July 15, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



85 



tree, tas smooth leaves but prickly petioles. 

 It occurs at about 1,500 feet elevation. Two 

 of the species are endemic. Hemitelia has 

 one species, described early in the last century, 

 which is probably extinct, and two others very 

 little known. A species of Lophosoria has a 

 dense bloom on the under side of the leaves 

 and is somewhat serophytic in habit. It has 

 merely a woody base. 



Cnemidaria is distinguished by its habit 

 and the cutting of its leaves. It has veins 

 uniting near the midrib to form meshes. 



Amphidesmium, from Trinidad and South 

 America, differs from all other ferns in that 

 the veins bear a second or even third sorus. 



Most of the species discussed were illus- 

 trated by herbarium specimens and by por- 

 tions of their trunks. 



The second paper was by Dr. P. A. Eyd- 

 berg, on ' The Flora of Northwest America.' 

 A general discussion of the manuals available 

 for the identification of the plants of different 

 parts of the United States was given and a 

 review of Mr. Howell's flora of the Columbia 

 River region. 



William T. Horne, 

 Secretary pro tern. 



THE PSYCHOLOGICAL CLDB OF CORNELL 

 UNIVERSITY. 



The session of 1904 has been devoted to the 

 consideration of current theories of auditory 

 sensation. The following papers have been 

 read : 



Me. H. C. Stevens: 'The Helmholtz Theory.' 

 De. J. W. BAiED:,'Tlie Facts of Auditory Sen- 

 sation.' 



Me. C. E. Feeree : ' The Physics of the Ear.' 

 Mr. C. E. Galloway: 'The Histology of the 

 Ear.' 



Me. C. E. Galloway: 'Tlie Physiology of the 

 Ear.' 



Peofessoe E. B. Titchenee„: ' Rutherford's 

 Theory and its Relation to the Helmholtz Theory.' 

 Professor I. M. Bentley : ' Ebbinghaus and 

 Stumpf.' 

 Mr. G. H. Sabine : ' Max Meyer.' 

 De. T. de Laguna : ' Ter Kuile's Theory.' 

 Miss A. Jenkins : ' Ayers's Theory.' 

 Peofessoe Titchener : ' The Theories of Gray 

 and Wundt.' 

 Miss E. Murray : ' Hermann and Ewald.' 



Mk. Stevens: 'Objections to the Helmholtz 

 Theory.' 



Professor Bentley : ' Is Analysis Possible 

 without Resonators ? ' 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



KINDERGARTEN SCIENCE. 



Dr. Theodore Gill's arraignment in Sci- 

 ence (No. 488) of popular writers on natural 

 history who indulge in ' baby talk,' by which 

 is meant the practise of ' talking down ' to an 

 assumed inferior level of underetanding, is a 

 point exceedingly well taken. The use of a 

 ' trot ' to enable the young idea to canter 

 smoothly along the road to learning, and thus 

 avoid the toilsome march, is as much to be 

 deprecated in natural science as in classics or 

 other studies. 



Dr. Gill's censure happens in this instance 

 to be directed against over-popularizers of 

 paleontology, whose administration of sugar- 

 coated tabloids to juvenile readers is objected 

 to on the ground, as he puts it, that ' science 

 is scarcely food for babies.' But paleonto- 

 logical writers are not the only offenders in 

 this direction. For the employment of kin- 

 dergarten methods of illustration, even in 

 serious articles, no science can compare with 

 physiography. The recent literature of this 

 subject has been suffering from a mania for 

 interpreting topographic features in terms of 

 vital phenomena, and for correlating, or at- 

 tempting to correlate, physical changes (cycle 

 is a misnomer) with stages of organic develop- 

 ment. Youths maturity and old age are 

 terms constantly employed for indicating the 

 successive expressions of unchanging forces in 

 nature, for things as essentially different from 

 life as the growth of the crystal is different 

 from the growth of the individual. 



It may be answered that an analogy is not 

 implied by the use of these terms in a figura- 

 tive sense, or if one is suggested, it is not 

 harmful. Harmful it does become, however, 

 when, a false analogy is strained so far as to 

 produce senseless or even ludicrous incongrui- 

 ties. Without exaggerating the prevailing 

 style of metaphor, it may be said that a co- 

 ordinate value is placed by physiographers 

 upon the ridges and valleys of landscapes, and 



