July 10, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



59 



THE GOLDEN MEAN 



To THE Editor of Science: With reference 

 to the article on the " Golden Mean " in your 

 issue of April 17, may I recall the fact that 

 in a letter which appeared in Vol. XXXII., 

 p. 625, I showed that the mean of the F^ off- 

 spring of two families crossed at random is, 

 on certain assumptions, the geometric mean 

 of the parental averages. I confess that I can 

 not bring Mr. Groth's results for crossing indi- 

 vidual plants into line with the theory pro- 

 pounded in my letters, hut, at any rate, it is 

 suggestive that a theoretical reason for the 

 appearance of geometric means in connection 

 with inheritance can be given. 



A. B. Bruce 



London, 

 May 5, 1914 



disagreements in chemical nomenclature 



The number of Science for January 23 con- 

 tains an article by Dr. F. W. Clarke which 

 undoubtedly strikes a sympathetic chord in 

 the majority of American chemists. That any 

 chemical element should be given different 

 natnfes by two groups of chemists is indeed la- 

 mentable, the more so that each of these 

 groups contains many scientists of enviable 

 reputation who naturally would be expected to 

 place themselves far above the petty jealousies 

 which characterize many societies of less 

 learned persons. 



That a scientist who contributes to the 

 known knowledge of chemistry to the extent 

 of discovering a new element should not be 

 granted the privilege of naming that element 

 is anything but just. The columbium-nio- 

 bium controversy is an excellent example. 

 The discoverer of the element named it co- 

 lumbium; others later took it upon themselves 

 to rechristen the element. The columbium- 

 niobium controversy is not in the least a ques- 

 tion of which is the better name — it is a ques- 

 tion of bestowing any honor incident to the 

 discovery upon the one to whom it belongs. 



But this is merely one of several cases of 

 disagreement in names. In 1798 the French 

 chemist Vauquelin discovered a new element 

 while working with the mineral beryl. Unfor- 



tunately Vauquelin did not suggest a name 

 for this new element but he did note that the 

 oxide is characterized by a sweetish taste. On 

 account of this property the editors of the 

 Annales de Chimie, the journal in which 

 Vauquelin described his discovery, at once 

 suggested the name glucina for the new earth. 

 The name was immediately adopted by the 

 French. Later the German chemists adopted 

 the name beryllium which they have retained 

 ever since. At the present time the German 

 and Spanish chemists use the name beryllium 

 while the original name glucinum, given by 

 the French, is used by the French, Eussian 

 and Italian chemists. Among English chem- 

 ists as well as those of America, both names 

 are in rather common use. In glancing 

 through twelve chemical text-books in Eng- 

 lish, all supposedly of college caliber, the 

 author finds that seven make use of the name 

 glucinum whereas only three give preference 

 to the name beryllium. One apparently gives 

 no preference and one does not mention the 

 element except in the table of international 

 atomic weights in which it appears as gluci- 

 num. In the publications of the United 

 States Geological Survey the name glucinum 

 is used. 



The index of the Journal of the American 

 Chemical Society for the year 1904 contains 

 references to articles on beryllium but none on 

 glucinum. For the year 1905 the index like- 

 wise contains references under the name of 

 beryllium only, notwithstanding that one of 

 the articles referred to is a note on the atomic 

 weight of glucinum and does not mention the 

 other name. The index for 1906 contains three 

 beryllium references and one glucinum, while 

 those for the years 1908 and 1909 contain 

 beryllium only. In ihe Abstract JouttuiI, 

 four beryllium articles and one glucinum are 

 indexed for the first year, 1907, whUe the in- 

 dex for 1908 contains references to several 

 beryllium articles and also to several on glu- 

 cinum. In the volumes of the Abstract Jour- 

 nal which have been issued since 1908, the 

 name beryllium alone is used regardless of the 

 name which appeared in the various articles 

 abstracted. 



