670 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVI. No. 672 



I see no need, and indeed it seems to me a 

 great disadvantage, to divide the publication 

 into separate series. Each experiment station 

 and each other large research institution, 

 many libraries and many individuals, will de- 

 sire the whole publication. Citation should 

 be to the journal as a whole and not to sepa- 

 rate series. If division into series be at- 

 tempted their boundaries will be artificial and 

 their number will be constantly changing and 

 no stability will be secured. 



Issuance in series will also inevitably lead 

 to delay. The only advantage of such a series 

 will be that each investigator may receive only 

 the series concerning his particular field. 

 This end may be attained with even greater 

 accuracy by issuing each article as a special 

 number of the journal, and sending to sub- 

 scribers only such numbers as contain articles 

 pertinent to the subscriber's interest. In this 

 I incline to the view expressed by Bailey^ and 

 avoid the difliculties raised by Gihnore" and 

 by Webber himself. 



If there be no separate series of the journal 

 the editorial board would need to be enlarged 

 to include one or more men in each special 

 field of research. These editors should be paid 

 sufficient compensation to make it their duty 

 to give immediate attention to each article 

 submitted to them, and thus to facilitate pub- 

 lication. 



Numbers upon designated subjects should 

 be sold to station worlsers at a price sufficient 

 to control actual waste, but low enough to 

 be without burden to the subscriber, as, say, 

 25 per cent, of actual cost. 



r. L. Stevens 

 Vegetahle Pathologist 



N. C. Experiment Station 



HOLOTHURIAN NAMES 



To THE Editor of Science: In reference to 

 the letters by Dr. Theo. Gill and Dr. W. K 

 Fisher in Science for August 7 and September 

 20, respectively, I would ask whether Dr. 

 Fisher's conclusion that " we can no longer 

 speak of sea-cucumbers as ' holothurians,' nor 

 of the class as Holothurioidea" is really 

 justified. 



= Science, Vol. XXVI., p. 512. 



•Science, Vol. XXVI., p. 511. 



Even if the rame Eolothuria be taken up 

 by the writers on Coelentera, is there any rea- 

 son why we should not continue the use of 

 what has now become an ordinary English 

 word? And as regards the name of the class, 

 I would protest against the assumption that 

 this must necessarily be based on the name of 

 one of the families or one of the genera in- 

 cluded in the class. 



It is generally held that the word oXoOovpcov, 

 used by Aristotle (" Historia Animalium," I., 

 i., 19, and "Partes Animalium," IV., v., 43), 

 as well as the word Rolothurium, used by 

 Pliny ("Naturalis Historiae," Liber I., Cap. 

 xlvii.), refer to a sea-cucumber. This is surely 

 enough to justify- the continued use of the 

 class name Holothurioidea. 



Since in these days the genus Eolothuria 

 has become so much split up that it would in 

 any case be difficult to decide for which of 

 its sections the name Eolothuria should be 

 retained, the disappearance of the name from 

 systematic usage is by no means to be re- 

 gretted. As for the possible transference of 

 the name Eolothuria to either a pelagic 

 hydroid or a tunicate, this appears to be emi- 

 nently one of those cases which should be dis- 

 posed of by an international committee, such 

 as it was proposed should be established by the 

 International Zoological Congress. I am not 

 aware whether such a committee was actually 

 appointed. 



Both your correspondents seem to have over- 

 looked the fact that the absurdities following 

 a rigid adherence to rule in this matter were 

 well put by my colleague Mr. F. Jeffrey Bell 

 in his note " A Test Case for the Law of 

 Priority " (Annals and Magazine of Natural 

 Eistory, pp. 108-109; July, 1891). 



F. A. Bather 



London 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



a suggestion for a new unit of energy' 

 The study of the food of man and of ani- 

 mals as a source of energy to the organism 

 has made rapid progress within recent years. 

 It is, of course, easy to overestimate the value 

 ^ Read before the Society for the Promotion of 

 Agricultural Science at its annual meeting, May 

 27, 1907. 



