492 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1403 



scriptive than they are and contain informa- 

 tion essential to a cataloguer or investigator, 

 frequently obviating the necessity of an ex- 

 amination of the article itself to discover 

 ■what it is really about. Take, for instance, 

 titles like the following: "A spot disease of 

 cauliflower," " Known species of smut on a 

 new host," "A dangerous potato disease." 

 Each of these titles shows in a general way 

 what the article in question is about, but no 

 one of them gives information essential for 

 assigning subject headings, yet in each case 

 this might have been done, still keeping the 

 title concise and short. The title "A spot 

 disease of cauliflower " omits the very im- 

 portant information that this is a new di- 

 sease assigned to a new bacterial pathogene 

 which is described in the paper, while " A 

 spot disease of cauliflower caused by Bacter- 

 ium maculicolum n. sp." gives the essential 

 information and is not objectionably long. 

 The title "Known species of smut on a new 

 host " might much better be written " Gin- 

 tractia leucoderma on a new host, Cyperus 

 gatesii," and " A dangerous potato disease " 

 — " A dangerous potato disease due to Bhi- 

 zoctonia violacea" or "A dangerous Bhizoc- 

 tonia disease of potatoes." 

 - It may be difficult to assign satisfactory 

 titles for articles on abstract subjects whose 

 terminology is not definitely fixed, but in 

 cases such as those mentioned above it is a 

 simple matter to compose a clear and definite 

 title giving the specific facts dealt with in 

 the paper. The more definite titles would 

 save time in the library not only in catalog- 

 ing and bibliographical work, but would fre- 

 quently prevent the necessity of the library's 

 procuring a journal for an investigator on 

 the chance that an article contained therein, 

 whose title may have been seen in a catalog 

 or list, may be on a subject in which he is 

 interested. A clear and definite title shows 

 at a glance whether the article should be read 

 by an investigator working on a certain sub- 

 ject, vfhile an ambiguous or indefinite title 

 puts him under the necessity of looking • up 

 many articles only to find that they are not 

 on his subject. 



It would seem, therefore, well worth while 

 for the National Research Council, or what- 

 ever agency is formulating the directions and 

 rules for the preparation of analytic ab- 

 stracts, to include with these directions for 

 the preparation of titles for scientific arti- 

 cles. There are many points in addition to 

 those which have been mentioned here, 

 which should be considered, such as, for in- 

 stance, the relation of the title of a prelimi- 

 nary abstract to the title of the complete paper 

 appearing later, giving the same article in 

 different journals difiPerent titles, the publish- 

 ing of different articles on the same subject 

 with identical titles, or, the continuation of 

 an article with a title different from that 

 of the first installment. 



Eunice E. Obeelv 



Library, Bureau of Plant Industry, 

 U. S. Department of Agriculture 



LONGITUDINAL ELECTROMAGNETIC FORCES 



To THE Editor of Science: Last spring the 

 writer sent a note to one of our well-known 

 and carefully edited scientific journals for 

 its correspondence column, announcing briefly 

 that there are a number of good reasons for 

 concluding that the old belief (expressed by 

 Maxwell) that electromagnetic forces can act 

 only perpendicularly to a conductor and 

 never in the direction of its axis, seems to be 

 wrong, and if so, it should be corrected. 



The " advisers " of the editor on subjects 

 pertaining to physics, recommended that the 

 note " ought not to be published " as it was 

 " so subversive of long-established principles." 

 Five weeks later, the editor returned the note 

 unpublished. 



Physicists who have a more progressive 

 spirit and may, therefore, be interested in 

 such " heresies," and who are not hide-bound 

 by beliefs whose chief qualification is the 

 age of those beliefs, will find this subject 

 more fully discussed by the wi-iter in an 

 article in the Journal of the Franklin Insti- 

 tute for ISTovember. This is also a carefully 

 edited scientific journal, and one of its " ad- 

 visers " on physical subjects (one of our lead- 

 ing physicists) recommended that " it is well 

 worth publishing." 



