54 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 915 



oppose the introduction into science of a cor- 

 rect and intelligible way of indicating the 

 sounds of the human voice? How long will 

 the American men of science who control 

 scientific societies and scientific institutions 

 and scientific journals, ignore or suppress the 

 proposals of philological scholars to provide a 

 definite system of indicating the sounds of the 

 English language ? How long will they oppose 

 the movement to bring about a regulation of 

 English spelling, so that English words may he 

 spelt correctly and intelligibly, and so that a 

 given man of science, in a journal devoted to 

 science, and bearing the name of Science may 

 present a simple idea, in simple letters, in a 

 sure and certain way? How long? Ask our 

 respected friends President X and Professor T 

 and Dr. Z, Editor P and Director Q, who sit 

 at the gates of science, and scrutinize the 

 tickets, and exclude every man who does not 

 spell according to their Mohammedan way. 

 In the name of the Prophet, phigs! 



In the meantime the leaders in science will 

 be writing in Science statements about lan- 

 guage that are in fact futile, because, as we 

 lawyers say, they are "void for uncertainty." 



Of course I know, and you know, Mr. Editor, 

 what Dr. ShuU means when he says "pro- 

 nounced gen " ; but we know it by a process of 

 inference, and by a course of special study. 

 No one else can tell what he means, except 

 through the same process. The man of sci- 

 ence wishes to be clear, but his colleagues 

 won't let him. In the name of the Prophet, 

 phigs! Charles P. G. Scott 



YONKERS, N. Y., 

 June 24, 1912 



formation op spurred flowers in hybrid 

 calceolarias 



Webber' refers to hybridization as the ap- 

 parent causal agent in the development of a 

 marked spur or horn on the lip of a hybrid 

 Calceolaria. Characters apparently new are 

 said to appear rather commonly in hybrids and 

 the idea is advanced that the teratological 

 structure just mentioned may be a new unit 

 character of the genus Calceolaria. The state- 

 ment is made that "no such character, so far 



' Science, N. S., 35, p. 606, April 19, 1912. 



as can be learned, is known in the Calceolarias, 

 and it would seem to have been caused by the 

 hybridization." 



M. T. Masters'" states that the formation of 

 spurs or spur-like tubes is very frequent in 

 some seasons in the corolla of certain Calceo- 

 larias (C florihunda) . An excellent figure 

 (Fig. 169) is also given. 



Orland E. White 

 BussET Institution, 

 Harvard University, 

 June 18, 1912 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 High School Education. Edited by Charles 



Hughes Johnston, Ph.D. Charles Scrib- 



ner's Sons. 1912. 



To designate this book a notable effort in 

 pioneer-work is to indicate at once its merits 

 and its inevitable limitations. In its arrange- 

 ment, in the assignment of general and of 

 specific topics to writers whose interests con- 

 centrate in their respective fields of inquiry, it. 

 proclaims the fundamental belief that na 

 single writer can hope to do justice to all 

 the issues involved in secondary education. 

 Where questions of general policy, of pro- 

 grams of study, of curricula and of method in 

 individual subjects must be weighed to pro- 

 mote the ideals of efficiency, it is desirable that 

 the inquiring teacher shall have the guidance 

 of a number of experts whose utterances will 

 help him to plot his own line of procedure. It 

 speaks well for the firmness of the editor that 

 his collaborators represent almost without ex- 

 ception a uniform tendency, though they are- 

 permitted full leeway in the advocacy of their 

 individuality. Professor Johnston has on the- 

 whole been fortunate in the choice of his 

 cooperating writers ; even for some of the sub- 

 jects that have not yet found general recogni- 

 tion in our high schools he has secured con- 

 tributors of distinctly originative ability- 

 Even though this book may be superseded be- 

 fore long by similar studies of greater value,. 

 it may claim the merit of having led the way 

 to a proper consideration of the manifold prob- 

 lems of the secondary school. 



= " Vegetable Teratology," 1869, p. 316. 



