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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL VI. No. 1194 



terms in speaking of familiar species. In all 

 cases where exactness is necessary, even well- 

 known common names will not serve, for often 

 a single plant will have several names or a 

 single common name may be applied to several 

 plants. In spite of the conspicuous differences 

 that still exist between the adherents of the 

 " American Code " and those who advocate the 

 " Vienna Rules," the scientific names are still 

 the safest to go by and all botanists would do 

 well to insist upon their use. The sooner the 

 general public discovers that even technical 

 botany is still " the amiable science " the better 

 it will be for all concerned. 



"WiLLARD N. Clute 

 JoLiET, III. 



LACEPEDE OR LACEPEDE 



In going over " The Genera of Fishes " re- 

 cently published by Dr. David Starr Jordan, 

 assisted by Barton Warren Evermann, I dis- 

 cover that these authors accept and adopt the 

 view expressed by Sherborne in his " Index 

 Animalium," p. Ivii, where, under the head of 

 " Additions and Corrections," Sherborne says : 



A letter dated 1831 is signed "b.g.6 cte de lace- 

 p6de. ' ' This spelling ajid accentuation should be 

 adhered to. 



The writer is very much inclined to think 

 that both Sherborne and the learned authors of 

 the recent paper on " The Genera of Fishes " 

 err in accepting the accentuation of the name 

 of the great Frenchman found attached to a 

 scrap of paper bearing his name, which was 

 evidently written in haste. " One swallow does 

 not make a spring," and one hurriedly written 

 autograph with the omission of the acute ac- 

 cent over the iirst " e " in the word does not 

 prove that this was the correct way of writing 

 the name. The writer of these lines is called 

 upon every month to attach his signature hun- 

 dreds of times to vouchers and other docu- 

 ments. He ordinarily puts a period after his 

 initials, W and J; but only yesterday, having 

 signed some two hundred vouchers, he observed 

 that in the haste of doing so he had in a num- 

 ber of cases omitted the period after his ini- 

 tials. Personal observation shows him that 

 just so it is not an infrequent thing for French 



gentlemen in hurried writing to omit an ac- 

 cent. 



In the judgment of the writer of these lines 

 the existence of one letter in which the French 

 ichthyologist signed himself " lacepede " 

 should not avail against the fact that in all his 

 published writings the other method of accen- 

 tuation prevails, that all biographies, encyclo- 

 psedias, and dictionaries, in which the name 

 occurs, give it as " Lacepede." If he were the 

 only person who had borne the name there 

 might be some weight attached to the signa- 

 ture, which Sherborne has turned up ; but there 

 were and are others in France who bear the 

 name, and any one who takes the trouble to 

 consult a French dictionary or encyclopsedia of 

 biography will find that invariably the name is 

 and has been spelled " Lacepede." The name 

 is so spelled in Buffon, who was the friend and 

 contemporary of Lacepede, and I think it seems 

 " rather late in the day " to change the uni- 

 versally accepted spelling of the name of the 

 well-known naturalist on the strength of the 

 L. S. discovered by Sherborne. 



To be consistent, if the acute accent is 

 omitted on the first "e," the capitals should 

 also cease to be employed, not only in the fam- 

 ily, but also the Christian names of Lacepede, 

 for in the autograph which Sherborne quotes 

 the name is written throughout without capi- 

 tals. After carefully weighing the matter the 

 writer is of the opinion that Buffon, the au- 

 thors of the " Dictionnaire Universelle," and 

 the thousand or more Frenchmen engaged in 

 scientific research, who have for over a century 

 written the name " Lacepede " are more likely 

 to know what is correct than the author of the 

 " Index Mammalium," who, having unearthed 

 this L. S., has on the strength of it preceded in 

 this particular to overthrow the usage of more 

 than a century, and the usage of those who 

 were the friends and acquaintances of Lace- 

 pede himself. W. J. Holland 



Pittsburgh, Pa., 

 October 17, 1917 



FORBES WINSLOW MEMORIAL HOSPITAL 



To THE Editor op Science: The British 

 Ministry of Pensions has recognized and 

 authorized for trial psychical treatment for 



