534 
STYLE IN SCIENTIFIC WRITING. 
Tue conductors of this journal have had for 
more than a year an opportunity to judge of 
the literary aptitudes of the scientific writers 
,of this country. The pecuniary resources of 
Science have been sufficient to enable the editor 
to pay suitably for accepted contributions : his 
correspondents have been sought in all the 
places of intellectual activity in this country. 
Young writers and old, men of fame and the 
‘obscure, have all been welcomed as helpers, 
provided they had any thing worth saying. It 
is not for us to pronounce upon the results 
which have been attained, but it may be worth 
while for us to point out how our friends and 
helpers can make this journal still more accept- 
able to those who read it. 
We begin with a general principle. One of 
the results of scientific study is to make men 
accurate, to encourage exactness in thought 
and expression. ‘The first quality, therefore, 
to be desired in scientific writing, is trust- 
worthiness; and, without it, all other merits 
are of no account. . On this point we have no 
suggestions to make; for our writers, as a 
class, are men whose statements of fact may 
be taken with the greatest confidence. 
But in addition to accuracy, scientific writ- 
ing should be in good form. Indeed, proper 
attention to literary requirements will promote 
rather than embarrass the desired precision. 
One of the clearest and most acceptable writers 
on scientific subjects told us, in reply to the 
inquiry how it was that he made himself so 
easily understood on difficult points, that it 
was because, before addressing a mixed as- 
sembly on any abstruse or complex theme, he 
took great pains to find in advance just the 
words and the phrases which conveyed his 
meaning. Certainly one reason why the writ- 
ings of Darwin, Spencer, Huxley, Tyndall, 
and Lubbock, — to specify only foreign writers, 
— have been so widely read, is that their lan- 
guage is so good. It is easy to understand 
their meaning, for they comply with the well- 
known law of a well-known authority on style ; 
the desideratum, he tells us, is ‘‘ so to present 
ideas that they may be apprehended with the 
least possible mental effort.’’ We are inclined 
to add to this dictum of Herbert Spencer the 
declaration that a good style will exact that 
amount of attention which animates without 
fatiguing the reader. Verbosity, awkward- 
ness, undue conciseness, forgetfulness of the 
reader’s attitude, are errors into which it is easy 
to fall: clearness, fitness, grace, are merits 
which it is hard to acquire. That which stimu- 
lates further thought, and invites to continued 
SCIENCE. 
[Vor. III, No. 65. 
reading, is the kind of article most to be — 
desired. 
Those writers will do best who keep con- 
stantly in mind the audience they are called 
upon to address. Science is not a journal for 
any class of specialists. It is not published for 
the sole benefit of the entomologist, or the elec- 
trician, or the geometer, or the morphologist, 
but for the perusal of all such persons, and 
also of teachers, librarians, engineers, physi- 
cians, editors, lawyers, clergymen, and other 
intelligent and educated men and women who 
wish to keep informed upon the progress of 
scientific discovery in all its general aspects, 
and who wish to be directed to more detailed 
statements if they have occasion to seek for 
special information. ‘These pages should pre- 
sent articles so trustworthy, and at the same 
time so readable, and from writers of such 
acknowledged ability, that every educated per- 
son will be obliged to keep his eye upon all 
that we print, particularly if he is engaged in 
any pursuit connected with science. 
This is the aim of the conductors of this 
journal. But such a purpose can never be 
fulfilled without the hearty co-operation of all 
the leading scientific men of the country. No 
editorial staff, however large and complete, can 
possibly prepare the requisite articles. All 
that we can do is to call forth, arrange, adjust, 
amend, and edit that which is produced in 
the various laboratories, studies, museums, col- 
leges, and technical schools of the country. 
Our contributors must, however, remember 
that the editorial judgment calls for articles by 
leaders in one department which will be satis- 
factory to men of intelligence in other depart- 
ments. As a general rule, the chemist must 
write so that the biologist may understand him ; 
the mathematician must keep his language of 
syinbols for his own pages, and present us only 
the conclusions which are of general interest. 
But there are limitations to this general prin- 
ciple. There are some announcements so im- 
portant, or so new, that we shall gladly open 
our columns to them, in whatever form they 
are made. Contributions which bring out for 
the first time important discoveries and re- 
searches will always be welcomed, even though 
they are technical. Words are constantly mi- 
grating from the domain of the specialist into 
that of the general reader. The progress of 
information rapidly tends to familiarize the 
public with the scientific vocabulary. It is not 
against the use of fit words that this article is 
directed, but against the abstruse, complex, 
scholastic diction, which any writer may turn, 
if he will, into clear and accurate English. — 
