DlCOEAIBEK 30, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



925 



sponded in all essentials to the modern class, 

 including, as it did, both the salamanders and 

 the frogs (though excluding the apodal 

 Cseeilians). 



I have long suspected, however, that the 

 term was older, but in spite of persistent 

 eilorts I was unable to obtain access to a copy 

 of the book I had in mind. Taking advantage, 

 therefore, of my friend and colleague, Gerrit 

 S. Miller's recent visit to Berlin I requested 

 him to give me the results of an examination 

 of the volume in case he should be able to find 

 it in any of the libraries there. This he has 

 kindly done and the result confirms my sus- 

 picion. 



The book in question is by A. J. G. C. 

 Batsch, and in entitled : ' Versuch einer Anlei- 

 tung zur Kenntniss und Geschichte der 

 Thiere und Mineralien.' It was published in 

 Jena and consists of two parts, the first bear- 

 ing the date of 1Y88 and containing the gen- 

 eral introductory matter and the vertebrates, 

 the other dated 1Y89, embracing the lower ani- 

 mals and the minerals. 



According to Mr. Miller's analysis of the 

 class Amphihia in the first part, Batsch divides 

 it into four ' families,' viz., I., Testudines; II., 

 Batrachi; III., Lacertce; and IV., Berpentes. 

 From the enumeration of the genera ad- 

 mitted by Batsch it is evident that he accepted 

 without any essential alteration the scheme 

 of classification proposed tweijty years earlier 

 by Laurenti in his ' Synopsis Eeptilium,' 

 though adding the turtles which Laurenti for 

 some unexplained reason had left out. Thus 

 the genera Triton and Salamandra are left 

 with the Lacertce, the cascilians with the S6r- 

 pentes, and the Batrachi consist solely of the 

 genera Pipa, Bufo, Rana and Hyla. Batsch's 

 Batrachia of 1788, therefore, is an exact 

 equivalent of Laurenti's order Salientia of 

 1768 and becomes a synonym pure and sinipiie 

 of the latter, We have thus traced the Ger- 

 man usage of the word ' Batrachier ' for the 

 tailless order only, which was thought to have 

 originated with Johannes Miiller, in 18.32, back 

 to its first propounder. 



It is then pretty plain that in view of this 

 discovery the term Batrachia has become un- 

 tenable for the whole class. 



Under these circumstances there seems to 

 be nothing else to do but to accept Amphibia 

 as the formal Latin name for the class as it 

 is restricted at present. While there ' are 

 many good reasons why it would be desirable 

 to retain the word for the combined classes 

 embraced in the term herpetology, I recognize 

 that it would be utterly hopeless to attempt 

 the substitution of a later name of approxi- 

 mately the compass of the present class. 



Leonhard Stejneger. 



U. S. National Museum, 

 December 16, 1904. 



AN ADAPTATION OF THE CARD CATALOGUE CABINET 

 FOR THE STORAGE OF MICROSCOPIC SLIDES. 



Every worker in natural history who has 

 to prepare and handle quantities of micro- 

 scopic slides is met with the problem of how 

 to store them safely and in such form that 

 they can be readily referred to. In the special 

 field of Cocci dcB in which the writer is inter- 

 ested there has accumulated in the collection 

 of the Department of Agriculture at least 

 20,000 slides relating to, perhaps, a thousand 

 different insects. To these additions are be- 

 ing constantly made and daily consultation 

 with this slide collection is necessary for pur- 

 poses of comparison and identification of the 

 new material. The systems of slide storage 

 which have been tried have all proved to be 

 more or less cumbersome and not especially 

 easy of reference except by consultation of 

 indexes, and especially not elastic in the sense 

 of allowing for indefinite additions. In other 

 words, the different styles of grooved slide 

 boxes once filled can not be added to, and in 

 a 'growing collection it becomes necessary to 

 have elaborate rearrangements at frequent in- 

 tervals if anything like classification is at- 

 tempted. If the slides be simply added seri- 

 atim the necessity arises for an elaborate card 

 index and the consultation of many different 

 slide boxes to get together the material repre- 

 senting one subject. It seemed to the writer 

 that all these difficulties could be avoided by 

 devising some plan similar to the method of 

 the card catalogue of the different library 

 bureaus. 



The result of a study of the subject has 



