JTanuaey 6, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



25 



most important being: (1) That tlie hospital 

 shall admit to the wards students of the med- 

 ical schools to the extent and in the manner 

 permitted by the most approved practise. (2) 

 That the educational institution concerned 

 may make nominations to all positions on the 

 hospital staff, medical, surgical and special. 



The completion of the fund of $750,000 for 

 the Johns Hopkins University is announced. 

 This insures the payment to the fund of a 

 further $250,000 offered conditionally in Feb- 

 i^ary of last year by the General Education 

 Board. 



By the will of Mrs. Martin Kellogg, Yale 

 "University receives a bequest of $50,000 from 

 the estate of the late Martin Kellogg, who was 

 formerly president of the University of Cali- 

 fornia. 



Mr. H. J. Priestley, M.A., assistant lec- 

 turer in mathematics at the University of 

 Manchester, has been appointed professor of 

 mathematics and physics in the newly-consti- 

 tuted University of Queensland. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 

 ^SYMBOLS IN ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE 



Professor Needham's proposal' of a plan 

 for practical nomenclature deserves more at- 

 tention than has yet been given it publicly. 

 To be sure, our energetic friend Professor 

 Cockerell has published a brief destructive 

 critique ° based on personal opinion as to 

 what can be most easily retained by the mem- 

 ory, and on sentiment. As to the former, one 

 might differ from him in individual cases, or 

 might justly observe that memory is not the 

 only factor involved in Professor Needham's 

 proposal. So far as sentiment goes the in- 

 congruity and falsity of many names will 

 make as good an argument on the other side 

 of the question, while the colorless number 

 adapts itself far better to changing interpre- 

 tations with the progress of science than any 

 word with its fixed relation to ideas. Nor 

 can I believe that it is any part of scientific 



'Science, September 2, 1910, pp. 295-300. 

 = Science, September 30, 1910, p. 428. 



nomenclature to " call up pleasanter [philo- 

 logical] thoughts." It certainly is worth 

 while to have the great names of the past 

 brought to our attention, but such men are in 

 our thoughts constantly not because they have 

 named a few species more or less, but because 

 they have made real contributions to the prog- 

 ress of science. And what shall one say of 

 the constant burdensome recurrence in sys- 

 tematic work of the names of the unknown, 

 of those who have torn down the good work 

 of their associates and have left the roadway 

 of science rocky with synonyms, errors in 

 determination and description, false state- 

 ments and careless records, misspellings and 

 misquotations. It is these rocks in the way 

 that make the pilgrim to-day toil wearily up 

 the height more conscious of the obstacles 

 such men have left than of the substantial 

 roadway the real workers have constructed. 



But to my mind all of this fails to reach 

 the heart of the problem or in any way to 

 affect the fundamental contentions urged by 

 Professor Needham. For this reason I am 

 anxious to aid if possible in directing atten- 

 tion to the real questions at issue and the 

 probable lines for their successful solution. 



The history of all science shows intercur- 

 rent tendencies towards simplification and 

 complication. The data already established 

 are reduced to greater simplicity in expression 

 and the new relations that are demonstrated 

 involve them at the same time in constantly 

 increasing complexity. That simplification 

 in terminology is a real tendency is apparent 

 to every one who studies the history of zool- 

 ogy and compares the long and involved cir- 

 cumlocutions of early writers with the more 

 precise designations of to-day. Hand in hand 

 with this simplification in form goes a move- 

 ment towards standardization in use and 

 meaning which finds its expression in modern 

 terminology. The term becomes more precise 

 as it becomes more limited and because its 

 use is limited. 



The history of zoology does not in this 

 respect differ from the past of other sciences 

 and yet the comparison shows that some other 

 sciences have progressed further along this 



