OCTOBEB 9, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



521 



Perhaps the earliest use of the actual word 

 ' ' mutation ' ' in this sense is to be found in 

 "PseudodoxiaEpidemica, "byDr. Thomas Browne. 

 I quote from Book VI., Chapter X., "Of the 

 Blackness of Negi'oes":^ "We may say that men 

 became black in the same manner that some Poxes, 

 Squirrels, Lions, first turned of this complection, 

 whereof there are a constant sort in diverse Coun- 

 tries; that some Chaughes came to have red legges 

 and bills, that Crows became pyed; All which mu- 

 tations, however they began, depend upon durable 

 foundations, and such as may continue for ever. ' ' 



XT 



PLEA FOR A STATUE IN WASHINGTON TO PROFESSOR 

 SPENCER FULLERTON BAIRD 



To THE Editor of Science: In Lafayette 

 Square, opposite the White House in Wash- 

 ington, there are five statutes in bronze, all 

 of heroic proportions. They are of military 

 characters, only one of them being that of an 

 American. Each commemorates deeds of war 

 and bloodshed, and their accessories consist 

 of the implements and munitions of warfare. 

 In the various parts of this city, within and 

 without the majority of the federal and muni- 

 cipal buildings, and in the museums, there 

 are a great many statues — some in stone, some 

 in metal — which have been erected to promi- 

 nent characters in American history. A few 

 of these are of foreigners, while the majority 

 of them are of our own countrymen. In some 

 instances, the same person had two or more 

 such statues erected in his honor, while Gen- 

 eral Washington has apparently been favored 

 with a half dozen or more. 



Again, these duplications invariably have 

 military men as their subjects ; and the greater 

 their exploits were in the way of leading men 

 in battle, in which thousands of their enemies 

 were slain, the more likely are we to find them 

 thus distinguished. It is safe to say that at 

 least eighty-five per cent, of all such statues 

 to be found in the city of Washington are of 

 military men; and it is truly discouraging, 

 as well as disgraceful, to note how very few 

 there are which have been erected to writers 

 or to men of science in any of its many 

 departments. 



2 Second edition, 1650. 



On the Smithsonian grounds there is one to 

 Professor Joseph Henry, and Doctor Samuel 

 D. Gross has been similarly honored in a fine 

 statue which appears on the grounds of the 

 Army Medical Museum. A very few others are 

 to be seen about the city or in the public 

 buildings, not half a dozen altogether thus 

 commemorating the works of any of our great 

 astronomers, chemists, biologists, surgeons, 

 artists, inventors and others who have long 

 ago passed away, while their works and dis- 

 coveries still redound to this nation's credit, 

 advantage and welfare, and that with ever- 

 increasing force and volume. 



In line with the city's improvements, there 

 has recently been formed a small, park-like, 

 subtriangular square, at a point where, in the 

 near future, there will be a grand entrance to 

 the National Zoological Gardens. This is 

 situated at the intersections of Sixteenth 

 Street, Columbia Eoad and Mount Pleasant 

 Street, in a section which promises some day 

 to be one of the most attractive parts of the 

 northwest part of the city. 



There could be no better locality than this 

 one, anywhere in the nation's capital, upon 

 which to erect a statue to Professor Baird, 

 nor could any one be selected, from among 

 those who have gone before in science, to 

 more appropriately occupy this spot than he. 



Not only was Professor Baird largely re- 

 sponsible for the establishment of the National 

 Zoological Gardens and Park; but, as every 

 scientist is fully aware, from one end of the 

 world to the other, he, of all others, did more 

 during his lifetime to augment and build up 

 American zoological science, to start and en- 

 courage the younger members of the pro- 

 fession, and withal to very materially add to 

 the literature of biology as a whole, as he was 

 the author and co-author of several formal 

 volumes on natural history and of over a 

 thousand papers on allied subjects. The estab- 

 lishment of the U. S. Bureau of Fisheries is 

 almost wholly due to his energy and foresight ; 

 while as secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution he has left a record which, for scien- 

 tific achievement, enterprise and actual accom- 

 plishment, has never been in any way ap- 



