514 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIV. No. 877 



corrections and additions will prove of value 

 to the student of natural history as vcell as 

 increase the interest in the phenomenon of 

 hibernation. Allen Cleghorn 



DRAFTS AND COLDS 



To THE Editor of Science: Does it often 

 happen that a vcriter opposes his own claims 

 so neatly and conclusively as in " Drafts and 

 Colds " in your issue of the 22d ? 



Those who read about the 16-inch fan will 

 think of the generous third that rests upon a 

 feather or other mattress and is correspond- 

 ingly warmed while two thirds is fan-swept. 



How could a more complete " disturbance of 

 the thermo-neural equilibrium of the surface 

 of the body" be secured and maintained? 



(Other inventors prefer the cool blast from 

 an exactly opposite direction.) 



H. F. Dunham 



September 26 



" WASHINGTON SCIENCE " 



The communication in Science of Septem- 

 ber 29, with the above title, signed " Wash- 

 ingtonian," has doubtless been read with in- 

 terest by many scientific men in this city and 

 elsewhere. However, the article contains no 

 mention of one feature in government work 

 which in the mind of the present writer con- 

 stitutes an obstacle to scientific work and a 

 serious defect in the plans of more than one 

 branch of the service. This is the placing 

 and assumption of too much executive re- 

 sponsibility in scientific bureaus in the hands 

 of unscientific subordinates to the chief. 



The justification for "red tape" given by 

 " Washingtonian " should have been applied 

 to " system." In this sense the arguments 

 can not be successfully controverted nor is 

 there much more necessity for system in gov- 

 'ernment work than exists in many universities 

 or business houses. The head of a scientific 

 bureau or department, however, has no desire 

 to give routine matters his personal attention 

 and wisely delegates the keeping of records 

 and accounts to a chief clerk or executive as- 

 'sistant known by some other title. It is, how- 

 ever, too often true that these subordinates 



overstep their original authority and gradu- 

 ally assume more. They may and often do 

 become autocrats in their respective depart- 

 ments or bureaus. " System " then rapidly 

 becomes " red tape." We then have the spec- 

 tacle of a man without scientific training or 

 experience dictating to the scientific corps 

 how they shall conduct themselves. 



Scientific work in an atmosphere such as 

 this is aggravating and, while many of the 

 annoying circumstances are too small to carry 

 to the bureau or department head, as a whole 

 they constitute an objection to scientific work 

 in government service sufficient to have 

 driven more than one good man away. A 

 university may employ a purchasing agent or 

 bursar, but it would, I trust, be difficult to 

 find cases in which a department head re- 

 ceives practically all of his orders from such 

 employees. In Washington it is not so diffi- 

 cult to find such cases. The fault has its 

 origin in the executive's distaste for the de- 

 tails of system, but too often involves the 

 whole corps in the maze of regulations made 

 by men who have nothing else to do and who 

 hunger and thirst for authority. In view of 

 these actually existing conditions the writer 

 may perhaps be excused from openly currying 

 disfavor with the real powers by signing 

 himself merely 



Another Washingtonian 



changes in the personnel of the interna- 

 tional commission on zoological 

 nomenclature 

 The members of the International Com- 

 mission on Zoological Nomenclature have 

 unanimously invited Professor K. Kraeplin, 

 Direktor des Naturhistorischen Museums, 

 Steinthorwall Hamburg, Germany, to serve 

 on the commission until the next Interna- 

 tional Congress, in the place of Professor 

 Maehrenthal, deceased; also Dr. P. Chalmers 

 Mitchell, secretary Zoological Society of Lon- 

 don, Regent's Park, London, JST. W., in the 

 place of Dr. Boulenger, resigned. 



Ch. Wardell Stiles, 

 Secretary 

 October 10, 1911 



