304 
Dr. Samurt P. Hayes, professor of psy- 
chology, will be in England until next fall. 
Mr. C. SuHearer, of Clare College, Cam- 
bridge, has been nominated to a newly estab- 
lished lectureship in experimental morphology 
at Cambridge. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 
THE WORD GENOTYPE 
Proressor JENNINGS (SciENcE, December 
15, p. 847) refers to the fact that the word 
genotype has two meanings, but does not 
make it quite clear that both are current at 
the present time. The use of the word, with a 
definition, by Schuchert antedates that of 
Johannsen, as has been several times pointed 
out. Taxonomists can hardly be expected to 
abandon their prior and useful term, so it 
becomes a question whether it is convenient 
to continue the Johannsenian usage, trusting 
to the context to indicate in every case what 
is intended. 
Some months ago, in conversation, my col- 
league, Dr. George Norlin, suggested “ amic- 
totype” as a possible substitute for genotype 
in the sense of Jennings. 
T. D. A. CockERELL 
UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO 
GENOTYPE AND “ GENOTYPE ” 
“Tw calling attention to the frequent mis- 
use of the word ‘ genotype’” (quotation from 
George H. Shull in Scrence, February 2, 1912, 
p. 182), the students of heredity will please 
take notice that this term has been in biology 
since 1897 and that Shull, Johannsen and 
others persistently misuse the term. The 
original definition is as follows: 
“Genotype (genos—race, and typos—= 
type).—Genotype applies to any typical ma- 
terial of the type species of a genus. The ma- 
terial, however, should be, if possible, from 
the original locality of the species, or a geno- 
type should also be a topotype or a metatype. 
Therefore there may be as many genotypes of 
Iingula as there are museums having char- 
acteristic specimens of Lingula anatina.’”’+ 
CHARLES SOHUOHERT 
1ScIENCE, April 23, 1897, p. 639. 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 895 
SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 
Lectures on Fundamental Concepts of Alge- 
bra and Geometry. By JoHn WESLEY 
Youne, Professor of Mathematics in the 
University of Kansas. Prepared for pub- 
lication with the cooperation of WILLIAM 
We tts Denton, Assistant in Mathematics 
in the University of Illinois. With a Note 
on the Growth of Algebraic Symbolism by 
Utysses Grant MitcHetn, Assistant Pro- 
fessor of Mathematics in the University of 
Kansas. New York, The Macmillan Com- 
pany. 1911. Pp. vi-+ 247. 
Descriptive Geometry: A Treatise from a 
Mathematical Standpoint. By Victor T. 
Wiuson, M.E., Professor of Drawing and 
Design in the Michigan Agricultural Col- 
lege. New York, John Wiley & Sons. 1909. 
Pp. viii + 237. 
Elements of Descriptive Geometry with Ap- 
plications to Spherical and Isometric Pro- 
jections, Shades and Shadows, and Per- 
spective. By Aupert EK. Ouurcu, LL.D., 
late Professor of Mathematics in the United 
States Military Academy, and Grorce M. 
Bartiett, M.A., Instructor in Descriptive 
Geometry and Mechanism, University of 
Michigan. New York, American Book 
Company. 1911. Pp, 286. 
Professor Young’s “Lectures” presuppose 
in the reader intellectual acumen and a cer- 
tain logical bent but little mathematical 
knowledge beyond the elements of algebra and 
geometry. Dealing with such topics as 
Euclid’s Elements, A Non-Euclidean World, 
Consistency, Independence and Categorical- 
ness of a Set of Assumptions, with the no- 
tions of class, correspondence and group, the 
assumptions of Hilbert and Pieri, dimension- 
ality and hyperspace, variable, function and 
limit, and dealing with them in a way that is 
at once philosophic, romantic, scientific and 
well-nigh literary, the lectures ought to ap- 
peal to a wide and diversified class of readers, 
philosophers, logicians, both expert and inex- 
pert mathematicians, and thinkers in general. 
The book is far more than its title indicates, 
for the concepts treated are presented as being 
fundamental to mathematics in general, to 
