136 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XX. No. 500 



plied sciences, chemistry, physics, and mechanical science, put 

 together. Geology, geography, biology, and anthropology furnish 

 more than half of all the new members. 



In the reading of papers before the sections, the same want of 

 proportion was shown. Section F, biology, held sessions on both 

 Thursday and Friday, morning and afternoon ; and 32 papers were 

 listed for those two days. Section T, economic science and statis- 

 tics, held a session on Thursday afternoon only, and none on 

 Friday, and only 4 papers were listed, and of these the only paper 

 that was statistical was a five minute paper on Statistics of -the 

 Salvation Army ! The Section of Biology, in fact, is so over- 

 crowded with papers and discussions that it was decided to split 

 it into two sections, F, Zoology, and G, Botany; while a proposi- 

 tion was made, although not entertained, to consolidate sections 

 D and I into one section. 



At the recent meeting of the British Association, it is reported 

 that there were 2,500 members in attendance. At the Rochester 

 meeting there were less than 500. 



From the abore facts, it appears that the American Association 

 is not a fairly representative body of American scientific men. 

 In it the physical sciences are dwarfed by the natural sciences. 

 The reason for this is undoubtedly because the applied scientists, 

 and especially those in the department of mechanical science, have 

 so many societies of their own that they are diverted from and 

 lose their interest in the American Association. In engineering 

 there are four large national societies, the civil, the mechanical, 

 the mining, and the electrical, besides numerous local societies, 

 aggregating a membership of probably 5,000 persons, not counting 

 duplications of those who belong to two or more societies. The 

 small attendance at the section of economic science is probably 

 due to the superior attractions offered by the American Social Sci- 

 ence Association. The recent reorganization of the American 

 Chemical Society with its branches will be very apt to diminish 

 the interest of chemists in section C. 



These facts are worthy of consideration by those interested in 

 the future of the Association. William Kent. 



New York, Aug. 29. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



Report of the United States Board on Geographic Names. Ex. 

 Doc. No. 16, House of Representatives, 52d Congress. Wash- 

 ington, Government. 



The necessity of bringing about a uniform usage and spelling 

 of geographic names throughout the executive departments of the 

 government has led to tbe creation of a board representing the 

 Departments of State, War, Treasury, Navy, and Post OfiSce, the 

 Coast and Geodetic Survey, the Geological Survey, and the 

 Smithsonian Institution, who serve without pay and can offi- 

 cially say in many cases what names shall be used. Names in 

 our country have not been bestowed by any formal authority, 

 except the more important ones of States, counties, and munici- 

 palities. The early explorers would employ aboriginal designa- 

 tions or others of little import ; their successors often proposed 

 others; a mountain range would receive different names from 

 different sides of approach. Post-offices and railroad stations 

 may not conform to the local names of the enclosing townships, 

 or else very familiar terms have been excessively multiplied. The 

 modes of spelling vary from time to time. To meet the various 

 necessities, the Board adopted the following rules in case the 

 local usage is divided: 1, Avoidance of the possessive form of 

 names; 2, the di'opping of the final "h" in the termination 

 " burgh;" 3, the abbreviation of "borough" is "boro:" 4, the 

 Websterian spelling of "center;" 5, the discontinuance of hy- 

 phens in connecting parts of names; 6, the omission, whenever 

 practicable, of the letters " C. H." (court house) after the names 

 of county seats; 7, the simplification of names consisting of more 

 than one word by their combination into one word; 8, the avoid- 

 ance of the use of diacritic characters; 9, the dropping of the 

 words " city " and " town "' as parts of names. 



As to the employment of foreign words, the Board recommend 

 that our charts for the use of the navy adopt the local names in 



the language of the several countries, and for home use the Angli- 

 cised forms. About 2.000 names have already been passed upon, 

 of which a list is printed as an appendix to the report. Another 

 appendix presents a list of all the counties in the United States. 



It is easy to see that this Board is doing great service for the 

 improvement of geographic nomenclature. Unfortunately, it 

 cannot have power to compel the adoption of the sensible names 

 proposed for the new States recently added to our galaxy and re- 

 jected by Congress, nor can it persuade people to use good sense 

 after controversies have been inaugurated. The world is, how- 

 ever, improving, and the very objectionable names are every- 

 where ridiculed. 



The Naturalist in La Plata. By W. H. Hudson. London, 

 Chapman & Hall. 111. 896 p. 



The universal interest now taken by all classes in scientific 

 matters has of late years given rise to a new class of books of 

 travel. The celebrated "Voyage of a Naturalist," by Darwin, or 

 perhaps more properly the " Wanderings in South America," by 

 Waterton, formed the starting-point for a series which includes 

 such books as " Travels in Peru," by von Tschudi; "Travels on 

 the Amazon" and " Malay Archipelago," by Wallace; "Natu- 

 ralist on the Amazons," by Bates; "Naturalist in Nicaragua," 

 by Belt; " Two Years in the Jungle," by Hornaday ; "Life in the 

 East Indies," by Forbes, and many others of similar title and char- 

 acter. The existence and popularity of these books is evidence of 

 the interest they have excited in the public mind ; and in view of 

 the good influence they exert there cannot be too many of them. 

 The "Natural History of Selborne," although limited in its scope 

 to a single parish in England, is an example of the multitude of 

 objects which can be made interesting to all classes of readers, and 

 it is perhaps not too much to say that there is scarcely a section 

 of our own country about which an equally interesting book could 

 not be written. The fact is that the objects to be studied in nature 

 are inexhaustible. They exist in earth, in sky ; in air, in water ; 

 in lane, in tree, in barren plain. Everywhere in fact that one can 

 turn, facts of the profoundest interest are to be observed. 



The ordinary globe-trotter has left few places unexplored as far 

 as his foot alone is concerned. He has penetrated to the wilds of 

 tropical Africa, and has left his traces amid the snow and ice 

 of the Arctic regions; he has suffered from hunger and thirst in 

 the deserts of Australia, and has been shipwrecked in the vast 

 Pacific; he has explored the snowy heights of the Himalayas and 

 the Andes, and penetrated the humid jungles of India; he has 

 braved the sands of the desert of Gobi and the terrible glare of the 

 Sahara. The globe-trotter used to write books describing his 

 travels; but, alas, too frequently his eyes saw no further than 

 his feet. He chronicled his dai-ly aches and ills, his breakfast and 

 supper, and mentioned the rivers he crossed or the mountains he 

 saw. The day for such books has passed; and a man who would 

 be listened to now must have more to tell of than how he cooked 

 his dinner, of how many miles he sailed or walked or rode. The 

 modern traveller must, therefore, be versed in some branch of 

 science. He must know men, or birds, or beasts, or plants. His 

 volume, too, must be something more than a mere itinerary ; and 

 the more closely he studies the workings of nature in her secluded 

 haunts the wider the circle of his readers and the greater the 

 value of his book. 



Of such books as those we have mentioned above there cannot 

 be too many. It is, therefore, with a feeling of pleasure that we 

 welcome a latecomer to the ranks, " The Naturalist in La Plata." 

 The author is a native of the country whose phases of life he 

 chronicles. He is an enthusiast, a lover of beasts and birds, and 

 he makes his reader love with him. The book is filled with inter- 

 esting matter, and in this notice we will mention some of the 

 many tidbits which are offered. 



One of the most interesting subjects touched Upon, all too briefly 

 be it said, is that wonderful instinct of bird migration. It seems 

 incredible that out of twenty-five species of aquatic birds, thirteen 

 are visitors from North America, several of them breeding in the 

 Arctic regions and crossing the whole tropical zone to winter, or 

 rather to summer, on the pampa. In September and even in 

 August they begin to appear on the pampa — plover, tatler, god- 



