NOVEMBBE 2, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



685 



clared that he was required by his chief to ' fur- 

 nish at least two sensations a week.' Nearly 

 all the more respectable and conservative 

 magazines have yielded somewhat to this de- 

 mand. The general reading public has recog- 

 nized in an indistinct and uncertain way that 

 much that is wonderful in this ' wonderful cen- 

 tury ' is due to scientific discovery, and it is ap- 

 parently hungry for easy exposition of scientific 

 work. It seems to like, at any rate it is largely 

 fed upon, science of the ' head-line ' variety, 

 and those who can furnish this sort are in great 

 demand. Unfortunately there are a few men, 

 fortunately not many, who have done and are 

 doing really excellent scientific work who are 

 ready to cater to this morbid appetite, and 

 there are many others, merely ' hack ' writers 

 with neither knowledge or reputation, who find 

 it easy to imitate them. The result tends to 

 dull the scientific sense and corrupt the judg- 

 ment of the great majority of readers. What 

 we see in print concerning what we do not un- 

 derstand we almost invariably accept as true 

 unless it violently opposes our prejudices or 

 accepted theories, and the general public, 

 therefore, is in a very receptive mood towards 

 announcements of scientific discoveries and 

 accomplishments. That this is taken advan- 

 tage of to reach the purse of the public no one 

 can deny, and it is impossible not to find certain 

 very respectable and otherwise conservative 

 journals largely responsible for losses of thou- 

 sands of dollars by comparatively poor people 

 through stock subscriptions in schemes believed 

 to be backed by scientific men. It is no valid de- 

 fense to say that the editors of these journals 

 were imposed upon, for if they were they need 

 not have been. Other journals, including 

 some daily papers, know very well how to 

 avoid such imposition and have the courage to 

 do it. It appears to be accepted as a funda- 

 mental principle of what is called 'journalism ' 

 in these days that any one who is gifted with a 

 little facility in writing, a far-reaching imagi- 

 nation and a conscience without elastic limit 

 may be properly ' assigned ' to prepare an ar- 

 ticle on any subject whatever, and thus we are 

 treated to weekly or monthly essays by one au- 

 thor covering, in fact sometimes rather more 

 than covering, in a few months the whole area 



of human knowledge. Perhaps they, too, have 

 their orders to produce a given number of 

 ' sensations ' in a given time. 



Among many other evils growing out of what 

 may be called ' Newspaper Science ' not the 

 least is the manufacturing and maintaining of 

 false reputations. The constant appearance of 

 a name in connection with the development of 

 a given art, science, discovery or invention 

 makes an impression which it is difficult to de- 

 stroy, and this is true even among the most intel- 

 ligent classes. To find who is really and truly 

 eminent in any field of human activity one must 

 go to the specialists in that field. The popular 

 verdict is more than likely to be wrong because 

 it is based on fictitious, newspaper-created re- 

 nown. Is there not, indeed, some danger that 

 in spite of the carefully selected and altogether 

 able jury, the newly created roll of American 

 honor may, in certain cases and for the lack of 

 this appeal to specialists, become a Hall of 

 Notoriety rather than Fame ? The selection of 

 S. F. B. Morse for a place therein must have 

 been due to the general belief among the jurors 

 that he was the inventor of the electro-mag- 

 netic telegraph. Yet it was long since proved 

 beyond dispute that his share in that invention 

 was among the least of the many who contrib- 

 uted to make the telegraph possible, and that 

 he justly deserves only a relatively very small 

 share of the honor belonging thereto. 



T. C. M. 



THE DATE OP PUBLICATION OF BEEWSTEB'S 



AMERICAN EDITION OP THE EDINBURGH 



ENCYCLOPEDIA. 



In commenting on a recent paper by Mr. J. 

 A. G. Rehn {Amer. Nat., XXIV., p. 575), Dr. 

 J. A. Allen states (BwW. Amer. Mus. Nat. Sist., 

 XIII., p. 186) that the reference to "Brewster's 

 American Edition, Edinburgh Encyclopaedia, 

 Vol. XII., Part II., p. 505, 1819," given by 

 Mr. Rehn, "is erroneous as to date, and mis- 

 leading as to the title of the work cited." 



There is nothing whatever in Mr. Rehn's 

 statement to warrant the idea that he had taken 

 the reference at second hand, as Dr. Allen 

 seems to have inferred, and as a matter of fact 

 his reference is perfectly correct. 



As Dr. Allen's positive statement that the 



