Darwin-L Message Log 6:66 (February 1994)

Academic Discussion on the History and Theory of the Historical Sciences

This is one message from the Archives of Darwin-L (1993–1997), a professional discussion group on the history and theory of the historical sciences.

Note: Additional publications on evolution and the historical sciences by the Darwin-L list owner are available on SSRN.

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<6:66>From jrc@anbg.gov.au  Sat Feb 12 16:23:26 1994

From: jrc@anbg.gov.au (Jim Croft)
Subject: Re: February 12 -- Today in the Historical Sciences
To: darwin-l@ukanaix.cc.ukans.edu
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 1994 09:22:47 +1100 (EST)

And now for all you north and south Americans, a message from the
future...

> FEBRUARY 12 -- TODAY IN THE HISTORICAL SCIENCES

Aaaaarrgghh... (I should have known about this one, but...)

This important message just arrived but because of the idiosyncracy of
the international dateline, it (like all the other TITHSs I have been
religiously filing away) arrived a day late.  Celebrating an aniversary
the day after the event does not have the same clout somehow, and using
something that happened yesterday as an excuse for a party today is a bit
thin - it is difficult to really excite anyone about 'YESTERDAY In The
Historical Sciences'...

Is there a gopher or web (or ftp) archive of these gems?  I could not
find a directory of them on the DARWIN-L archive last time I looked.
Perhaps you could rename the postings 'TOMORROW In The Historical
Sciences' - that way we would get it on time and our New World
colleagues would have a day to prepare   :-)

The discussion on Rafinesque has been fascinating - he was obviously one
of life's 'interesting' characters.  So far, no one seems to have
mentioned his remarkable ability to invent interesting sounding and
euphonious (and often quite arbitrary) generic names, many of which
were not taken up for a variety of reasons (I always though he got a raw
deal in this regard - they were such nice names).  With the possible
exception of _Romnalda_ (hi Peter!), the generic names from modern
botanists seem to lack the whimsical grace present in so many Rafinesque
names.  There was a largish book published quite some time ago on
Rafinesque botanical names and their fate but I am at home at the moment
and can not remember the publication details nor the author - but I
think it had a blue cloth cover, if that is any help ;-)

cheers

jim

ps - by way of introduction, I have been lurking on this list for quite
a while, quite content to bask in the erudite company.  For a
bureacrat/network-junkie/lapsed-botanist, DARWIN-L provides a source of
information that seems to have been omitted from my formal education...
___________________________________________________________________________
Jim Croft           [Herbarium CBG]               internet: jrc@anbg.gov.au
Australian National Botanic Gardens                  voice:  +61-6-2509 490
GPO Box 1777, Canberra, ACT 2601, AUSTRALIA            fax:  +61-6-2509 599
                          URL=http://155.187.10.12:80/people/croft.jim.html
______Biodiversity Directorate, Australian Nature Conservation Agency______

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