July 24, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



117 



occupies the first part of the work, entitled 

 Untei'suchungen. The second and larger part, 

 termed Schlussfolgerungen, is devoted to an ap- 

 plication of this study to the classification of 

 butterflies, group by group in great detail, in 

 which is included a consideration of other parts 

 of the structure and notably of the neuration of 

 the wings in the perfect insect, but very little 

 of the early stages, even where, as not infre- 

 quently, these would have given support to the 

 special position maintained. 



Renter separates the Hesperidse as a distinct 

 suborder from the other butterflies, which last 

 he divides into six gentes, in ascending order 

 as follows : Papiliones (with the families Pa- 

 pilionidce and Pierididse), Lycaense (with the 

 families Lycaenidse and Erycinidse), Liby these, 

 Danaidse, Satyri and Nymphales (each with a 

 single family). His subfamilies are eighteen in 

 number, his next subdivision called stirpes 

 scarcely more numerous, while the tribes num- 

 ber sixty. A genealogical tree, far more de- 

 tailed than any yet attempted, explains pic- 

 torially his views of the phylogeny of the group, 

 that is, the precise origin and partings of each 

 of these gentes, families, subfamilies, stirpes, 

 tribes, and even in a few cases groups of 

 genera. The union of the Grypocfera (Hesper- 

 idse) and Rhopalocera is not shown, but the six 

 gentes are all made to diverge simultaneously 

 from the rhopaloceran trunk. It is a scholarly 

 investigation and we commend it heartily to all 

 naturalists. 



A Dictionary of the Names of Minerals including 

 their History and Etymology. By Albert 

 Huntington Chester, E. M., Ph. D., Sc. D. 

 New York, John Wiley & Sons. 

 It is significant of an implanted tendency 

 towards system, or else it is the evidence of an 

 essentially vital relation to external nature, that 

 men crave names for objects. The child minis- 

 tering to its first curiosities, as it meets new 

 things asks for a name, and afterwards for an 

 explanation of the creature or machine or spec- 

 imen which it sees. The amateur collector 

 feels a new sense of possession when he labels 

 his miscellaneous cabinet of rocks and minerals 

 and shells, and the delight with which he wel- 

 comes an addition to his stock of treasures 



takes on a keener sense when he can give a 

 name to the late arrivals. A name circum- 

 scribes and delineates an object, and makes it 

 more self-existent, as it were, feeding in us 

 the premonition of a further inquiry as to its 

 exact nature. To apply a speculation devel- 

 oped in Prof. Lloyd Morgan's 'Comparative 

 Psychology,' names render objects 'focal' in 

 consciousness, rather than ' marginal ' and 

 bring the roving eye of observation intently 

 upon their outlines and characteristics. 



The history of the nomenclature of science 

 is full of entertainment and instruction; it is its 

 structural history, the story of its growth, for 

 it reflects in every stage of its development, 

 the changing and widening knowledge, which, 

 like an increasing stream, spreads with curving 

 accessions over broader and broader tracts, and 

 leaves, in names, the beach lines of its various 

 extensions and deflections. 



Names in mineralogy might be collectively 

 grouped into four periods, that of the ancients 

 from Theophrastus to Pliny, that of mediseval 

 charlatanism and the alchemists, from Marbo- 

 deus to Albertus Magnus and Robert Boyle, 

 the formative period from Steno to "Werner, 

 Haiiy, Brewster, Rome de Lisle, etc., until 

 1820 or 1840, and the modern period. To trace 

 the analogues, replacements, dislocations and 

 corrections of names over this long stretch of 

 years, intermitttently marked by activity in 

 separate centers or individuals, until we reach 

 the zonal glow of enthusiasm in mineralogy as 

 a science, with the erection of a rational chem- 

 ical philosophy, would form a treatise of great 

 value. Prof. Chester possessed of great erudi- 

 tion in the archseology of mineral terminology, 

 and ardent in his devotion to a science in which 

 he has won distinction, might be fitly selected 

 for such an exhaustive research. The present 

 work over his name might be regarded as a pre- 

 liminary contribution to such a study. This 

 work encloses between its covers four thousand 

 six hundred and twenty-seven names, arranged 

 in alphabetical order, with usually a brief para- 

 graph of explanation assigned to each, except 

 where a name is a misprint, variant or synonym. 



Prof. Chester has accomplished in the prepa- 

 ration of this dictionary a very useful work, 

 and has undertaken a great amount of discrim- 



