November 1, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



693 



which brought forth a long discussion, partici- 

 pated in by prominent teachers of chemistry 

 and industrial chemists. There seemed to be 

 some weight of opinion in favor of the view 

 that time may be spent in attempts to teach 

 the details of such industries as dyeing, brew- 

 ing, acid manufacture, etc., that might better 

 be devoted to acquiring the broad general prin- 

 ciples of chemistry, mechanics and engineering, 

 leaving the technical training to be acquired in 

 the factory or works. 



Dr. H. W. Wiley, of the U. S. Department of 

 Agriculture, gave a paper upon ' The Govern- 

 ment Laboratories of Great Britain.' This was 

 profusely illustrated by lantern photographs 

 taken by Dr. Wiley. The director of this lab- 

 oratory is Professor T. E. Thorpe, C.B., LL.D., 

 F.R.S., past president of the Chemical Society. 

 In regard to the equipment of this laboratory 

 Dr. Wiley thinks we might do well to imitate 

 its ideal system of ventilation and excellent ap- 

 paratus. Solid silver flasks are used for sapon- 

 ification tests under pressure. On the other 

 hand, British chemists in general will do well 

 to imitate the American Society of Official Agri- 

 cultural Chemists in regard to the adoption 

 of standard analytical methods. In Professor 

 Thorpe's laboratories some of the American 

 ' official methods ' have been adopted. 



John Alexander Mathews, 



Secretary. 



THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 



At the meeting of the Academy of Science, 

 of St. Louis, on the evening of October 21, 1901, 

 forty -five persons present, Professor F. E. 

 Nipher, of Washington University, delivered 

 an address on ' Progress made in Physics during 

 the Nineteenth Century.' 



William Trelease, 

 Recording Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 

 PATAGONIAN PERSONALITIES. 



A RECENT article in Science was none too 

 soon in drawing attention to the puerilities and 

 solecisms perpetrated by some botanists in their 

 endeavor to grapple with the mysteries of 'the 

 Latin language. We scarcely like to arouse the 



anger of zoologists by suggesting that they are 

 just as bad, but at any rate some of them are 

 not far behind. It is therefore satisfactory to 

 hear that the International Congress of Zoolo- 

 gists has decided that errors of etymology, 

 orthography and grammar are not to remain 

 perpetual disfigurements of scientific writings 

 simply because some would-be systematist never 

 went to school. But there is a class of names 

 against which there is no rule, appalling 

 though they often are to the mind of the 

 scholar. We allude to the monstrosities pieced 

 up out of modern proper names, or even bar- 

 barous dialect words, often in unnatural union 

 with a Greek or Latin suffix, e. g., Leedsich- 

 thys, Koninckocidaris, Lapworthura (a polite way 

 of showing respect truly !), Etheridgaster (which 

 does not mean airy stomach), Urobenus (not, 

 as some ingenious German supposes, derived 

 from ovpa and fiaivu^ but an anagram of Bourne- 

 rus by which a Mr. Bourne has been immor- 

 talized. 



But all previous efforts — if one can dignify 

 with such a term the results of pure laziness 

 or incompetence — are left far behind by the 

 latest fantasies of Florentine Ameghino in 

 ' Notices preliminaires sur des Ongules nou- 

 veaux des terrains cretaces de Patagonie,' pub- 

 lished in the Boletin de la Academia Nacional de 

 Oiencias de Cordoba (July, 1901). Zoologists 

 may retort that this gentleman is only a pale- 

 ontologist; well, then he should have more 

 sympathy with the dead languages than to 

 burden them with such abortions as the follow- 

 ing : Senricosbornia, Guilielmoscotfia, OldfieUl- 

 thomasia, Ernestokokenia, Josepholeidya, Bicardo- 

 lydekkeria, Quilielmofloweria, Henrico filholia, 

 Thomashuxleya, Edwardocopeia, and others too 

 many to quote. Space, however, must be found 

 for two gems, further enriched by footnotes : 

 Maxschlosseria ' J'ai employe le prenom sous la 

 forme germanique plus en usage, car c'est la 

 racine du nom latin, qui est trop long,' and 

 Asmithwoodwardia ' Je n'ai utilise que I'initiale 

 du prenom, car autrement il aurait resulte un 

 nom excessivement long. D'ailleurs, cet auteur 

 signe d'habitude A. Smith Woodward.' That 

 ' d'ailleurs ' is delicious ; the man would ac- 

 tually find excuses for not giving us Arturo- 

 smithivoodvardia. Will the Zoological Congress 



