June 1, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



473 



FRIDAY, JUNE 1, 1883. 



TOO MUCH RED TAPE. 



The relief of the party now at the interna- 

 tional polar station at Lady Franklin Bay is 

 attracting the attention of those interested in 

 arctic matters. In this connection, Dr. C. H. 

 Merriam has written a pungent but timely 

 letter, printed in the New York tribune of 

 Maj' 5. The expedition of 1882 was pre- 

 vented bj- ice from reaching a latitude where 

 a,ny effective aid might have been rendered, — 

 a fact which made the alleged drunkenness 

 and ineompetenc}' of the person in charge of 

 the relief party of little practical consequence, 

 except to his associates in the service. That 

 they were not disturbed \>y it is evident from 

 the fact that his despatch on similar service 

 this summer has onlj' been averted by remon- 

 strances similar to and including Dr. Merri- 

 am's. Fortunately for the credit of the country' 

 and for Lieut. Greely's party, the plans have 

 been changed, and it is probable that a person 

 rendered competent for the position by experi- 

 ence and intelligence will be put in charge, and 

 possiblj' accompanied by one or two qualified 

 arctic experts in an advisorj^ capacity. 



It is well known, that, within the limits of 

 the United States, the possession of a naval 

 or military commission and a congressional 

 appropriation fully qualify the holder for any 

 scientific, technical, or moral undertaking. 

 Some, however, have been audacious enough 

 to doubt whether this law holds good in any 

 foreign jurisdiction, and whether the floes of 

 Baffin's Bay are sufficiently under its influence 

 to recoil more readily before brass than before 

 horn buttons. One thing is certain, the ser- 

 vice concerned will be held to a rigid respon- 

 sibility by geographers and the public ; and if 

 military prepossessions result in the rejection 

 of any practicable (if unmilitary) means of 

 succor, physical or mental, the condemnation 

 of any ensuing failure or disaster will fall 

 where by common sense and military rules 

 alike it belongs. 



It is well known to those acquainted with the 

 „subject, that good arctic navigators, masters, 



1 No. 17. — 1883. 



and seamen, good ships for encountering the 

 ice, and every article necessary for equipping a 

 properly fitted expedition, can, by paying for 

 it, be got at St. Johns from the sealing-fleet 

 and its equippers ; that the bad ice-navigation 

 of 1882, from all indications, is likely to be 

 duplicated this season ; that, to be more than 

 a contemptible pretence, the relief-party must 

 be composed, rank and file, of men who know 

 their business, and have the grit to do it ; that 

 the advice and unbought assistance of all arctic 

 investigators within reach may be had freelj' by 

 the responsible head of the Signal-service. 



Knowing this, and believing that officer 

 willing and ready to do the best and most 

 reasonable thing in the premises, we await 

 final action in the confident belief that past 

 mistakes are not to be repeated, and that the 

 results of cutting red tape will be creditable 

 alike to the service and to the country. 



THE ALPHABET AND SPELLING- 

 REFORM. 



The letters of the alphabet are so variously 

 sounded in different countries that thej' could 

 not be internationallj' employed, with phonetic 

 consistency, without altering the whole orthog- 

 raphy of the different languages. French and 

 English, for example, could not, by an3^ adap- 

 tation of Roman letters, be made phonetically 

 intelligible equall}' to French and English 

 readers. Try to write such phrases as ' la 

 langue fran<;aise,' 'the English tongue,' so as 

 to show the actual pronunciation of the words, 

 and the utter hopelessness of the task will be 

 apparent. 



The letters n and g have three distinct sounds 

 — different from their alphabetic sounds — in 

 the three words in which they occur in the 

 above illustrations. In the word ' langue,' the 

 11 is used mere!}' as a sign that the preceding- 

 vowel is nasal, and the g has the second of 

 its two regular ' soft ' and ' hard ' sounds. In 

 the word 'English,' the n has a separate 

 sound, which is not that normally associated 

 with the letter, and the g has the same sound 

 as in ' langue.' In the word ' tongue,' neither 

 the n nor the g is separately pronounced ; but 

 the combination has a distinctive sound, which 

 is not represented by any letter in the alpha- 

 bet. This sound of the combined letters ng is 

 the same as that of the n alone in the word 

 ' English.' In ' hanger ' and ' anger,' ' longer ' 



