September 9, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



147 



reference to aomenclature. How much of genuine good-feeling and 

 exchange of courtesies existed under cover of this public hostility 

 is known only to the botanists themselves. Every one desired a 

 stable nomenclature, but the conservatives held so doggedly to 

 the old, and the radicals ran so persistently to the new, that the 

 result was chaos. It was speedily found that "good usage," 

 which was founded upon individual opinion, could never bring 

 stability in face of the fact that scores of botanists felt equally 

 competent to stand for "good usage." 



The culininatian of all these upheavals came in the famous book 

 of Otto Kuntze, which looked like the end of all things to conser- 

 vatives, and even made the radicals stand aghast. Kuntze 

 wrought better than he knew, and has undoubtedly been largely 

 instrumental in inducing a common movement among European 

 and American botanists to attempt to secure some basis of agree- 

 ment. His book will probable stand as a good example of what- 

 not to-do in matters of nomenclature. The International Congress 

 of Botanists at Genoa (Sept. 4-11) was a favorable opportunity 

 for presenting the matter, and hence the almost simultaneous 

 appearance of papers from Berlin and New York and Washington 

 for signatures. 



At the meeting of the American Association at Rochester (Aug. 

 17-24) an unusually large number of botanists who deal with 

 nomenclature were present, and they had with them (by letter) 

 the opinions of nearly all who were absent. Not only was the 

 representation very large, but the willingness to concede for the 

 sake of agreement was remarkable, no such fraternal feeling being 

 anticipated by the most sanguine. The discussions were full, free, 

 and informal; every shade of opinion being presented and care- 

 fully considered. The principles that were finally adopted were 

 not numerous, and additions will undoubtedly be necessary, but 

 they were adopted with wonderful unanimity, and must commend 

 themselves to anyone who studies them and who understands the 

 forces tliat were at work in formulating them. Probably not a 

 single individual opinion is fully expressed by these principles, but 

 that resultant of opinions, which must be a far more influential 

 thing. 



The selection of 1753, the date of the first edition of Linneeus's 

 "Species Plantarum," as the common point of departure for gen- 

 era and species, seemed to be conceded almost without debate. 

 This is no place to discuss the many very important considerations 

 which urge the selection of this date ; but it will certainly bring a 

 feeUng of stability in generic names that no other selection could 

 have brought. It at once remands to silence all that region of 

 uncertainty which necessarily lies beyond the time when species 

 definitely stood as representing genera. 



The fixity of the specific name has long been recognized as a 

 working principle, and the only objection has been to making it 

 an ex post facto law. But this would at once make two points 

 of departure, and the changes are not so numerous after all. 



The homonym section is also a wise one, as chiefly becomes ap- 

 parent to those who have been compelled to reinstate an old group 

 and so turn adrift and nameless some other group that may hold 

 no relation to it. 



It is probable that the section defining what is meant by the 

 publication of a species will be the only one that will meet with 

 criticism. To most of the botanists at Rochester, however, the 

 definition strongly commended itself. The criticism will not be 

 directed at what the definition contains, but at the fact that it 

 omits the distribution of named specimens. This omission, how- 

 ever, can only touch chiefly comparatively recent distributions, 

 for the names of the older classical ones have surely long since 

 been protected by some form of publication which comes under 

 the provisions of the section. The mixture of material under a 

 single number in large distributions is not only well known, but 

 probably to be expected, especially among plants in which the 

 characters are microscopic. Herbarium names are also a great 

 bar to the study of systematic botany, now that it has become a 

 democratic thing, and a provision which compels all specific 

 characterization to be widely accessible is a reasonable one. 



It is to be expected that all American botanists will gladly use 

 these principles, as it will remove a feeling of uneasiness in their 

 work, a feeling which has sometimes compelled some of them to 



make sure of their species by mentioning the names they would 

 bear under the different systems of nomenclature. 



Names are things of secondary importance, and the long discus- 

 sion of non essentials has seemed wearisome to many, but dis- 

 putes are usually about non-essentials, are always wasteful of 

 energy, and should always be adjusted. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.— XIV. 



[Edited by D. Q. Brinton, M.D., LL.D.] 



The Selection of Comparative Vacabularies. 



The student whose investigations lead him to the comparison 

 of languages and dialects is constantly impeded by the absence 

 of any uniform schedule of words employed by travellers in se- 

 curing specimens of them. This is one of the many points on 

 which it would be most desirable that some international agree- 

 ment could be reached. 



The colonial department of the German government has re- 

 cently published a schedule of about 800 words, which will be 

 adopted by its officers and explorers. The list has been prepared 

 by the eminent linguist. Professor Georg von der Gabelentz, and 

 is published by Mitler & Son, Berlin, under the title " Handbuch 

 zur Aufnahme Premder Sprachen." It is prefaced by a series of 

 practical observations and directions which will prove of much 

 utility to the collector. 



Our government has also an official schedule of words pub- 

 lished through the Smithsonian Institution. It is a monument of 

 colossal misconception of purpose and theory- hunting. The 

 terms for kinship alone number 1476, and contain such as the 

 following: "My mother's elder sister's daughter's daughter's 

 daughter's hus'oand!" Instead of being a convenient octavo, 

 which one can slip in his pocket, as is the German, it is a bulky 

 quarto of 2.50 pages, much of it taken up with quite useless mat- 

 ter. I ventm-e the assertion with confidence that no collector 

 has ever filled up its blanks. 



Primitive Man in South Anerica 

 The doubts expressed in these " Notes'' as to the age of some 

 of the recent discoveries of anthropoid remains in South America 

 (see Science, March 11) have been echoed with force by M. E. 

 Trouessart in an article in L'Anthropologie for June. The hy- 

 pothesis of a miocene man in the area of the Argentine Republic or 

 Patagonia, advanced by Ameghino and others, has received a 

 rude shock through the researches of Professor C. Steinmann of 

 Freiburg. According to him, the Pampean formation corres- 

 ponds to the Loess of North America, and is inter-glacial in date, 

 and not pliocene, as Doering and Ameghino teach; and their al- 

 leged miocene is merely a part of the great deposit of the Austral 

 glaciation. This he believes occurred at the same time as the 

 ice age of the northern continent. 



This opinion seems to be borne out by a comparison of the 

 fauna of the oligocene of Patagonia with that of the alleged mio- 

 cene of La Plata. The differences are quite too great for them to 

 belong so near together. Twenty per cent of the Pampean forms 

 are still living species in the same locality, which would be 

 enough to cast grave doubts on its high antiquity. Here, there- 

 fore, as in so many other spots on the American continent, the 

 vast antiquity of the remains of man is materially diminished by 

 closer scrutiny. 



Race and Culture. 



A recent pamphlet by Professor Frank W. Blackmar, of the 

 University of Kansas, on Indian education, brings up the general 

 subject of the attitude of the lower races toward the culture of 

 the highest. This sociological study, carefully prepared from 

 authentic statistics, substantially acknowledges that while in in- 

 dividual instances there is no intellectual inferiority in the Red 

 Race, its members are unable to face the light of civilization and 

 live. Even when educated they must be protected, especially 

 against their own people, but also against the whites. His final 

 words are : — 



"The Indian must be drilled, trained, and placed in an occu- 

 pation which offers protection on the one hand and restraint on 



