January 25, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



1(»1 



that the slave holders have lost the power 

 of feeding themselves'; but this is not 

 unexampled in human affairs. Surely 

 many a fine lady might starve outright in a 

 jilaee with no provender but live fowls and 

 unthre.shed wheat and water, no utensils 

 hut dry sticks and a few stones. Yet we 

 know that savages of far lower wit could 

 kill and pluck the fowls and get fire, spit 

 and roast them, crush the wheat between 

 the stones and make a damper cook it in 

 the embers. This is a case of the loss of 

 the power of self help by peculiar education, 

 and if we admit this explanation for the 

 fine lady we have no right to reject it for 

 the slave holding ant. 



I am aware that I have not dealt exhaust- 

 ively with the whole question of social in- 

 sects. There are lots of cruxes in their 

 manners and customs, and especially in the 

 manifold forms that occur in one and the 

 same species. AVhy, for instance, worse 

 food and a narrower cell should make a fer- 

 tilized bee's egg become a sterile worker 

 instead of a queen, no one knows ; and the 

 problems presented among ants are far more 

 ditlicult and complicated. But it is as well 

 to take stock frequently of our speculations, 

 and to place our certain realized assets to 

 the credit side, even though we have to 

 keep most of our accounts open indefinitely. 

 Marcus Hartog. 



QiEEx's College, Cork. 



THE PROPER SCIESTIFIC NAME FOR 

 BREWER S MOLE. 

 Thkre are three species of moles in the 

 Eastern States, the Star-nosed mole, Cnndy- 

 liira rri.'ifafa, the common or Shrew mole, 

 Scahji" aqiiaf!ru.i, and a third less familiar 

 species known as Brewer's mole, or the 

 Hairy-tailed mole. It is to this last species 

 that mj^ remarks relate. It was described 

 by Bachman in 1842 in the Boston Journal of 

 Nafural Hixtory (vol. 4, page 32) under the 

 name of Scalop-t breurri, and was cited under 

 that designation until 1879, when Dr. Coues 



proposed to change the specific name to 

 anicricanii.'t. This proposition was based on 

 the fact that in Harlan's Fauna Americana, 

 published in 1825, the name ' Talpa ameri- 

 (■a)ia, black mole, Bartram's manuscript 

 notes,' occurs in synonjTuy at the head of a 

 description which Dr. Coues thought might 

 be in part, at least, applicable to the species 

 under consideration. 



I find, however, that this is a literal trans- 

 lation of Desmarest's description of the 

 European mole, Talpa curopcea, with no ad- 

 ditions whatever, and no other alteration 

 than the omission of a word or sentence 

 here and there. It is evident, therefore, 

 that Harlan included nothing from Bar- 

 tram's manuscript, whatever it may have 

 contained, and that the name Talpa amerl- 

 mna has no validity. 



It will be necessary to return to the 

 specific name breu'cri. I recently separated 

 Brewer's mole as the representative of a 

 distinct genus, which I called Para'<ealnj)s. 

 If this distinction be accepted, the proper 

 name of the species will be Para.^calopg 

 breu'eri (Bachman). 



Frederick W. Trie. 



U. ,S. National Miseum. 



TJIE AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY. 



The annual meeting of the Society was 

 held at the Columbian l^niversity, "Wash- 

 ington, December 27th and 28th. Owing 

 to a death in his family, the President, Dr. 

 Alcee Fortier, of Louisiana, was prevented 

 from attending. 



The Secretary, ]Mr. AV. W. Newell, sub- 

 mitted a report in which he detailed the 

 publications of the Society for the year. 

 These included two volumes of • Folk Talcs 

 of Angola,' prepared by Heli Cliatelain, late 

 United States commercial agent at Loanda, 

 West Africa, and jiapers by various well- 

 known authors as follows: 'Notes on the 

 folk-lore of the mountain whites of the 

 AUeghanies,' J. Hampton Porter; 'Three 



