72 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 419. 



would result from this course, which, like 

 the others, cannot wisely be adopted. 



There remains then but one suggestion. 

 That is to use the old and established gen- 

 era, which will work in perhaps ninety- 

 five per cent, of the cases, and frankly 

 call attention to the intergradations so 

 that no one will be misled. 



In this way we can heed the pleading of 

 our friends to ' deal gently with established 

 genera,' and not bring disastrous confu- 

 sion into the already overworked syn- 

 onymy. 



Of course this solution is far from ideal, 

 and will doubtless meet with no little criti- 

 cism, but it is an honest one, and it is 

 hoped will meet with the gratitude of 

 those who plead with us to 'deal gently 

 with established genera.' 



It is to be feared that we have been too 

 lenient with those who have been heedless 

 in the matter of overturning existing 

 classifications before they are certain that 

 they have something better to offer. The 

 old proverb, 'Be sure you are off with the 

 old love before you are on with the new' 

 is one all too apt to be forgotten by the 

 enthusiasts who are unable to distinguish 

 the difference between becoming great and 

 becoming notorious. A little wholesome 

 conservatism is by no means to be despised. 

 A system of classification is not necessarily 

 better because it is new, and we need to 

 redeem ourselves from the charge, all too 

 well founded, that we are capricious in 

 tinkering with matters that need the most 

 careful pondering, and an application of 

 Davy Crockett's motto, 'Be sure you're 

 right, and then go ahead.' 



Of course all real progress must be en- 

 couraged, and it will never do to allow 

 considerations regarding public, or even 

 scientific, opinion to deter us after we are 

 sure we are right. Conservatism by no 

 means means stagnation, but it does mean 

 deliberation. 



But I have already trespassed too long 

 upon your time without even touching on 

 several questions of vital importance, such 

 as the 'A. 0. U. Code,' the best medium 

 of publication, an authoritative tribunal 

 for the settlement of such questions of 

 nomenclature as could rightly be sub- 

 mitted to such a body, and other matters 

 that I had hoped to discuss. 



In conclusion, let me urge the necessity 

 of hearty cooperation and a good under- 

 standing between systematists and other 

 workers in the field of biological research. 

 None of us can afford a contemptuous 

 attitude toward any other who is honestly 

 striving to extend the limits of knowledge, 

 even though his faults are many. In early 

 days out "West there hung in a popular 

 dance hall the suggestive notice: 'Don't 

 shoot the orchestra. He's doing the best 

 he knows how' ! The same plea in thought, 

 if not in language, we would enter in be- 

 half of the systematist. 



C. C. Nutting. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

 Geschichte der Chemie und der auf chem- 



ischer Grundlage heruhenden Betriebe in 



Bohmen dis zur Mitte des 19 Jahrhunderts. 



Von Adalb. Wrany. Prag. 1902. 8vo. 



Pp. vii -f 397. 



Dr. Wrany's volume deals with the progress 

 of chemical science and its allied industries 

 in the kingdom of Bohemia from the earliest 

 times to a comparatively recent period, in 

 an exhaustive manner. The first section con- 

 siders the development of alchemy, it being 

 a part of the history of civilization ; it records 

 that the first Archbishop of Prague, Arnest 

 von Pardubic, who became chancellor of the 

 newly founded University of Prague, attended 

 universities in Italy to study chemistry and 

 alchemy; he died in 1364, being a century 

 later than Roger Bacon, Albertus Magnus, 

 and the noted physician Arnold de Villanova, 

 but preceding Paracelsus by an equal number 

 of years. The first Bohemian writer on al- 

 chemy was Johann von Tetzen, whose verses 



