JANUABT 28, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



145 



THE CIVILIZATION OF BOHEMIA 



With reference to Dr. Hrdlicka's article in 

 Science of December lY, p. 880, it may be of 

 interest to note the prominence of Bohemia 

 in zoological research. In gathering material 

 for the "Directory of Zoologists," I have ob- 

 tained biographical data from fourteen promi- 

 nent zoologists resident in Prag, namely, 

 Babak, Pocta, v. Lendenfeld, Stole, Klapalek, 

 Perner, Eadl, Babor, Fric, Vejdovsky, Nemec, 

 Srdinko, Steinach, Volker. Any zoologist 

 looking at this list will recognize familiar 

 names. Prag in 1900 had a population of 

 204,498. There are many cities in America 

 which could not make nearly so good a show- 

 ing; for example, New Orleans, with a popu- 

 lation of 287,104; or Los Angeles and Denver 

 combined, with a population between them of 



236,338. ^ _, . _ 



t. d. a. cockerell 



engineering student statistics 

 To THE Editor of Science : President Howe, 

 of the Case School of Applied Science, has 

 called my attention to an error which in some 

 strange way crept into the table of engineer- 

 ing student statistics that was published in the 

 issue of Science for June 4, 1909. In the 

 table the number of students is given as 479 

 in 1907-8 and 431 in 1908-9. The catalogues 

 show that the number of students for 1907-8 

 was 440 and for 1908-9 445, thus showing a 

 slight gain instead of a loss of 10 per cent. 



A reference to the reports of the president 

 of Cornell University proves that the state- 

 ment made by me in the issue of December 

 24, 1909, to the effect that at Cornell the num- 

 ber of undergraduate women in the academic 

 department is probably larger than that of the 

 men is not borne out by the facts of the case. 

 On page 18 of the president's report for 

 1908-9 the following statement appears : " This 

 increase in attendance in the College of Arts 

 and Sciences has taken place in spite of a 

 slight decline in the number of women enroll- 

 ing in that college. In 1907-8 there were 313 

 women and 507 men, in 1908-9 there were 309 

 women and 593 men." No distinction is made 

 between men and women in the figures fur- 



nished for the table included in the number of 

 Science to which reference has been made. 

 Rudolf Tombo, Jr. 



' the strict application of the law of peiority 

 to generic names 

 Mr. Prank Springer, on the first of May 

 last, distributed to one thousand zoologists 

 and paleontologists a circular bearing upon 

 the question of the rigid application of the 

 so-called " law of priority " in zoological (and 

 paleontological) nomenclature. The generic 

 name Encrinus, the best known and suppos- 

 edly the most firmly established of all of the 

 generic names of the Crinoidea — the name of 

 the typical crinoid genus of all authors, both 

 of learned systematic works and of general 

 treatises and text-books, for over one hundred 

 years — was shown to be untenable as previ- 

 ously understood, having been earlier em- 

 ployed (a use long since forgotten) for other 

 and widely different genera, this application 

 of necessity, if section 30 of the international 

 code were rigidly followed, causing the preoc- 

 cupation of other generic names equally well 

 established. The case was still further com- 

 plicated by the intricate technical problems 

 in regard to the earlier usage of the name 

 Encrinus, and the great zoological difficulties 

 in the way of a positive identification of the 

 earlier genotypes, altogether causing such 

 confusion that the most expert taxonomists 

 differ widely in their interpretation of the 

 facts. 



The circulars were distributed by the under- 

 signed, except those destined for Norway, 

 Sweden, Denmark and Germany; Dr. Th. 

 Mortensen very kindly undertook the task of 

 sending them to the naturalists in these 

 countries, and for his courtesy in thus assist- 

 ing us we take this opportunity of offering 

 him our most sincere thanks. 



A post card was enclosed with each circular, 

 the recipient being requested to return it with 

 the information whether, in his judgment, it 

 would be better to retain the name Encrinus 

 in statu quo ante (with the genotype E. lilii- 

 formis Lamarck) or to follow strictly the dic- 

 tates of the code and overturn the heretofore 

 universally accepted nomenclature of a large 



