August 2, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



149 



also given and the probable causes of its local 

 advance and recession discussed. In this con- 

 nection Mr. Wright emphasized particularly 

 the choking and congestion at the valley out- 

 lets, as at the mouth of Glacier Bay and 

 locally at Muir Glacier, and the consequent 

 cutting off of warm tidal currents from the 

 ice front. Under such conditions the ice front 

 advanced rapidly, until later on partial re- 

 moval of the barrier or sinking of the land, 

 the tidal currents regained access to the ice 

 fronts and inaugurated the present period of 

 rapid recession. Feed E. Wright, 



Secretary 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



DOUBLE-ENDED DRUMSTICKS 



To THE Editor of Science : The impression 

 was received by more than one person who 

 visited the St. Louis Exposition, that one of 

 the Filipino tribes gathered there used a 

 double-ended drumstick, grasping it in the 

 middle and beating alternately with the ends. 

 Professor O. T. Mason, to whom I applied for 

 light, has most kindly informed me that 

 double-ended drumsticks are occasionally em^ 

 ployed to produce variations in sound, the two 

 ends being differently constructed. May I 

 ask if any of the readers of Science can fur^ 

 nish me with the name of a Filipino or other 

 tribe, who handles a drum-beater as above 

 described? I may add that I am especially 

 desirous of knowing of the existence of any 

 photograph showing such a grasp. 



H. Newell Wardle 



ABE bulls excited BY RED? 



To THE Editor of Science: Is there any 

 real evidence to the effect that bulls are excited 

 by the color red? And how is it with other 

 animals ? According to the newspapers, a 

 bull in Sunbury, Pa., charged a window in a 

 millinery store containing an exhibition of red 

 hats and wrecked the store. Is this merely a 

 newspaper myth? X. 



NOMENCLATURE OF THE CHIRONOMID^E 



To THE Editor of Science : In 1899 Kieffer 

 proposed Ceratolophus (Bull. Soc. Ent. 

 France, p. 69) as a new genus of Chironomidae 



(Midges) with ' femoratus (Fabr.)' as type. 

 In 1906 the same author reserved this name 

 (Genera Insectorum. Chironomidse) for a 

 group not containing the type ; he also placed 

 ' femorata Meig.' in two genera at the same 

 time, viz. : Palpomyia (p. 63) and Serromyia 

 (p. 65). Further, Ceraiolophus was preoc- 

 cupied in 1873 (Bocourt, Keptiles). 



It is evident that the nomenclature of cer- 

 tain genera of the Chironomidas is confused 

 and it is a pity that many authors seem to 

 think that thorough unraveling of the nomen- 

 clature is unnecessary, when monographing or 

 revising. G. W. Kirkaldt 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



SPECIFICATION OF DIAGRAMS IN APPLIED 

 GEOMETRY 



By far the greater amount of weariness 

 in reading geometric discussions comes, I 

 think, from the needless labor of searching 

 for and translating the letters describing a 

 figure, into the symbols of the vectors. I 

 have, therefore, been asking myself, whether 

 a few simple rules might not be devised for 

 drawing conventional diagrams, so as to quite 

 eliminate quantities other than those used in 

 the computation. The following plan has as- 

 sisted me and may be worth remark. 



Every vector or arrow is reckoned from a 

 heavy black dot, which I shall call the hut, to 

 the barb. 



When two vectors from the same origin are 

 collinear, the larger vector should step around 

 the barb of the shorter, in the same way in 

 which electrical engineers represent insulated 

 circuits which cross. Conventionally, there- 

 fore, a small semicircle, to be called the step- 

 over, is drawn around the arrow point of the 

 shorter vector, r, as in Fig. 1. 



The barb is generally to be drawn on one 

 side only, as in the harpoon, and the letter or 

 specification of the vector placed near the 

 barb and (when necessary for clearness) on 

 the same side of the shaft with the barb and 

 step-over. Where several vectors coincide the 

 line may be thickened. 



Eight angles should be indicated by an arc 

 joining the line. Other angles marked. 



