468 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XIX. No. 481. 



who hold this view will take the trouble to 

 look in the issue of Science for January 29, 

 page 170, they will find enumerated a list of 

 papers read before Section G (Botany) at the 

 recent American Association meeting, two 

 papers : ' Plant Formations in the Vicinity of 

 Columbia, Mo.,' and ' The Distribution of 

 some Iowa Plants; Formations on which they 

 Oceua-.' Here, in succeeding papers, the word 

 ' formation ' is employed with two distinct 

 meanings. The first paper, we learn from the 

 abstract, deals with the several associations of 

 living plants found in the locality treated of, 

 while the second is ' A brief account of some 

 of the more important plants found growing 

 on the Carboniferous sandstones in eastern 

 Iowa.' Suppose some one had read a paper, 

 as might very appropriately have been done at 

 the same meeting, on the 'Plants of the 

 Potomac Formation of Maryland and Vir- 

 ginia,' would it be a paleobotanieal, a geolog- 

 ical or an ecological paper? 



In this connection I may perhaps be par- 

 doned for calling attention to the title of an- 

 other ecological paper in the same number of 

 Science (p. 169), viz., ' The Flora of the St. 

 Peter Sandstone in Iowa.' This as it stands 

 is calculated to cause a decided stir in paleo- 

 botanieal circles when it is remembered that 

 the St. Peter sandstone in Iowa is of Silurian 

 age, and, so far as I know, has not thus far 

 been found plant-bearing! It is only fair to 

 add, however, that the second part of the title 

 (' An Ecological Study ') explains its scope, 

 but the fact seems to remain that ecologists, 

 aside from their misuse of terms, do not always 

 sufficiently consider the titles for their papers. 

 F. H. Knowlton. 



Washington, J). C, 

 February 3, 1904. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES. 



ON TITLES FOR PAPERS. 



One of the indirect advantages of the indi- 

 vidual card catalogue will be that of the con- 

 densation of titles, since a man who has been 

 often called upon to fill up several lines of a 

 3X5 card with the title of a four-page paper 

 will become considerate of others, and reduce 

 the titles of his own future articles to their 



lowest terms. There is in this regard the great- 

 est disparity of usage among difierent authors 

 and different schools. Thus in general it may 

 be said that the fashion of long and ponderous 

 titles is a characteristic of the English school, 

 as may be seen by consulting the pages of the 

 Quarterly Journal or the Journal of Anatomy 

 and Physiology, in the last of which the size 

 of the title is still farther set out by being 

 printed entirely in large capitals. The op- 

 posite seems to be the case with Gegenbaur 

 and his followers, as may appear by consult- 

 ing the Morphologisches Jahrhuch, where oc- 

 casionally, among others of moderate length, 

 an exceptionally terse title meets the eye. An 

 especially good example of this is Maurer's 

 ' Blutgef asse im Epithel,' which another would 

 have expanded into ' Ueber das Vorhandensein 

 von capillaren Blutgefiisse im Epithel der 

 Mundschleimhaut bei einigen einheimischen 

 Amphibien.' It is apparent that Gegenbaur 

 himself set the lead in this movement, as may 

 be seen by the titles which he employed, most 

 of them those of masterpieces, ' Die Epi- 

 glottis,' ' Zur Morphologic des Nagels,' ' Ueber 

 das Archipterygium,' ' Clavicula und Clei- 

 thrum,' etc. 



There seem to be two main reasons for em- 

 ploying lengthy titles, first, the desire to show 

 the limitations, the point of view and the treat- 

 ment of the subject, giving rise to the ex- 

 planatory title, and, secondly, the desire to 

 appear sufficiently modest, to show how keenly 

 one feels the vastness of the subject and how 

 little has really been accomplished ; the modest 

 title. 



A recent example of the first has just ap- 

 peared in a leading journal, and with its 

 twenty-four words leaves little to the imagina- 

 tion of the reader concerning its scope. This 

 may well have been unavoidable in this case, 

 but for the benefit of cataloguers it might be 

 suggested that in such instances there might 

 be used a title and a subtitle, the former short 

 and for the use of the card index and general 

 bibliographies, the other longer and more ex- 

 plicit, to assist the reviewers and those who 

 have actually taken the work into their hands. 



As a timely warning and to show what the 

 outcome of this tendency may become if not 



