October 26, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



649 



tion ; the example might then be worked out in 

 this manner : 



35 42 — 



12 126 



4 378 + 



1 1134 4- 



378 + 1134 — 42 = 1470 ; 

 but the possibility of constructing similar proc- 

 esses throws no light on the origin of such a 

 method among the Russian peasants. 



C. A. Scott. 



CAMPHOR SECRETED BY AN ANIMAL. 



To THE Editor of Science: Mr. O. F. Cook's 

 article in a recent number of Science recalls 

 some observations by the late E. D. Cope. 

 Cope wrote (Trans. Amer. Entoin. Soc, Vol. 3, 

 May, 1870, pp. 66-67), as follows : " The spe- 

 cies of Spirobolus and Julus discharge a yellow- 

 ish juice having much the smell of aqua regia 

 and a very acrid taste. The Spirostrephon lac- 

 tariua exudes from a series of lateral pores a 

 fluid which has in its odor a close resemblance 

 to creasote. The Polydesmus virginiensis is de- 

 fended by a fluid which has almost exactly the 

 smell of hydrocyanic acid and is fatal to small 

 animals. Petaserpes rosalbus secretes a consid- 

 erable quantity of a milky substance, which has 

 the perfume of gum camphor." 



Quite possibly there are other references to 

 the subject, but I have not examined the litera- 

 ture of the Myriapoda very carefully. 



Nathan Banks. 



East End, Va. 



A correction. 

 To THE Editor op Science : In the issue of 

 Science for October 19th I notice your state- 

 ment under ' University and Educational News ' 

 of my appointment as acting president of Wells 

 College. Permit me to say that a misspelling 

 of my name completely changes it into that of 

 another person. Instead of Feeley, it should be 

 Freley. 



J. W. Freley. 



BOTANICAL NOTJES. 



prolixity in botanical papers. 



What botanist has not groaned in spirit in 



these recent years over the increasing prolixity of 



American botanical writers? There was a time 



when it was the exception for a botanist to write 

 a paper of great length, and some of us were a 

 little ashamed of what appeared to be the in- 

 ability of botanical writers to prepare papers 

 whose length, at least, would suggest pro- 

 fundity. Doubtless at that time there were 

 fewer men who could write anything better 

 than short notes, and perhaps there was some 

 need of a change. But now, alas, we have 

 learned the lesson only too well. One takes up 

 journal after journal and finds that many of 

 the papers are drawn out through pages and 

 pages until in very weariness he turns to the 

 'conclusions,' hoping to obtain a summary of 

 the author's results, often to find that here, 

 too, there is such prolixity as to suggest the 

 need of a ' summary ' of the ' conclusions.' 



Is it not time that botanical teachers gave 

 some instruction in conciseness of statement, 

 while they are making investigators out of the 

 raw material which they find in their classes ? 

 Paper and ink do not cost much, and the long- 

 sufiering editors of botanical journals have not 

 made, as yet, any audible protest, but we speak 

 for the readers of these long-drawn out papers 

 whose time is too valuable to be given to the 

 absorption and assimilation of the vast mass of 

 excellent but uncondensed matter which now-a- 

 days finds publication. Many a good paper 

 would be much more readable if condensed to 

 half its length, while at the same time it would 

 lose nothing in clearness of statement of all 

 essential facts. 



the study of plant diseases. 

 An instructive paper by Mr. Galloway, in the 

 ' Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture ' 

 for 1899, gives a brief history of the develop- 

 ment of the study of plant pathology in the 

 United States. Little has been done by Amer- 

 ican botanists previous to 1875, and practically 

 nothing at all by the Government. With the 

 establishment of the agricultural experiment 

 stations, an impetus was given to the begin- 

 nings made by Professors Farlow, Burrill and 

 Arthur, and about the same time in the De • 

 partment of Agriculture a beginning was made 

 of what eventually developed into the Division 

 of Vegetable Physiology and Pathology. This 

 was done by the appointment of Professor 



