EDITORIAL. 
The Society of Morphologists, at its recent meeting in New York, 
voted that the American Naturalist should be the official organ of 
the society. The Society of Morphologists is one of the most ener- 
getic of the societies affiliated with the Society of Naturalists, and 
includes a large proportion of the active workers in zoology east of 
the Rocky Mountains. 
We are therefore very glad to accept the vote of the Society of 
Morphologists, and to place our pages at the disposal of the officers 
of the society for notices and of other members for communications 
on matters relating to the society. We shall be glad especially to 
receive papers read at the meeting of the morphologists, and so far 
as they are suited to the aims of the WVa/ura/ist to publish them. 
The American Journal of Physiology. — In the beginning it 
was supposed that this new journal would occupy the field of general 
physiology as well as that of the more special applications of this 
science. As a matter of fact, the first volume is almost exclusively 
physiology of the medical schools, and the second volume promises 
much the same. Criticism is not directed toward the editorial board 
of the new journal, but toward the younger physiologists, who are 
working on general problems, but who have not supported the journal 
by their contributions. 
Laws of Priority. — One of the most notable works which has 
appeared on our table for several years is the Fises of North and 
Middle America, by D. S. Jordan and B. W. Evermann. These 
3136 pages represent an immense amount of work, but, to our mind, 
they are marred by too strict an adherence to the laws of priority. 
In the interpretation of the statutes of our legislatures the judges of 
our courts are allowed the exercise of common sense ; should not ‘the 
same latitude be permitted in the applications of the laws of nomen- 
clature? These laws are of human manufacture; they are framed, 
not by the whole body of scientific workers, nor by their representa- 
tives, but by the few; and their application without modification 
leads to endless confusion. A case in point is illustrated by these 
volumes. For years the pickerel, pike, etc., have been assigned to a 
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