and will probably supply 

 it for ages to come; being, like the rustic's 

 indefluent river, in omne volubilis aevum. 



In this voluble vocabulary Amblystoma, or 

 the adjective latent behind this name, means 

 " having a blunt mouth." In form and mean- 

 ing it is parallel to Amblystomus, the name of 

 a genus of beetles, and to Ambly rhynchus, 

 the name of a genus of lizards — which are 

 cousins, once removed, of salamanders. These 

 are but three of a long string of zoologic names 

 beginning with Ambly-. But Ambystoma 

 stands alone, though it appeared in the same 

 decade with most of the others. 



Whether Amblystoma, with the sense "hav- 

 ing a blunt mouth," is an accurate or a suita- 



