24 
valley sides; such being the case when the 
rocks are either homogenous or horizontally 
stratified. Then the side streams, growing 
headwards, are accidentally located ; and 
streams of this class have been called auto- 
genetic by McGee. Insequent may prove to 
be a more satisfactory name for such 
streams, as itis of the same etymological 
family as consequent, subsequent and obse- 
quent ; the latter being defined in the Lon- 
don Geographical Journal, V., 1895, 1384. 
As insequent has proved servicable in my 
lectures during the past winter, it is now 
submitted for trial by others. 
NEW TERMS IN GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY. 
Wits a protest against the introduction 
of new terms in geology as a rallying cry, 
a good friend of all geologists has unfurled 
his banner to the breeze in a recent num- 
ber of Science, as if inviting those who are 
of his opinion to enlist in a crusade against 
a threatened inundation of scientific verbi- 
age. Those holding other opinions may 
prefer to enlist in friendly opposition in an- 
other camp, under the leadership of a geol- 
ogist who said some years ago that he felt 
he had accomplished a good piece of work 
by introducing a new name for certain deep- 
seated igneous structures. For one, I dis- 
sent entirely from the dictum that new 
terms are ‘evidently nothing more than a 
useless incumbrance to the science’ of geol- 
ogy. New terms are an absolute necessity 
in any science that is advancing. Useless 
terms are of course objectionable, but who 
shall say which are the useless ones? New 
things and new ideas must have new names. 
There is too much good new wine to be 
held in old bottles. ‘The common run of 
educated people in this country’ are en- 
tirely excusable if they know nothing of 
such new terms as monadnock and pene- 
plain, or of such older terms as novaculite 
and bauxite; for their ignorance and their 
Opinions are irrelevant in technical mat- 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. VI. No. 131. 
ters. The investigator and the specialist 
must be left as free to name their conclu- 
sions as to reach them; and they, much 
better than any one else, can judge of the 
need of new names. By all means, let them 
be cautious and avoid unnecessary names ; 
but unless they can number their new finds, 
as astronomers number new asteroids and 
new comets, they must name them. Havy- 
ing invented a new name, they may well 
let it take its chances in the struggle for 
existence. If it prove acceptable to work- 
ers in its field, it will take root and flourish; 
if not, it will soon wither away and be seen 
no more. As far as new terms in physi- 
ography are concerned, I have had a good 
share of amusement in watching the fate of 
certain words that have appeared in recent 
years. Some have survived and some have 
perished. Among several that appear to 
be destined to survive, although not gener- 
ally used at present, let me commend ‘ sub- 
sequent,’ ‘adjusted’ and ‘graded’ (ordi- 
nary words used in a technical sense), ‘ ob- 
sequent’ and ‘ insequent’ (new-made words 
of English form), and ‘ doab’ and ‘ cuesta ’ 
(imported foreign terms), to the attention 
of those who maintain that new terms 
are evidently nothing more than a useless 
incumbrance to a science. It will be in- 
teresting to note the standing of these 
words ten or twenty years hence. The 
amount of attention given then or now by 
teachers and students to physiography—or 
geomorphy, as some neologists would call 
it—may be measured by the terseness and 
precision with which they express the ideas 
or things represented by these words and 
their fellows. 
W.M. Davis. 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 
CENTRAL AMERICAN CARIBS. 
THE Caribs, who spread so widely over 
South America, never reached any part of 
