216 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVI. No. 920 



f acturers have been deliberately adding copper 

 to their steel, because it has been found that 

 small amounts of this element caused the 

 metal to be more insoluble in dilute acids. 

 Most investigators agree that an acid test 

 should not be made the sole basis of specifica- 

 tion where resistance to atmospheric corrosion 

 is required in the product, but nevertheless the 

 fact that a metal can be shown resistant to the 

 attack of mineral acids has been in the past, 

 and is still, used as an attractive salesmen's 

 argument. 



The writer can not help regretting that 

 Professor Walker should have included a 

 paragraph in a scientific review, written in 

 such a manner that it could be reprinted and 

 used in a commercial contest with the object 

 of producing a false impression. 



Professor Walker in the same review takes 

 occasion to regret that Dr. Priend had rec- 

 ommended this pure open hearth iron as a 

 possible standard on which to base a corrosion 

 factor. The writer has used this material in 

 this way for some time, and the U. S. Bureau 

 of Standards has recently acquired a quan- 

 tity of the same metal in which the sum of 

 the total impurities present, including the 

 gases, is less than two tenths of a per cent. 



It would appear to the writer that there is 

 such a thing as professional ethics in respect 

 to the scientific treatment of scientific books 

 reviewed in a scientific journal, and that 

 such reviews should not be used to introduce 

 false impressions to be afterwards touted 

 about the country as " salesmen's arguments." 

 It is an unfortunate fact that the development 

 of this new step in metallurgy, namely, the 

 manufacture for the first time of commer- 

 cially pure iron in the open hearth furnace, on 

 a large scale of operation, should have called 

 forth active enmity from so many unexpected 

 quarters in this country. 



- Allerton S. Cushman 



-■••. ITONID.E vs. ' CECIDOMYnD^ 



"■ A NOTE by Dr. E. P. Felt in Science for 

 July 5 (p. 17) calls attention to a matter 

 somewhat aside from the question of priority 



in nomenclature, but one which should not be 

 disregarded by zoologists who are striving to 

 attain stability and accuracy in the designa-. 

 tion of taxonomic groups. There is much dis- 

 sension among systematic zoologists regard- 

 ing the status of Meigen's 1800 names for his 

 genera of diptera which were rechristened by 

 him in 1804. As is well known, the latter 

 names were in common use for a full century 

 and many workers are not in sympathy with 

 those who advocate the adoption of the older, 

 long-forgotten names. Whether the generic 

 name Cecidomyia should become Itonida de- 

 pends upon our acceptance of Meigen's earlier 

 names, but no one should countenance the ap- 

 pearance in print of a family name " Iton- 

 idae " in place of the proper form Itonididse 

 formed from Itonida. The international code 

 is very specific on this point, stating that: 

 " The name of a family is formed by adding 

 the ending idee, the name of a subfamily by 

 adding inw, to the root of the name of its type 

 genus." 



No one has seen fit to criticize this portion 

 of the code, so far as the writer is aware, and 

 students of these same Diptera have previ- 

 ously used in many instances the carefully 

 formed family name Cecidomyiidse even 

 though this approaches dangerously near 

 the tabooed " unpronounceable combination " 

 which we are warned diligently to avoid. 

 There has been much laxity in the use of care- 

 lessly formed family names by zoologists, par- 

 ticularly Americans, and the writer must plead 

 guilty with the rest. 



A little care on the part of systematists will 

 serve to eliminate all such barbaric family 

 names, and would add to the dignity of zoolog- 

 ical nomenclature. Q^ x. Brues 



Bdssey Institution, . 

 Harvard University 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 

 American Permian Vertebrates. By Samuel 

 W. WiLLiSTON. University of Chicago 

 Press, Chicago, HI. 1911. Pp. 145 with 

 frontispiece, plates I-XXXVIII, and 32 

 text figures. 

 This work from the pen of one of the most 



