176 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIX. No 477 



them possible with pigments, and applying these to the Maxwell 

 rotating disks, with the addition of black and white, we can make 

 and accurately name a very large proportion of all tbe colors 

 found in nature which also agree somewhat nearly with similar 

 pigmentary compositions. 



As above stated, this system of color instruction includes a prac- 

 tical nomenclature of color never before "advanced, which has 

 already been explained by Professor Pillsbury. Professor A. H. 

 Church of the Royal Academy of Arts, in a series of lectures be- 

 fore tbe Society of Arts, London, an account of which has been 

 published in this country, urges a scientific consideration of color 

 in its application to art, and near tbe clc'^e of one of his lectures 

 he says : — 



"We want an international color conference, in which artists, 

 manufacturers, and scientists shall be represented. We want an 

 agreement upon the name to be assigned to a number of different 

 hues. We want representations of these hues reproduced in 

 enamel, preserved like our standards of weights and measures, and 

 distributed to every educational institution in tbe United King- 

 dom. . . . Tbe importance of having a definite nomenclature of 

 quite intelligible character at our disposal when we are talking or 

 writing about the decorative employment of color is so important 

 that I venture to make a few suggestions which may tend toward 

 the attainment of this object." 



After making a suggestion for a method of notation. Professor 

 Church adds: — 



" The corresponding modifications in the five other principal 

 series of colors would be expressed in a similar manner, the sym- 

 bols, etc., being used exactly in tbe same way as in chemical no- 

 tation. In order to obtain a scale in a concrete form I would 

 recommend tbe use of Maxwell's rotation method by which each 

 step in tbe gradation could be matched." 



This author next proceeds to give a nomenclature of colors, but 

 as it is based on the three primary colors of the scientist, namely, 

 red, green, and violet, and the introduction witb them of such 

 additional terms as sea-green for a symbol, it is neither as simple 

 nor as definite as theone which has been described in your article to 

 which I have referred. This nomenclature is based solely on nature's 

 standards as found in tbe solar spectrum. Should we be favored 

 with the international conference suggested by Professor Church, 

 and should such a conference adopt the six standards and defi- 

 nitely locate them in the spectrum by their wave lengths, tbe 

 world would then have standards which are the same in one coun- 

 try as in another, and would remain the same in the twentietb 

 century as in the nineteenth. 



As a manufacturer of an extended line of colored papers 

 I am constantly putting this proposed nomenclature to a 

 severe test by ordering new colors by telephone. That is 

 to say, we make the desired combinations on the wheel in our 

 oflBce and then telephone them to the factory, ten miles distant, 

 where they are again made on the wheel and the papers are then 

 manufactured to correspond with the results of these combina- 

 tions. Under this plan we are liable to have occasion to " tele- 

 phone a color " frequently. In tbe same way we could cable 

 colors to Europe should it be necessary. Milton Bradley. 



Springfield, Mass., March 17. 



Professor Alexander Agassiz on the Origin of the Fauna and 

 Flora of the Galapagos Islands. 



In tbe "General Sketch of the Expedition of the 'Albatross' 

 from February to May, 1891 " (Bull. Mus. Comp., Zonl,, Harvard 

 College, Vol. xxiii., No. 1, Cambridge, Feb., 1892) Professor Alex- 

 ander Agassiz refers to my paper ' On the Origin of tbe Galapagos 

 Islands" (Am. Nat., March-April, 1891). There are some funla- 

 mental misunderstandings of my statements in Profesror Agassiz's 

 remarks, which need correction. 



Page 71, he says: " He [Baur] speaks of the Galapagos as being 

 connected with the mainland by the 4,000-raeter line." Then he 

 adds "This [the connection of the Galapagos with South America] 

 is an important fact ; all the older maps showed the Galapagos 

 separated from Central America '"(!). To this I have to reply, 

 that I never expressed the opinion that the Galapagos were former- 



ly connected with South America. The same is repeated by Pro- 

 fessor Agassiz in two other passages (p. 71). 



In all my statements in regard to tbe land connections I was 

 very cautious, as will be seen from p. 310: "In their general 

 characters the f liana and flora of the Galapagos show resemblances 

 to the great Mexican and Sonoran province, and also to the West 

 Indies, and it may be that the connection was with these regions 

 (and it seems more 'probable than any other), but of course it is 

 quite impossible to bring to-day any positive proof for this idea.'^ 

 (The italics are mine.) 



According to Professor Agassiz the proof of my subsidence 

 theory " is based on no better evidence than the so-called alpine 

 character of parts of tbe flora and upon the presumed former connec- 

 tion of the Galapagos Islands with the Central American continent." 

 Professor Agassiz has completely overlooked the main point of 

 my argument. This I considered the harmony in the distribution 

 of fauna and flora, as will be seen by referring to my paper. I 

 tried to show that this harmony was absolutely unexplainable by 

 the theory of elevation. After this was done, I examined whether 

 our present knowledge of tbe soundings showed any serious ob- 

 stacle to the theory of subsidence, and I found that it did not. 

 Professor Agassiz did not refer with one word to this harmony of 

 distribution, ivhich formed the basis of my whole ideas! 



When Professor Agassiz or any one else is able to explain this 

 by the elevation theory, 1 shall be tbe first one to adopt it. But 

 until this has been done, I believe in subsidence. 



The paper to which Professor Agassiz refers was written before 

 ray visit to the islands. My investigations have only more con- 

 vinced me of the insufficiency of the elevation theory. In my 

 final work I shall speak fully about this question and about other 

 points in Professor Agassiz's article. G. Baue. 



Clirk University, Worcester, Mass., March 15. 



The Scientific Alliance. 



I HEARTILY agree with your leading article of March 11, and 

 trust that you will continue to press this subject. The further 

 co-operation of the scientific societies in this city will result, I 

 feel confident, in increased activity and effectiveness in each. 



The special needs of many branches of work now being carried 

 on here are more funds for publication and for first-class illustra- 

 tion. There is no national publication open to all papers of 

 merit, like the Royal Society Transactions. The only journal I 

 know of which provides liberally for illustration is Whitman and 

 Allis's Journal of Morphology, and this is now. I have learned, 

 overstocked for two years to come with biological papers of a high 

 class. Henry F. Osboen. 



BioL Dept., Columbia College, March 18. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



Travels amongst the Great Andes of the Equator. By Edward 

 Whympee. New York, Scribner's. 8°. $6. 



Among the fascinating books of Professor Tyndall's is one on 

 ' Hours of Exercise in the Alps," in which, among other matter, 

 be records the several unsuccessful attempts be made to ascend 

 the Matterhorn, and how tbe rope left, by his party, hanging over 

 a ridge of rocks enabled the next following party of climbers 

 headed by Edward Whymper to gain such advantage as to be able 

 to reach the top. This first success was marred by a terrible 

 tragedy, only three or four of the party of seven getting back to 

 the foot of the mountain alive. 



But Edward Whymper added another triumph to his record as 

 a raountai i climber in his being the first to reach the summit of 

 Chimborazo in 1879. It is the account of his journey at (hat time 

 that is now published. 



A hundred years ago the natives of the valley of Chamonix 

 who took travellers up the mountain suffered as much as their 

 employers from physical sensations ascribed, no doubt rightly, to 

 the rarity of the air. They were unable to walk more than a few 

 paces without halting. Last autumn travellers who walked in 

 early morning from the hut under the Bosses (14,000 feet) to the 

 top (l.T,T80 feet) had the company of five Chamoniards. They 



