DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION FOR THE METRIC SYSTEM DOUBTLESS practically all scientific workers favor general use of the decimal or metric system of weights and measures. Obviously there are certain unavoidable difficulties, both psychological and economic, which must be overcome before this end can be attained. It seems inconsistent, then, for users of the system to add unnecessarily, even in small degree, to the popular prejudice against the change. Just such an unnecessary minor difficulty is produced by a common American practise in the pronunciation of metric names containing the prefix cent-. As a matter of history, it is true, these names came to us from the French; they could just as well, however, have been taken directly into English from the Latin and Greek. In most respects these words are already, by common consent, fully Anglicized; we never employ the French syllabic stress, nor do we use the French sound of the r or the i or the second e in centimeter. Why, then, should we ever say "sänt" (sahnt), approximating the sound in centime, for the straightforward English 'sent" (as in center)? Although this hybrid pronunciation is (for example) not recognized by the Funk and Wagnalls "New Standard Dictionary," it is certainly widely prevalent in this country, and it doubtless adds a little to the unthinking popular prejudice against the metric system as a "high-brow" foreign innovation. The same considerations apply to the word centigrade, which has come into English by the same route. 66 In various other English words, such as cental, centipede, and centenary, cent is regularly pronounced as in the case of the name of our monetary unit. The only excuse for a different practise for the metric system is the fact that these words were first used by the French. They are truly international words, however, and as a matter of practical convenience they should be naturalized in each TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In SCIENCE for March fourth an eminent astronomer speaks of the "strong probability that intelligent life exists in abundance throughout the universe." May I inquire where I can secure any evidence in support of this statement? I should like to know upon what grounds I may assert that life exists anywhere but upon this earth. Secondly, how may I know it is intelligent? And thirdly, how may I know that it exists in abundance? The whole assertion savors to me of newspaper pseudo-science. HUBERT LYMAN CLARK WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass., April 11 TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: On April 4 I had the pleasure of suggesting by letter directly to Professor Hubert Lyman Clark that he read Professor Simon Newcomb's superb essay of thirteen printed pages on this very old subject, entitled "Life in the Universe," and contained in his volume, "Side-Lights on Astronomy" (Harper and Brothers), pp. 120132, 1906. One of Newcomb's concluding sentences (p. 132) reads, "It is, therefore, perfectly reasonable to suppose that beings, not only animated, but endowed with reason, inhabit countless worlds in space." W. W. CAMPBELL MOUNT HAMILTON, CALIFORNIA, April 25 SCIENTIFIC BOOKS The Sumario Compendioso of Brother Juan Diez. The earliest mathematical work of the New World. By DAVID EUGENE SMITH. 1921. Boston and London: Ginn and Com pany. 65 pages. Price $4.00. Those who are interested in the earlier mathematical developments only in so far as it can be shown that these developments have contributed directly to the present extent of our mathematical knowledge will find little to interest them in the present small volume. It is not claimed that this volume exhibits any decided step forward in mathematics or that it exerted a great influence on later works devoted to the same subject. There are, however, many mathematicians and historians who will doubtless be very glad to have an opportunity to read in their own language the excellent translation which Professor Smith has here provided of what seems to be "the earliest mathematical work of the New World." It is desirable that the student of the history of arithmetic should be able to consult original sources. By the publication of the "Rara Arithmetica" about a dozen years ago and by the publication of the present volume Professor Smith has rendered very valuable service to those who desire to consult such sources. The historical notes which appear in these works are exceedingly valuable even if they are often less extended than might appear desirable. In the present volume two pages or less of such notes relate to each of the following four subjects: The Mexico of the period, printing established in Mexico, general description of the book, and nature of the tables. An important oversight should be noted here in order that the reader may not be misled in regard to the time when the book under review, which was first published in 1556, became known to American educators. Το establish the fact that the reader is seriously exposed to misconception as regards the point in question and also on account of the interest which these statements may command, we quote the first three sentences of the preface. If the student of the history of education were asked to name the earliest work on mathematics published by an American press, he might, after a little investigation, mention the anonymous arithmetic that was printed in Boston in the year 1729. It is now known that this was the work of that Isaac Greenwood who held for some years the chair of mathematics in what was then Harvard College. If he should search the records still farther back, he might come upon the American reprint of Hodder's well-known English arithmetic, the first text-book on the subject, so far as known, to appear in our language on this side the Atlantic. As some 66 student of the history of education" may be assumed to have read the "Rara Arithmetica" and noted that on page 286 thereof the work under review was called "the first arithmetic printed in America" it seems strange that such a student should have been overlooked while the said preface was written. One is perhaps still more surprised to find that such an intelligent student was also overlooked when Professor Smith prepared the article relating to the book under review for the last January number of the American Mathematical Monthly as well as when he read a paper before an intelligent audience during the recent meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science at Chicago. On both of these occasions the substance of the part of the preface quoted above was given without any reference to the fact that one of the most interesting elements relating to the subject under consideration had been noted a dozen years earlier in the "Rara Arithmetica." The emphasis on this oversight in such a public place seems to be justified by the facts that this emphasis may tend to lessen the danger that readers of the book under review will be misled as regards an interesting historical fact, and that one could not condemn in too strong terms one of the motives which might possibly be ascribed to the translator and editor by the reader after discovering that he had been misled by the statements quoted above. Being forewarned such a reader is more likely to attribute these statements to an astounding oversight by an unusually painstaking and careful writer. Tables make up the greater part of the original work but as they are no longer of any importance only one page is shown in facsimile in the present edition. The rest of the text is reproduced on the left hand pages while the translation appears on the following pages. The last six pages are devoted to algebra, chiefly relating to quadratic equations, and, in closing, the author states that he "wished to set down the things which are necessary and familiar in this kingdom." The formula near the bottom of page 37 is not clearly stated. Professor Smith's name is a sufficient guarantee that the work is in an attractive form. UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS G. A. MILLER Introduction à l'étude pétrographique des roches sédimentaires. Par M. LUCIEN CAYEUX. Mémoires pour servir à l'explication de la carte géologique détaillée de la France. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale 1916. Quarto, 1 vol. text, pp. viii+ 524, 80 figures; 1 vol. LVI plates. It is a curious fact that although Sorby, the father of modern petrography, was especially interested in sedimentary rocks, those who followed him, with the exception of a small but persistent succession of workers in his own country, almost abandoned them in favor of the igneous rocks. The author of the book under review has elsewhere suggested that this was perhaps due to the lure of greater mystery in the igneous rocks and to the lack of knowledge, before the Challenger expedition, about the sediments of today. The reviewer has always been inclined to attribute the preference for the study of igneous rocks to their greater and more obvious diversity, which made it easier to find something new in them and gave them a greater esthetic attractiveness. Whatever the cause the present work will be the most powerful influence that has yet been brought to bear in changing that tendency. Indeed, in French-speaking countries Cayeux's influence is already very manifest. If the beauty of the sedimentary rocks has been considered inferior the enthusiasm of the author will surely correct that impression. The work marks an epoch in its field and is written with a breadth of view worthy of the fundamental importance of the sedimentary rocks in the interpretation of the history of the earth. The author not only stands alone in the extent and thoroughness of his monographic investigations in this field, but as the successor of Élie de Beaumont, Fouqué and Michel-Lévy at the Collège de France he is, so far as the reviewer knows, the only person occupying a chair devoted entirely to the teaching of the petrology of sedimentary rocks. On his inauguration the name of the chair he occupies was changed from "Chair of the Natural History of Inorganic Bodies," to "Chair of Geology," but it might well have retained its old name, for as he says in his inaugural address, "The science of the sedimentary rocks is and will remain for us a natural history of the ancient and modern sediments." It is the treatment from this point of view and the enthusiasm and wide personal experience which the author brings to it that gives to a book which one might expect to find dry and technical a freshness, interest, and charm that make it fascinating reading. Furthermore, the book is so full of original observations drawn from the writer's many years of study that no student of sedimentary rocks, be he petrographer or merely stratigrapher, can afford to leave it unread. The work is divided into two parts. The first deals with methods of analysis of sedimentary rocks, the second with the diagnostic characters of the constituents, which fall into two groups-the minerals and the remains of organisms. The first part is refreshingly free from pedantry or love of technique as an end in itself, though the artist's pleasure in some refined and delicate method often finds expression. Methods of handling rocks of different types according to their induration or susceptibility to attack by acid are discussed, but the possible complexity of the procedure appropriate to any individual rock and the need of adapting the methods used to the particular rock and to the object of the investigation are pointed out. Quantita tive results are sought, but the difficulties of obtaining them are recognized and the usefulness of quantitatively expressed results that may not be accurate in themselves but still may permit of valuable comparison with one another, is admitted. The reader feels throughout no impulse on the part of the author to fix standards but merely that desire to give help, out of his own rich but painfully accumulated experience, which led him to prepare the book. Any one who comes to this book for a rigorous method that will enable him to turn out orthodox studies of sedimentary rocks will be disappointed, but those who want to help in advancing the borders of knowledge about this subject will find guidance and inspiration. The methods of analysis are grouped under three headsphysical, microchemical and chromatic. The physical analysis includes different processes sometimes grouped in this country under mechanical analysis, and the preparation of thin sections which in dealing with weakly bound sedimentary rocks often calls for special methods. The demonstration of the ease of application and delicacy of microchemical analyses is one of the outstanding features of the book. Under chromatic analysis the author discusses various methods of staining. In the discussion of all these methods he selects, weighs, evaluates and contributes on the basis of his own experience, without attempting any formal completeness. Perhap Cayeux's greatest achievement is the interest he is able to give to his discussion of the minerals of sedimentary rocks, of which of course he considers only the more common, both essential and accessory. It is in this part of the book that his treatment of the subject as natural history is illustrated in the most novel and interesting way. The individual mineral is to the author a record of environments of the environment in which it originated and of those through which it subsequently passed-and it therefore contributes to the reconstruction of the history and geography of the past. The last part of the book deals with the remains of organisms as constituents of the rocks. Needless to say, specific determinations of organisms are not the purpose of a treatise on petrography. But here, too, the problem of past environment as recorded by the remains, both as remnants of once living organisms and as mineral substances, is the object of study. This part therefore deserves the attention of paleontologists as well as of petrographers and stratigraphers. Vivified throughout by the author's own experience the work must lack that perfect completeness that would assure it against being found defective in the treatment of some special topics or methods that may be in favor with individual readers. But every reader will surely be glad to accept these omissions for the sake of the vigor and readibility that go with them. American petrographers, for instance, will be struck by the absence of any discussion of the use of liquids of known indices of refraction in the determination of minerals. But as compensation they may profit by adopting some of the elegant microchemical tests described, which have the advantage that they can often be applied directly to the thin section and do not require the disintegration of the rock. Likewise the suggestions given on pages 305 to 309 for the determination of minerals by their general appearance may be a valuable antidote to the habit into which the devotee of "index liquids" is likely to fall, of resorting to his liquids in blind routine, just as the man with the slide rule habit gets out his machine to find the product of 2 X 2. The physical quality of the book is worthy of its subject matter, and it is a fact for contemplation and an honor to the fine French scientific spirit, exemplified by the entire work, that it bears the date 1916. MARCUS I. GOLDMAN U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY SPECIAL ARTICLES NOTES ON THE OCCURRENCE OF GAMMERUS LIMNAEUS SMITH IN A SALINE HABITAT THE capacities of various organisms for withstanding relatively wide ranges of environmental conditions has received considerable attention at the hands of physiologists and students of animal behavior, and is a problem which must ultimately be considered in greater detail by ecologists, students of geographic distribution and organic evolution. The purpose of this note is merely to call attention to the occurrence of Gammerus limnaeus Smith, normally a fresh water2 species, in a peculiar and rather saline habitat.3 In the summer of 1920 the writers visited the Ice Spring Craters lava field of the Sevier Desert in the ancient Lake Bonneville basin described in detail by Gilbert. On climbing down into the old lava vent of the Terrace crater we were surprised to find a small crustacean abundant in the small pool of 1 We are indebted to Mr. Waldo L. Schmitt, associate curator of marine invertebrates in the U. S. National Museum, for the determination of the species. The specimens are in the National Mu seum. 2 The key to the taxonomic and distributional literature is furnished by Weckel's paper on the fresh water Amphiopoda of North America (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., 32: 42-44, 1907), and individual citations need not be given here. The species was first dredged in Lake Superior. It has been taken near Long's Peak, Colorado, at an elevation of 9,000 feet; from a cool spring, Fire Hole Basin; from Shoshone Falls, Idaho; Flathead Lake, Montana; and from the Yellowstone National Park. It is reported from Fort Wingate, N. M., and from the Wasatch Mountains and Salt Lake City, Utah. It is impossible to determine from the records whether all the localities were fresh water habitats, but that it is typically a fresh water form can admit of no possible doubt. It has been taken from the stomachs of trout from brooks near Marquette, Mich. 3 The genus Gammerus has species which occur in more or less saline coastal habitats and in nonsaline inland waters. 4 Gilbert, G. K., "Survey West of the 100th Meridian," Vol. 3, pp. 136-144; also "Lake Bonneville," Monographs U. S. Geol. Survey, I., pp. 320-325, 1890. 5 The lava vent is a circular tube, at one side of the wide crater, about 12 feet in diameter inclined 10° or 15° from the vertical. It can be explored for about 25 feet when progress is stopped by water. clear water at the bottom. It was noted that a number of the animals were very slightly pigmented, apparently indicating that in the semi-darkness of the pool they were approaching cave conditions. In all instances, however, the eyes were fully pigmented. The presence of the Gammerus led to the assumption that the water was non-saline and we were preparing to replenish our water bag when taste showed it to be distinctly brackish. A sample of the water was therefore taken in a clean Mason fruit jar from which it was afterwards transferred to citrate bottles for shipment to the laboratory. The water had a freezing point lowering of 0.410° C., indicating an osmotic concentration of 4.94 atmospheres and an electrical conductivity of .0138 reciprocal ohm. The hydrogen ion concentration of the water (determined electrometrically) was CH 0.409 X 10-7 pH7.388. Analysis showed the following composition. Grams per Liter Total solids (at 110°).. 8.5666 SiO2 Per Cent. of Total Solids (Ignited) none 0.2187 Mineral Analysis Grams per Liter 0.0720 0.94 |