io8 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. X. No. 238 



of Louisiana, of which Arkansas was once a part, always pro- 

 nounced it saw, there would nevertheless be no authority whatever 

 for the curt and abbreviated sass which is generally given. The 

 word is an attempt upon the part of the first French missionaries of 

 Marquette's time to phonetically spell in French the name of a tribe 

 of Indians, and no Frenchman would ever pronounce the combina- 

 tion of letters in the manner taught by the New Englanders. The 

 final s was and is silent, and the a has the nasal aw so common in 

 many Frenchmen's speech. As for the old comparativists, who, re- 

 gardless of the inconsistency of English spelling, always inquire, " if 

 Arkansas is Arkansaw, why is not Kansas, Kansaw," they may be 

 glad to learn that Kansas was Kansaw, and early Anglo-American 

 travellers so pronounced it, and even attempted to spell it pho- 

 netically in English, as can be seen in the report of Lieutenant 

 Long's expedition to the Rocky Mountains, i8 19-182 1, where the 

 word is spelled Konza — the nearest combination of English letters 

 that can approach the true French sound. 



But Arkansas is not the only French geographic term that has 

 been sacrificed to the attempt of New England lexicographers to 

 create in that region a standard pronunciation of the English. The 

 word chien, for instance, which was originally applied to the In- 

 dians from their system of police, I believe, and meant literally the 

 ' Dog Indians,' now graces the rivers, counties, cities, and moun- 

 tains of our maps as Cheyenne, — the most plausible illustration of 

 a Yankee phonetic-pronunciation of a French-spelled word. 



'Arkansaw ' may be difficult to say, and may fall heavily upon our 

 €ars, but it is proper all the same, and the sooner ' Arkansas ' is 

 abolished the better for out consistency. Robt. T. Hill. 



U. S. National Museum, Aug. 20. 



Diagnosis of a New Species of Thrush (Turdus celaenops sp. 

 nov.) from Japan. 



Diagnosis. — Back 'mummy-brown' {Ridgway's Nome7iclature 

 of Colors, -^X.m.. Fig. lo) ; breast and flanks rufous tawny, un- 

 spotted ; under wing-coverts gray ; tail-feathers without white 

 terminal spots ; no light stripes about the eyes ; second primary 

 shorter than fifth. Adult male with head and neck black. Wing 

 about; 120 millimetres. 



Type. — United States National Museum, No. 111,665. 



Habitat. — ' The Seven Islands,' Idzu, Japan. 



During a recent visit to ' The Seven Islands,' south of the Bay 

 of Tokio, Mr. M. Namiye, of the Educational Museum, Tokio, 

 among other interesting species, collected the thrush described 

 above. Although nearest related to T. chrysolaiis, the male of the 

 new species is easily distinguished from all the forms belonging to 

 the same group by the intensely black color of the head, neck, 

 outer portion of wing, and tail. The female resembles more that of 

 T. chrysolaus, but the back is browner, the tawny of the breast and 

 flanks is deeper and more rufous, and the first (tenth, or rudi- 

 mentary) primary is longer. 



I am under great obligations to the authorities of the Tokio 

 Educational Museum for the privilege of describing this interesting 

 novelty. Leonhard Stejneger. 



Smithson. Inst., Washington, D.C., Aug. i8. 



Audubon's Grave. 



The letter from Mr. D. S. Martin, in Science of Aug. 5, interested 

 me very much, as it undoubtedly did every American naturalist ; 

 and there is probably no appeal that could be addressed to the 

 naturalists of this country which would meet with a more liberal 

 response than for the means to erect a fitting monument to 

 Audubon. 



But this appeal calls up another question in my mind, and, if at 

 this distance I be correctly informed from what I have seen in the 

 press columns, is not the great cathedral, which is to cost some ten 

 millions of money and to be erected in New York City, on such a 

 footing that there seems but little doubt that the structure will 

 eventually be completed ? And, further, if I read the words of 

 Bishop Potter aright, is not the edifice when finished to be the 

 ' Westminster Abbey ' of the United States ? Surely it would seem 

 that the time has arrived when we should be able to point to some 

 grand monument and say, within those walls repose the remains of 

 America's great and honored dead. Such far-reaching projects 



when perfected ever tend to nationalize us, and to-day, as we are all 

 aware, the ashes of the truly great men, men who have built up 

 America's science, art, letters, and every calling which goes to 

 make a nation great, are in many instances so obscurely rested, that 

 I ween it would test the memory of the best of us to recall the 

 spots where we have placed them. 



Why not deposit the remains of our great naturalist, Audubon, 

 in some perfectly secure vault for a few years longer, and then re- 

 move them to their final resting place, to their crypt in the great 

 Abbey which is to be built, and then will every naturalist in the 

 United States proudly come forward with his share towards closing 

 the entrance of such a tomb with a fitting monument. 



R. W. Shufeldt. 



Fort Wingate, N.Mex., Aug. 12. 



Increasing- Danger of Tape-Worm. 



In the Texas grazing region, from which has sprung, within the 

 last two decades, the entire stock of range cattle of the western 

 states and territories, the beef tape-worm is a most common oc- 

 currence. In fact, I do not believe I exaggerate when I say that at 

 least every fifth person is afflicted. The cause of this is that on 

 open ranges the eggs of tape-worm are most easily and widely dis- 

 tributed, and hence the cattle more frequently become infested with 

 cysts. Stall-fed cattle, on the other hand, where the water is usu- 

 ally less subject to contamination, and the food cleaner, are only 

 seldom infected, and hence tape-worm was not so prevalent in re- 

 gions where the latter were used. 



In the last few years, however, the shipment of range-cattle, by 

 means of refrigerator cars, has become the chief beef supply of the 

 East, and the danger and frequency of tape-worm greatly increased. 

 Of course, no one should stop the use of well-cooked meat on this 

 account, but rare and half-cooked meats can easily be avoided. 



R. T. H. 



Applied Optics. 



We are indebted to Prof. R. S. Heath of Birmingham, England, 

 for a good book in our language, that at last gives us a theory, the 

 Gaussian, that can be used in the discussion of lenses as we find 

 them in telescopes. Heretofore, so far as I know, English writers 

 have treated the imaginary case of lenses infinitely thin, and in 

 practice have spoken in a vague manner of an optical centre. For 

 a correct theory, one was obliged to recur to the memoir of Gauss, 

 or to some of the Gerinan discussions of it. 



In Mr. Heath's bibliography of this subject I find no reference to 

 the writings of Biot, to which Mr. G. W. Hill called my attention 

 some time ago. In his 'Astronomic Physique,' Biot devotes 540 

 pages to optical instruments, and he is so voluminous that it would 

 require some patience to be sure of what he has done. I have the 

 impression that he came near anticipating Gauss. Biot's first 

 volume was published in 1841. Gauss read his memoir in Decem- 

 ber, 1840, but it was not published until 1843. Asaph Hall. 



Washington, Aug. zo. 



Queries. 



14. An Expulsion of Sparrows. — A curious thing hap- 

 pened here a week ago to-day. About four o'clock in the afternoon, 

 a flock of birds — hundreds apparently — flew in circles round and 

 round our house and garden, never settling. This continued for 

 nearly an hour without a sound. Meantime our saucy sparrows 

 disappeared, and have not yet returned. Our trees, which at dawn 

 and twilight resounded with their chattering, are now silent and 

 deserted. I had an opportunity the next morning of seeing closely 

 one of the army of extirpation, — probably a deserter, for he was the 

 only one left. I would describe the bird as about the size of the 

 sparrow, very slender, with full black eye, dark mouse-color, with a 

 light, almost white, breast. This morning for the first time since 

 their expulsion came three or four of our native sparrows, but none 

 of the foreign residents. I am curious to know if this happened 

 any where else. My place being large, I could not see if my neigh- 

 bors were visited Ukewise. W. A. G. 



New Brighton, S.I., Aug. jS. 



