SCIENCE. 



FRIDAY, AUGUST 8, 1884. 



COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 



Apropos of the appointment of the electrical 

 commission mentioned last week in our notes, is 

 not the manner in which candidates are select- 

 ed for scientific appointments at Washington 

 worthy of serious consideration ? There seems 

 to be no scientific authority there who feels 

 entitled to come forward in such cases, and 

 represent the views of scientific men. If the 

 latter are appealed to, to come forward them- 

 selves, the almost universal answer is, that they 

 do not 'feel that their opinions would receive 

 serious consideration at the hands of the ap- 

 pointing power ; and that, if the authorities 

 really care for their opinions, it is very easy 

 to ask for them. But, unfortunately, business 

 at the national capital is not arranged on any 

 such system. An appointing power is not an 

 active personage who investigates for himself, 

 but the occupant of a seat at an office-desk, 

 waiting for people to come forward and present 

 their views. This personage does not assume 

 that any one has any views unless he comes 

 forward with them, and is not disposed to go 

 around in search of opinions as long as he 

 finds himself plentifully supplied with the arti- 

 cle, ready-made, and thrust upon him. If 

 asked to obtain the views of learned men, his 

 reply would be a general invitation to all that 

 class to come forward. Let the reader im- 

 agine, if he pleases, an ' industry ' or an ' inter- 

 est ' too modest to address the authorities. 



The bad effect of this state of things need 

 not be dwelt upon : the practical question is, 

 how it can be remedied. The only remedy 

 is to have some central scientific authority, 

 in intimate relations with the administration, 

 ready to come forward and represent the 

 scientific opinion of the country on all occa- 

 sions when the interests of science are in- 



Xo. 79. — 1884. 



volved. If we had a department of science, 

 its head would naturally perform these func- 

 tions : in the absence of this agenc}', and of 

 any special statutory provision, nothing can be 

 effectively done, unless our leading scientific 

 men will lay aside modesty, and accept the 

 disagreeable features of the situation. An 

 unofficial representative, on confidential terms 

 with the leading members of the administra- 

 tion, might be nearly as effective as a depart- 

 ment. But, mortifying though it may be, the 

 general rule is that official position, as the 

 responsible head of an establishment of some 

 kind, is necessary to enable any man to com- 

 mand any real weight. 



A striking similarity may be observed be- 

 tween the history of names of individuals 

 among men, and the history of scientific names 

 given to natural objects. In zoology the spe- 

 cies or variety stands in the same relation to 

 the naturalist as the individual man stands to 

 his fellows. The object of names is in both 

 cases to distinguish absolutely the species, 

 variety, or individual, from others about it. 

 When men live in comparatively small com- 

 munities, and each individual leads a stationary 

 life, one name has generally been found suf- 

 ficient ; but in larger communities, or where a 

 constant mingling of the people takes place 

 through political commotions or increased fa- 

 cility for travel, a necessity arises for binomial 

 or trinomial, or even longer names. 



Thus in England, in Saxon clays, one name. 

 as a rule, sufficed ; but after the conquest bi- 

 nomial names were gradually adopted, though 

 these had an earlier origin in France. Binomial 

 nomenclature answered until the eighteenth 

 century, when trinomial names began to be in- 

 troduced, and now prevail. These now are 

 often insufficient to meet the wants of modern 

 man, to distinguish him as an individual, to 



