Dkoesibbb 2, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



793 



A. Woods, Dr. Roger T. Atkinson and Dr. F. 

 R. Stubbs. Dr. Quincy was connected with the 

 •department from its inception to the present 

 time, and its rapid development has depended 

 very much upon his zeal and devotion. This 

 loss will be long regretted. 



Me. F. G. Hopkins, late demonstrator of 

 physiology at Guy's Hospital, has been ap- 

 pointed to the new university lectureship in 

 chemical physiology at Cambridge University. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE. 



SHALL THE INTERNATIONAL EQUIVALENT OF 

 'ANLAGE' BE PEIMOBDIUM OR PROTON? 



To THE Editor of Science : In Nature, 

 for August 25, 1898, p. 390, appeared a com- 

 munication from Arthur Willey entitled ' What 

 is Anlage? ' He well remarks : 



"To be obliged, on every occasion, to write 

 ' Anlage ' in inverted commas s a standing 

 testimony to the deficiency of our scientific no- 

 menclature and a constant offence to our aes- 

 thetic susceptibilities."* 



After pointing out the more or less obvious 

 objections to forecast, fundament and rudiment, 

 he concludes : 



' ' The word that commends itself to me as 

 being at once accurate and well-sounding is pri- 

 mordium, and I trust some of your readers will 

 criticise it whether favorably or unfavorably." 



I have hesitated to respond to the foregoing 

 cordial invitation because the alternative term 

 in the title of this note was first, in recent 

 times, at least, proposed by me. Nearly six 

 years ago, In an article on the Brain (' Refer- 

 ence Handbook of the Medical Sciences,' IX., 

 p. 104, note), proton was employed to 'desig- 

 nate the primitive, undifferentiated mass or 

 rudiment of a part.' It was also introduced 

 in my review of two works on Human Embry- 

 ology {The Nation, LVI., No. 1454, p. 350) : 



"One author translates Anlage fundament. 

 The other adopts it as an English word, regard- 

 less of its multifarious and incongruous senses, 

 the confusion that attends its pronunciation and 

 spelling, and the improbability of its acceptance 

 by French embryologists. Neither seems to 

 have thought of reverting to Aristotle, whose 



*The needless adoption of German words into 

 English had already been vigorously reprobated by 

 Schafer. Nature, August 13 1896 ; p. 341. 



phrases, rb Trpurov; 57 Trpdn} vKti ; ?J irpliTT] airia, sug- 

 gest the short word proton, already familiar in 

 numerous compounds, and eligible for adoption 

 into any modern language." 



Proton was also referred to in my ' Neural 

 Terms International and National ' {Jour. Comp. 

 Neurology, VI., 289, December, 1896); and in 

 'Some Neural Terms,' 'Biological Lectures' 

 [Marine Biological Laboratory] , 1896-1897, p. 

 158. It has been employed by S. H. Gage, ad- 

 dress as President of the American Microscopical 

 Society, 1895 (Science, August 23d, p. 211); by 

 Mrs. S. P. Gage, ' Comparative Morphology of 

 the Brain of the Soft-shelled Turtle and the 

 English Sparrow ' {Proc. Amer. Micros. Soc. 

 1895, p. 228); by B. B. Stroud, 'The Develop 

 ment of the Cerebellum in Man and the Cat, 

 Jour. Comp. Neurology, 'V., July, 1895, p. 88 

 by Joseph Collins, Translation of Jakob's ' An 

 Atlas of the Normal and Pathological Nervous 

 Systems,' 1896, p. vii. ; by C. J. Herrick, Jour. 

 Comp. Neurology, IV., p. 6, April, 1894; by A. 

 Meyer, idem, VIII., p. liv. ; and, with edito- 

 rial commendation, in the Philadelphia Medical 

 Journal, May 7, 1898, p. 798. It is defined in 

 Gould's 'Medical Dictionary.' 



These uses oi proton were evidently unknown 

 to Mr. Willey ; doubtless he was likewise un- 

 aware that the very question propounded in the 

 title of his note had been considered in the 

 article, ' Inquiries Regarding Current Tenden- 

 cies in Neurological Nomenclature,' by C. L. 

 and C. J. Herrick, in the Journal of Comparative 

 Neurology, VII., 162-168, March, 1898. In a 

 circular dated December, 1896, which was 

 ' mailed to about one hundred and fifty of the 

 leading neurologists and anatomists of the 

 world,' was included the following item ; 



"Kindly underscore your preference among 

 the following, making any comments or addi- 

 tions which may seem best to you : (a) Proton, 

 fundament, rudiment, for the German Anlage.^' 



To this query were received forty-two replies, 

 tabulated on p. 166 : Beginning, origin and 

 foundation had each one American advocate ; 

 fundament, six (three American and three Eu- 

 ropean) ; rudiment, nine (five and four) ; the re- 

 tention of Anlage was favored by eleven (eight 

 and three) ; but proton was preferred by thir- 

 teen (seven American and six Eui-opean). 



Had the above facts been known to Mr. Wil- 

 ley he would, of course, have included proton 

 among the possible equivalents for Anlage. 

 Were proton not available primordium would be 

 acceptable to me. I venture to express the 



