JAUXTABT 20, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



107 



accepted a professorship of preventive medi- 

 cine in Washington University, St. Louis. 



Professor Guignaed, for fifteen years 

 director of the Paris School of Pharmacy, 

 has resigned his appointment and is suc- 

 ceeded by M. Henry Gautier, professor of 

 mineral chemistry at the school. 



/ DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



SPECIAL COMMITTEES ON ZOOLOGICAL NOMEN- 

 CLATURE 



To THE Editor of Science: The Interna- 

 tional Commission on Zoological Nomen- 

 clature is trying a plan of cooperation with 

 international committees representing the 

 various branches of zoology in an effort to de- 

 termine in how far it will be possible to reach 

 a unanimous agreement upon the names of 

 the most important zoological genera, together 

 with the type species of the genera in ques- 

 tion. 



The International Commission of Medical 

 Zoology, established at the Graz Congress, 

 has undertaken a study of over three hundred 

 names applied to the trematodes reported as 

 parasitic in man. This commission is to pass 

 upon the zoological status of the names in 

 respect to synonymy and validity. The re- 

 port will then be submitted to the Interna- 

 tional Commission on Nomenclature. It is 

 the plan of the latter commission to publish 

 the report, and to invite criticisms upon the 

 same from the zoologists of the world. After 

 ample opportunity is given for such criticism , 

 it is the plan of the commission on nomen- 

 clature to attempt to reach a unanimous 

 ruling upon the names, and to submit this 

 ruling to the next international congress. 



The secretary of the international com- 

 mission on nomenclature is inviting special- 

 ists in other groups to conduct similar studies 

 upon the most prominent and best known 

 genera. The plan adopted is for the secre- 

 tary to select three or more specialists of un- 

 questioned international reputation in a 

 given group, and to request these workers to 

 add to their committee any colleagues whom 

 they may desire. It is hoped that by this 



means preliminary studies of fundamental 

 and permanent value may be conducted, and 

 that the contending factions, in respect to 

 nomenclature, may be harmoniously united. 



The secretary of the commission on nomen- 

 clature is adopting the plan of taking man as 

 a center, first working out, so far as may be 

 done unanimotisly, names to be adopted for 

 the animals most intimately associated with 

 man, and while the undertaking may require 

 years of patient labor, it is hoped eventually 

 to establish a list of not less than ten thou- 

 sand generic names, agreed upon unani- 

 mously, first by the special committee, and 

 then passed upon unanimously by the com- 

 mission on nomenclature. It is hoped, 

 further, that by this plan an immense num- 

 ber of useless synonyms can be unanimously 

 agreed upon as such, and gradually eliminated 

 from general zoological literature. 



The scheme naturally depends upon the 

 amount of cooperation on the part of the spe- 

 cial committees, which will be formed as 

 rapidly as the work will justify. 



C. W. Stiles, 

 Secretary International Commission 

 on Zoological Nomenclature 



PACTS AND PRINCIPLES 



To THE Editor of Science; May I have 

 space in your columns to reply to the criti- 

 cism of Professor E. S. Woodworth in your 

 issue of November 25, on my article, " Ameri- 

 can Educational Defects," which was printed 

 in Science on October 28, 1910 ? I have no de- 

 sire to enter into any needless controversy, 

 but Professor Woodworth seems to me to 

 have misunderstood my language and mis- 

 conceived my purpose in a way that makes an 

 answer desirable. 



There would be little profit in my discuss- 

 ing with Professor Woodworth whether my 

 article is banal or not, which is purely a mat- 

 ter of taste and judgment; but one observa- 

 tion in this connection seems to me pertinent, 

 namely, that there is nothing particularly 

 novel about truth, and that, if educational 

 inefiiciency is as prevalent as I have claimed 

 it to be, it would not be strange if it had 



