670 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 



chemistry during the second and third quarters 

 of the last century. 



Following President Eemsen's address, 

 short accounts were given of the following 

 honorary members of the society, whose deaths 

 have been recently announced : MendelejefF, by 

 Professor H. P. Talbot; Eoozeboom, by Pro- 

 fessor A. A. Noyes ; Berthelot, by Professor J. 

 F. Norris; Moissan, by President Remsen. 



A vote of thanks was tendered to President 

 Eemsen and the other speakers, for the very 

 interesting addresses and the section ad- 

 journed at 10 :25 p.m. As usual, a light lunch 

 was served immediately after adjournment. 

 Frank H. Thorp^ 

 Secretary 



DISCUSSION AND COBRESPDNDENOE 

 THE MISLEADING AND THE NON-INFORMING TITLE 



To THE Editor of Science: There is a 

 matter to which frequent reference has doubt- 

 less been made in print, but to which I now 

 recall attention. 



I allude to (1) 'the misleading title' and 

 (2) ' the non-informing title.' 



1. I need give no particular instance. En- 

 tomological magazines are full of ' Entomo- 

 logical Notes in Spain,' 'A Trip to Switzer- 

 land,' etc., referring actually to Lepidoptera 

 only ; or ' Coleoptera from Moray,' to which a 

 list of the Hemiptera captured is added as a 

 foot-note. These are a great nuisance to the 

 Bpecialist. 



2. I take as an example, the Proc. Linn. 

 8oc.: New South Wales (2), VI., part 3 

 (1892), not because the publication is alone 

 in its misdemeanor, but because I have just 

 been referring to it. 



There are four papers in the ' list of con- 

 tents ' which convey no idea of even to what 

 class they refer, unless one indeed chances to 

 have heard of the forms previously. 



(a) ' On the synonymy of Helix (Hadra) 

 gulosa Gould.' On the second page (322), 

 ' Conchology ' and ' Mollusca ' are mentioned. 



(h) ' Observations on the Chloraemidse,' etc. 

 Who, but a student of the worms, knows what 

 a chloraemid is? We find no help till the 

 middle of the first page, when it is mentioned 

 as a chsBtopod and it is quite likely that some 



specialists do not know what a chsBtopod is. 

 It is, however, termed an annelid on the fourth 

 page. 



(c) 'Descriptions of two new species of 

 Carenum from West Australia.' I do not 

 think there is anything in the six pages of 

 this paper to inform us to what class Carenum 

 belongs, unless by inspection of the horis- 

 mology used. I presume, from certain words 

 employed, and from the fact that Mr. Sloane 

 is the author, that it is a carabid beetle. 



(d) 'Description of a new Diplomorpha.' 



' Shell,' ' Conchology,' etc., are used, inform- 

 ing us that the genus is moUuscan. 



The above remarks are made on the sup- 

 position that the ' Proceedings ' are in front 

 of us; but what is the unlucky wight to do 

 who only sees a list of the contents as an 

 advertisement in some other journal? 



The instances cited and the countless other 

 similar ones are a disgrace to the authors and 

 editors concerned. The simple method adopted 

 by, e. g., the Entomological Society of France 

 in their Bulletin, is now urged. An abbrevia- 

 tion of the order, or orders, concerned is placed 

 in square brackets after the title, thus ' Note 

 sur Oorcehus fasciatus Vill. = hifasciatus 01. 

 [Col.] et ses parasites [Hym.] '; so that we 

 know at once that this paper deals with 

 Coleoptera and Hymenoptera. This is suf- 

 ficient for entomological publications; for 

 those of wider scope, the addition of the class 

 would be useful, thus ' [Ins. Col.] ' or ' [Crust 

 Dec.].' 



There are already troubles more than suf- 

 ficient, in the path of the present-day worker 

 who strives to keep himself informed of the 

 literature of his chosen subject, in the shape 

 of multifariousness of publications and of 

 languages, false dates of publication, false 

 pagination of separata, and so forth, without 

 his being compelled to resort to Scudder and 

 Waterhouse, often only to find that the generic 

 name desired has been employed three or four 

 times, perhaps in different phyla. 



G. W. KlEKALDT 



the disputed eruptions of VESUVIUS 



To THE Editor of Science: It occurs to me 

 that two important bibliographical references 



