Januakt 25, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



145 



been said that the most difficult task in the 

 preparation of an elementary text-book is to 

 make a judicious selection of the things to be 

 included from the vast multitude of things 

 which present themselves. To know what he 

 may safely exclude, and yet make a connected 

 story, which shall be brief enough to be mas- 

 tered in the time at the student's disposal, is, 

 we admit, not easy to accomplish. To ' touch 

 the high points ' and yet to keep up the con- 

 nection between them is the difficult task of 

 the writer of an elementary text-book. In 

 some portions of the book before us this has 

 been accomplished, while in others a good deal 

 of matter has been admitted which might well 

 have been left out. Charles E. Bessey 



The University op Nebraska 



municated a paper on ' The Geology of the 

 San Francisco Peninsula,' by Eoderic Cran- 

 dall. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 

 The Journal of Comparative Neurology and 

 Psychology for January includes a paper ' On 

 the Place of Origin and Method of Distribu- 

 tion of Taste Buds in Ameiurus melas' by 

 F. L. Landaere, a study of the embryology of 

 the taste buds of the catfish. He shows that 

 taste buds appear simultaneously in the 

 entoderm of the gill arches and in the ecto- 

 derm of the lips. From both of these centers 

 the buds spread backward, from the first into 

 pharynx and ossophagus and from the second 

 into the mucous membrane of the mouth and 

 also into the outer skin, finally reaching the 

 extreme dimensions of the outer surface of 

 the body. No buds migrate from entoderm 

 to the skin. The' series of papers on the 

 nervous mechanisms of touch and taste in 

 fishes by C. J. Herrick is continued by ' A 

 Study of the Vagal Lobes and Funicular 

 Nuclei of the Brain of the Codfish.' Instruct- 

 ive comparisons are drawn between the cen- 

 tral mechanism of this fish and Ameiurus and 

 an attempt made to explain their difference 

 on the basis of the mode of life of the fishes. 

 There is also given a translation of the re- 

 cent researches by Minkiewicz on ' Chromo- 

 tropism and Phototropism.' 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 



A STATED meeting was held on January 4, 

 at 8 o'clock. Professor J. C. Branner eom- 



DI8CUSSI0N AND CORRESPONDENCE 



THE ' FIRST SPECIES RULE ' VS. THE ' LAW OF 

 PRIORITY ' IN DETERMINING TYPES OF GENERA 



In connection with the discussion on 

 ' elimination ' vs. ' first species,' in determin- 

 ing type species, may I be permitted to bring 

 forward certain points which seem to me to 

 be worthy of consideration? 



That some authors are decidedly opposed 

 to 'elimination,' while others are equally op- 

 posed to ' first species,' indicates rather strong- 

 ly that there are valid objections to both 

 methods, or at least that neither method is 

 perfect. Whatever our views in the case may 

 be, it is a matter of record that some authors 

 have adopted the one method, while other 

 authors have adopted the other. 



If a given rule of nomenclature is to com- 

 mand the general respect of biologists and not 

 to be subject to change from generation to 

 generation, it should be sufficiently just, ob- 

 jectively, to appeal to all persons who are 

 called upon to apply it and who may be tem- 

 porarily inconvenienced by its application. 

 The question, therefore, arises whether the 

 ' first species ' rule is so inherently just in 

 principle that it will appeal to systematists to 

 sufficiently convince them of the justice of 

 overturning hundreds or possibly thousands 

 of cases of type determination which have 

 been made since 1758, and especially since 

 1842. 



Personally, I view the first species rule as 

 one of enormous convenience, and as one 

 which can be applied, in the vast majority of 

 cases, uniformly by all workers. 



That it is necessary (however desirable it 

 may be) to have a rule which will apply uni- 

 formly to all genera, is a point which I very 

 seriously doubt. On the contrary, it seems 

 to me that there is a certain amount of ad- 

 vantage in allowing a margin for the exercise 

 of some discretion in certain cases. That two 

 authors may arrive at different conclusions on 

 the basis of elimination does not, therefore, 

 seem to me to condemn it. 



