August 25, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



247 



venture upon no prophecy even so cautious 

 as Bacon's — 'As for the mixed mathematics, 

 I may only make this prediction, that there 

 can not fail to be more kinds of them as 

 nature grows further disclosed ' — a declara- 

 tion that is sage enough, though a trifle lack- 

 ing in precision. Prophecy, unless based 

 upon confident knowledge, has passed out 

 of vogue, except perhaps in controversial 

 politics ; even in that domain, it is helpless 

 to secure its OAvn fulfilment. Let me rather 

 exercise the privilege of one who is not 

 entirely unfamiliar with the practice of 

 geometry, and let me draw the proverbial 

 line before indulgence in prophetic esti- 

 mates. The names that have flitted through 

 my remarks, the discoveries and the places 

 associated with those names, definitely indi- 

 cate that, notwithstanding all appearance 

 of divergence and in spite of scattered iso- 

 lation, the sum of human knowledge, which 

 is an inheritance common to us all, grows 

 silently, sometimes slowly, yet ( as we hope ) 

 safely and surely, through the ages. You 

 who are in South Africa have made an 

 honorable and an honored contribution to 

 that growing knowledge, conspicuously in 

 your astronomy and through a brilliant 

 succession of astronomers. Here, not as 

 an individual, but as a representative officer 

 of our brotherhood in the British Associa- 

 tion, I can offer you no better wish than 

 that you may produce some men of genius 

 and a multitude of able workers who, by 

 their researches in our sciences, may add to 

 the fame of your country and will con- 

 tribute to the intellectual progress of the 

 world. 



A. R. Forsyth. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



Catalogue of the Lepidoptera Phala^nw in the 

 British Museum, London. Vol. IV., IToc- 

 tuidfe (part), 1903; Vol. V., jS^ctuicte (con- 

 tinued), 1905. By Sir George F. Hampsox, 

 Bart. 



This is a continuation of the monographs 

 of the moths of the world, of which Vol. III. 

 was noticed in Science, K S., XV., 99, 1901. 

 A notice of Vol. IV. will be found in the 

 Canadian Entomologist, XXXVL, 27, 1904. 

 Volume v., now before us, .consists of 634 

 pages and treats of 2,0Y3 species of Noctuidse, 

 comprising the subfamily Hadeninse. These 

 moths have unspined hind tibiae and hairy 

 eyes, and are familiar to us under the name 

 Mamestra and allies. But these familiar 

 names are again largely changed, unavoidably, 

 no doubt, but we fear that the changes are 

 not permanent. Even if subsequent authors 

 can be induced to respect Sir George Hamp- 

 son's selections of the types of the older 

 genera, we doubt if he will be generally fol- 

 lowed in defining no genera on secondary 

 sexual characters. This is done generally in 

 other families of Lepidoptera and the char- 

 acters prove very useful. We think some of 

 the genera as used in the volume before us 

 would stand subdivision, Polia, for example, 

 which contains 209 species. This would save 

 the old genus M-amestra, which now sinks as 

 a synonym of Polia. These remarks apply to 

 the other volumes as well and are a criticism 

 on the general system adopted. It is not to 

 be expected that the system could be changed 

 during the progress of the work. 



A number of our North American species, 

 particularly those recently described, sink as 

 synonyms. This is mostly perfectly justified, 

 as there has been a tendency recently to de- 

 scribe too many forms as species in the jSFoc- 

 tuidse. This tendency has received a -just 

 rebuke. 



On page 24, Scotogramma is marked as a 

 ' new ' genus, no doubt by an oversight. 



On page 178 all the forms of comis and 

 olivacea fall together into the sjmonymy. I 

 believe this is going a little too far, as I think 

 there can be distinguished two species, though 

 closely allied. Otherwise my contention' about 

 these forms is sustained. 



On page 267 the name Chahuata velutina is 

 used. It should be Chahuata lutina. Velu- 

 tina was preoccupied when described and the 

 author very properly changed the name. The 



