April 22, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



675 



as the diffusion of knowledge permits. All 

 must be given a chance to breathe the fresh 

 air, one must suppose, that the born ' saints ' 

 be not stifled ; while, if ' saints ' may be made, 

 there must first be 'Christian Endeavorers ' 

 (to continue under the figure already borrowed 

 from the editor of the Atlantic Monthly). 

 Wherefore we still need our Mr. Mabies, even 

 as our Mr. Mabies need improvement. We 

 perhaps need even our Mr. Carl Snyders, but 

 we certainly do not need our Mr. William J. 

 Longs. We do need such delightful 'essay 

 naturalists' as Mr. Burroughs; we need also 

 professional naturalists who do not find it 

 necessary to struggle against facts in order to 

 develop or keep their individuality, but who 

 try to make facts themselves attractive to 

 both young and old; we need serious investi- 

 gators in zoology and comparative psychology, 

 who bring to their task ' an eye well practised 

 in nature,' a mind exacting in its critical 

 demands and furnished with a just knowledge 

 of the results of previous workers, who are at 

 the same time conscious of their obligation, 

 as teachers, to a larger public' Above all, we 

 need to-day, as much as ever, perhaps as never 

 before, men whose attitude toward ' the people ' 

 resembles that of a Huxley or a Clifford, a 

 Hehnholtz or a Virchow, or that of many a 

 lesser luminary, who by the popular exposition 

 and inculcation of sound principles of science, 

 have contributed effectively to the prevalence 

 of light rather than darkness in the world, and, 

 indirectly, at the same time, to the advance- 

 ment of science itself. 



And all these are needed (let it be stated 

 whether The Ypsilantian thinks it ' nice ' or 

 whether it does not) in order that our children 

 may be spared the painful necessity either of 

 unlearning such pseudo-scientific fictions and 

 anti-scientific prejudices as Mr. Long and his 

 allies represent, or of growing up with minds 

 perverted and ill adapted to survive as rational 

 beings in a world of fact and law, though they 

 struggle never so hard against both in the 

 supposed interest of their individuality. 



Wm. Harper Davis. 



Columbia University. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES. 



I 



THE ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA ON ICHTHYOLOGY. 



' The Encyclopedia Americana,' now being 

 published, is in some respects a meritorious 

 work, but great carelessness has been mani- 

 fested in some of the office editorial work. 

 Such is especially the case in one of the ar- 

 ticles of the last volume (Vol. VIII.) which 

 has come to hand. The article in question 

 is ' Ichthyology ' and its author is President 

 David Starr Jordan. The text is excellent 

 but the illustrations are very badly identified 

 and could not have been submitted to Dr. 

 Jordan. We may imagine the surprise and 

 disgust of the author when he finds the er- 

 roneous and strange names applied to more 

 than half of the cuts. Those most erroneously 

 named are the following in regular sequence 

 (the pages are not numbered) : 



Homocercal tail. — It is the tail of a Polyp- 

 terus and consequently not homocercal at all 

 but diphycercal. 



Port Jachson Shark (Cesiraciontes). — This 

 is not the Port Jackson shark but the bull- 

 head shark of California {Gyropleurodus 

 francisci) . 



Sting-ray (Baia). — No species of Eaia is a 

 * sting-ray ' and the figure does not represent 

 what is generally called a ' sting-ray,' but a 

 fish of a very different family, the Aetohatus 

 narinari. 



Viviparous Perch. — The name is altogether 

 too indefinite and misleading, inasmuch as it 

 is very far from any true perch; it is the 

 embiotocoid Cymatogaster aggregatits of Cali- 

 fornia. 



Elephant Fish (Ohimosra). — Not the true 

 elephant fish but the ratfish of California 

 {Chimwra or Hydrolagus Golliei). 



Gafftopsail Cat (Galeichthys) . — By no 

 means, but the common channel cat of the 

 United States (Ictalurus punctatus). 



Pike {Lucius). — The fish figured is not at 

 all related to the pike and belongs to a dif- 

 ferent order; it is a barracuda {Sphyrcena 

 harracuda). 



Butterfly-fish (Holacanthus). — Not related 

 to Holacanthus, but the common Zanclus cor- 

 nutus of the Indo-Pacific region. 



