466 The American Naturalist. | May, 
thanal, Ethanal).” (See abstract of their proceedings in The American 
Chemical Journal, Vol. 15, 1893, p. 58.) In view of the action of this 
Congress, the term Methanal would be the preferable one. But the 
term Formal is equally correct, and less likely to trouble persons already 
familiar with the substance.’ 
The writer’s aim was to avoid confusion by the use of a term short, 
convenient, and correct; and he insists that Formal fulfils these re- 
quirements. 
Respecting the strictly anatomic terms, ‘‘ Comparative Anatomist ” 
is referred to the article, “ Neural Terms, International and National,” 
in the last number of the Journal of Comparative Neurology. Axon 
was proposed in 1884 for the skeletal axis, whether a membranous tube, 
a cartilaginous rod, or a series of osseous vertebral centrums. Alba 
could hardly be mistaken for anything but substantia alba. Tela read- 
ily, if not inevitably, suggests the tela vasculosa of Huxley (Zoological 
Proceedings, 1876, p. 30), and the tela chorioidea ventriculi of Schwalbe’s 
“ Neurologie ” (pp. 404 and 464), and the Report of the Nomenclatur 
‘Commission of the Anatomische Gesellschaft, 1895. All three terms are 
defined in recent English and medical dictionaries. Is not “ Compara- 
tive Anatomist ” needlessly magnifying his difficulties ?—B. B. STROUD. 
Ithaca, N. Y., March 13, 1897. 
Formol or Formalin.—With reference to the present discussion 
over the proper name to be used for the 40 per cent. aqueous solution 
of formaldehyde, it may be said that had the author of the criticised 
paper that appeared in the January number looked up the chemical 
side of the question more carefully he would have found that there is 
another and much stronger reason for not using the term that he sug- 
gests than the very good one of priority, or the equally good one refer- 
ring to the condition of the dissolved gas, cited by Dr. Blum. Had he 
read the account of formaldehyde given by Ladenburg in his “ Hand- 
wörterbuch der Chemie ” (Breslau, 1882), Vol. 1, on page. 195, para- 
graph 2, he would have found the following : : 
“Zu den sogen. Acetalen (Vergl., pag. 191) des Methylen-oxydes, 
welche als Alkoholither der Aldehyde aufzufassen sind, gehören das 
Methylal oder Formal, CH, (O. CH,),, Methylither, und der Methy- 
lendiaither, CH, (O. CH,),.” The italics are mine.—F. C. KENYON. 
* As has been previously stated, (This Journal, January, 1897, p. 92) con- — 
fusion has arisen from the indiscriminate use, by various writers, of the terms 
Formalin, Formalose, and Formol, 
Correction—F oot note 1, p. 92, should read “—— Formal from Formaldehyde, 
is a good scientific contraction” 
