November 11, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



649 



for the ' Sensations ') only through later 

 compilations. 



At the risk of appearing tedious in a matter 

 which is by no means of trivial importance, 

 namely, that of accuracy of citation, we may 

 direct attention to the following pertinent 

 comments taken from the introduction to Tan- 

 nery's work above referred to: 



Combien de fois voit-on de nos jours des gi-udits, 

 et des plus consciencieux, citer telle page et telle 

 ligne d'un volume qu'ils n'ont jamais eu entre 

 leurs mains! C'est la consequence forcfe du 

 systfeme de citations H la mode, et qui, indispens- 

 able pour certains ouvrages, n'en est pas moins 

 inutile et, par suite, abusif la plupart du temps. 

 II y a la un gtalage d'Srudition aussi facile 

 qu'illusoire ; qui s'est donnfi la peine de vgrifier, 

 par exemple, cent citations de suite dans tel 

 ouvrage moderne, mgme des plus justement renom- 

 mgs, peut savoir seul combien il a chance d'en 

 trouver d'inexactes ou de compl6tement fausses 

 sur cent autres au hasard. 



Then follow these two excellent prescrip- 

 tions : 



(1) Ne jamais citer avec precision un travail 

 sans I'avoir lu intggralement ; (2) se borner a 

 I'indispensable, c'est-a-dire aux seuls cas oii Ton 

 peut dfisirer que le lecteur, pour gtre mieiLX con- 

 vaincu, ait effectivement reeours a I'ouvrage 

 invoqug. 0. R. EastMAK. 

 Haevaed University. -- 



von Zittel too was in error, it seemed best to leave 

 the original text unchanged, and bring up the 

 matter afresh on some future occasion; and had 

 this intention been carried out earlier, it is prob- 

 able that our esteemed Washington colleague 

 would have no grounds for misapprehension. 



C. R. E. 

 October 22, 1904. 



PALiEONTOIiOGIA UNIVERSALIS. 



The writer desires to call the attention of 

 American geologists to the fact that this very 

 important work has but 21 subscribers in the 

 United States, while France has 63 and Ger- 

 many 96. Certainly the geologists and geo- 

 logical libraries of this country are not yet 

 supplied with this publication. Fasciculi I. 

 and II. have been issued; these contain 97 

 sheets redescribing and refiguring 46 of the 

 old and little known species. It is intended 

 to issue annually from 150 to 160 sheets, 

 treating of about 80 species. The annual 

 subscription price is $8.00. Subscriptions may 

 be sent to G. E. Stechert, No. 9 East Sixteenth 

 Street, New York City. Those persons or 

 institutions desiring further information re- 

 garding this work, with samples of the plates, 

 will be supplied on application to Professor 

 Charles Schuchert, Yale University Museum, 

 New Haven, Conn. 



Charles Schuchert. 



POSTSCRIPT. 



Through the courtesy of the Editor of Science 

 it is possible to append a word to the foregoing 

 after proof had already been passed for press. 

 In the issue of Science for October 21, Dr. 

 Emmons suggests that remarks of mine with 

 reference to him in an earlier article (No. 502) 

 ' seem to flavor of a certain disingenuousness.' 

 This may be construed as implying that the 

 article was contributed subsequently to an ex- 

 change of personal letters, in which Dr. Emmons 

 courteously disclosed his authority. 



In point of fact this assumption, or implied 

 assumption, is incorrect, my former article having 

 been already in train of publication at the time 

 our correspondence took place. Before it was 

 actually printed there was opportunity to be sure, 

 for certain alterations to be made in the proof, 

 incorporating the later information obtained from 

 Dr. Emmons. But having in the meantime taken 

 pains to verify his authority, and finding that 



A PROPOSED GEOGRAPHIC DICTIONARY. 



The increase in interest and the clearer 

 understanding of the origin of many topo- 

 graphic features have caused a great increase 

 in the number of what may be called technical 

 topographic terms during the past twenty 

 years. Further travel and study along geo- 

 graphic lines in foreign countries have led 

 to the gradual adoption by us of many foreign 

 topographic terms for various forms of relief. 

 This growing body of terms is at present 

 scattered through a large mass of literature, 

 usually inaccessible to most students. The 

 present writer's experience has shown very 

 clearly the need for some authoritative diction- 

 ary of topographic terms which shall bring 

 together not only the less well known terms, 

 but also those which are now in frequent but 

 very loose use. To meet this need he began 



