304 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 36. 



Such a step was taken by Dr. Blanchard in his 

 first report, when he declared that publication 

 in a daily newspaper could not be regarded as 

 publication in this special sense, e. g., the Mo- 

 stocker Zeitung, though official organ of the Ro- 

 stocker Verein. 



Similarly it has been proposed that the date, 

 of publication ' should mean the date at which 

 the printed work issues from press. This is an 

 arbitrary ruling, and yet I fear it is not one 

 which meets the needs of zoologists. Let us 

 suppose the case that a printed memoir lies for 

 months in the desk of the author, unknown to 

 any of his colleagues. Is it wise for us to ac- 

 cept a rule which shall give this wthheld mem- 

 oir priority over one which, though it was 

 printed later, had already been long known to 

 specialists? Such a course would result in a 

 needless revision of established names and could 

 svirely raise no claim to being convenient. 



But the third possibility is the one which has 

 already won the support of the majority of zo- 

 ologists, and should, in my opinion, be incorpo- 

 rated into our rules. The difficulty, however, 

 would be only half solved ; we should know 

 what the criteria are, but we should be at a loss 

 to apply them, for the date of distribuiion can 

 almost never be accurately determined. The 

 date which the publisher uses is, as everyone 

 knows, utterly untrustworthy. One does not 

 need to have been specially occupied with biblio- 

 graphical matters to know that the dates on 

 the title pages of our scientific monthlies do not 

 correspond with the time of issue ; but that the 

 ' June ' number appears in May, etc. I have 

 collected a large number of instances among 

 journals upon whose dates we are more accus- 

 tomed to rely, in which it was shown by internal 

 evidence that the preface was written after the 

 ' date of issue, ' etc. I shall not publish this list, 

 for it is something ^^■hich everyone must have 

 met in his own experience, and I do not wish to 

 single out certain journals for criticism. 



There seem to be but two ways to remedy 

 this evil : either a reform must be worked in 

 our methods of publication, or a date must be 

 affixed by some competent agency. The for- 

 mer course is not likely to find favor, I fancy, 

 with pereons who have had experience in such 

 matters. The second means seems to involve 



undue complication. Surely it is not necessary 

 to maintain a recording agency for the single 

 purpose of settling trifling disputes of priority. 

 The case becomes, however, singularly simpli- 

 fied when \\'e consider that the new bibliograph- 

 ical Bureau for Zoology* can readily undertake 

 this task without materially increasing its labor. 

 Indeed, it could do this simply in consideration 

 of the greater promptness with which it would 

 receive the publications for its index. In view 

 of this circumstance, it seems desirable to make 

 the following suggestion in I'egard to the date 

 of publication : 



The Bibliographical Bureau should record with 

 each paper a date of approximate distribution, 

 to be determined by the date at which the pa- 

 per was sent to the Bureau. For this determi- 

 nation, the Bureau might (1) use the postmark ; 

 (2) deduct from the date of receipt the number 

 of days ordinarily required for the transmission 

 by post from the place of publication to the 

 Bureau (this in case the postmark should prove 

 illegible), or (3) record the date at which the 

 the paper might have been mailed as a regis- 

 tered package. The ideal solution of the ques- 

 tion would seem to be, since we have already 

 the precedent of arbitrary rules adopted for 

 convenience, to declare that not merely must a 

 description be printed, it must also be placed 

 on record. I would not be understood as advo- 

 cating the incorporation of such a modification 

 into our law priority. The practice would have 

 to become quite general for such a step to be 

 possible. I am, however, of opinion that it 

 would be very desirable for the A. A. A. S. to 

 take the necessary steps towards introducing 

 this custom. Herbert Haviland Field. 



ELECTRIC STORM ON MOUNT ELBERT, 

 COLORADO. f 



The daily course of the weather was very pe- 

 culiar and singularly uniform. The mornings 



* Tlie new bibliological bure<au is describeil in 

 Science, N. S., II. p. 234. 



t A storm experienced by Mr. Welker while occu- 

 pying a triangulatiou station of the Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey on Mt. Elliert, Colorado, in July, 1894. 

 Mt. Elbert is about 14,440 ft. elevation. The camp 

 wiis only one hundred yards from tlie summit. 



H. G. O. 



