November 12, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



695 



little creatures crowded into such small 

 spaces is a marvel, but it is proof also of the 

 extreme abundance and all-pervading char- 

 acter of the swarm. 



The large lamp in the cabin, with a chim- 

 ney of a capacity of perhaps a gallon, I was 

 told, had been snuffed several times by the 

 crowding insects. On a spread newspaper 

 nearby lay a pile of the insects which had 

 been dumped from the chimney. There were 

 fully enough to have completely filled the 

 chimney — an innumerable mass. From this 

 collection I gathered some specimens for 

 identification. The Chironomids, which 

 were largely in the majority, have been identi- 

 fied by J. E. Malloch as Chironomous haliera- 

 lis Coquillet, 0. modestus Say, and Tanytar- 

 sus sp. The Trichoptera identified by Nathan 

 Banks are (Ecetina incerta Walker, and 

 Oxyethira dorsalis Banks. No representa- 

 tives of other orders were noted. 



W. L. McAtee 



ON THE NOMENCLATURE OF ELECTRICAL UNITS 



The present cumbrous method of describing 

 the electrical units in the electrostatic and 

 electromagnetic systems suggests the advisa- 

 bility of the adoption of an abbreviated nomen- 

 clature which, while being simple, may be 

 sufficiently descriptive. An attempt in this 

 direction has been made by Messrs. Franklin 

 and MacNutt in their text-book "The Ele- 

 ments of Electricity and Magnetism." In it 

 " ab," the first syllable of the word " absolute," 

 is prefixed to the names of the practical units 

 to designate the corresponding units of the 

 electromagnetic system. It appears to the 

 writer that a similar abbreviation might with 

 advantage be employed in the case of the elec- 

 trostatic system, and he suggests the use of the 

 prefix " es " for the electrostatic system and, 

 possibly, the use of the prefix " em " instead 

 of " ab " for the electromagnetic system. Thus 

 the elementary charge of electricity would no 

 longer be described as " 4.Y X 10"^° electro- 

 static units of quantity (or charge)," but as 

 " 4.Y X 10-1" escoulombs." Similarly, the ratio 

 of electronic charge to mass would not be ex- 

 pressed as " l.Y X 10'' electromagnetic units of 



quantity (or charge) per gram," but as 

 " l.Y X 10' emcoulombs per gram." Certain 

 written abbreviations naturally follow, thus: 

 esc = escoulomb, emc ^^ emcoulomb, esa = es- 

 ampere, and so on. This system of nomen- 

 clature may be extended to the so-called " ra- 

 tional systems " by using " res " instead of 

 " es " and " rem " instead of " em." 



It is hoped that the use of some abbreviated 

 system of nomenclature may become common, 

 and the foregoing is offered as a possible con- 

 tribution toward that end. 



A. E. Caswell 



University of Oregon, 

 October 14, 1915 



COOPERATION IN LABELLING MUSEUMS 



The Parks Branch of the Department of the 

 Interior of Canada published thirty duplicates 

 of the larger labels of those making up its 

 Handbook of the Rocky Mountains Park Mu- 

 seum. This was done with the intention of 

 offering them through the Museum of the 

 Geological Survey, Ottawa, Canada, to the 

 thirty then known museums in Canada. The 

 survey offered the labels to the museums. 

 Seventeen of them requested certain of the 

 labels and were supplied, being given to under- 

 stand that these labels were for use only until 

 better labels were available. It is intended to 

 publish from time to time a revised and more 

 complete handbook and to print separates of 

 a larger number of the labels composing it. 

 An edition of at least sixty duplicates will then 

 be desirable, as there are now known to be that 

 many museums, counting both large and 

 small, in Canada. 



The writing of the labels and the type- 

 setting of the first edition has already served 

 twenty-two purposes, namely, to produce the 

 handbook of the museum, to partly label the 

 Eocky Mountains Park Museum, to place 

 labels referring to the museum, zoo, paddock 

 and park in the railway station and hotels at 

 Banff, to label some of the animals in the zoo 

 of the park, to label all the local animals in the 

 paddock of the park and to assist in labelling 

 seventeen other Canadian museums. There is 

 a daily prospect of having requests for such 



