896 The American Naturalist. (October, 
—Tue organ of the Brooklyn Entomological Society, Extomo- 
logia Americana, has ceased with the completion of its sixth 
volume. In the years which it has been running it contained a 
number of valuable papers on entomology, and especially was it 
noted for its synopses of the various groups of insects. In 
another aspect the demise of the journal is not tobe regretted, for its 
editors apparently allowed everything that came to be published, 
and the result was that each number contained several articles 
each about a page in length. Such a course does not advance 
entomology ; it is rather a drag upon it, for no one can by any 
possibility keep track of the multitude of short notes thus poured 
out, and by-and-by there may be quarrels resulting because some- 
body’s ten-line squib has been overlooked. Entomologia Ameri- 
cana was, however, not alone in this fault. 
—Unirormity is in many respects desirable in many things, 
but uniformity may result in deformity. Whata worldthis would 
be were all men to think alike! The editors of the AMERICAN 
Natura ist have their little differences of opinion, but this-does 
not interfere with the conduct of the magazine. For instance, 
one of our number exhibits tendencies towards a strict uniformity 
in geological nomenclature, while the other is more conservative 
and perceives deformity in the uniformity of the newly modified 
names of the geological (geologic) ages. Triassic and Jurassic 
are good and long-accepted terms, but Siluric and Cretacic have 
a barbarous sound. Carbonic has a flavor of the deadly CO,; and 
then Cambric !—it recalls handkerchiefs and pillow-slips, and any- 
thing except. ancient Wales. However, the advocates of the new 
“terminatiology” are not thoroughly consistent. Ancient roots 
should not stand in the way of Eocic, Miocic, Pliocic, and the 
like, when uniformity is to be gained. 
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