THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



383 



collections and to place in juxtaposi- 

 tion, or to include in one view through 

 lack of division, very different classes 

 of objects. It is hoped that the time 

 may soon come when less money shall 

 1)6 spent on specimens for exhibition 

 and more in research and publication. 

 Beyond a certain point the mere ex- 

 hibition of material can not be advan- 

 tageously carried, for the confusion of 

 mind created by a multitude of objects 

 defeats the educational effect which a 

 museum should exert. 



The libraries of Chicago — the John 

 Crerar, the Newberry and the Public 

 Library — are looked upon as sustaining 

 much the same relations to one another 

 as do the museums, each having its 

 own field, and one supplementing the 

 other, while the friendly rivalry be- 

 tween them is resulting in the accumu- 

 lation of a vast number of books and 

 pamphlets. The combined entries of 

 these three libraries now amount to 

 650,000, and at the present rate of 

 growth, they will, in twenty-five years, 

 reach a million, the present size of the 

 library of Berlin, which ranks third 

 among the great libraries of the world. 



One quarter of the present volume is 

 devoted to the University of Chicago, 

 treating in detail its many peculiar and 

 progressive features with special refer- 

 ence to its museums and laboratories. 

 In the former the inclusion of paleon- 

 tological collections with those illus- 

 trating the modem life of the globe is 

 regarded as an excellent feature, and 

 this is no doubt true to a great extent. 

 Still such a union is much more fea- 

 sible in a small than in a large museum 

 and also much depends upon the point 

 of \'iew, upon whether it is desired to 

 show the relations of all living things 

 to one another, or the successive faunas 

 and floras of the globe and the steps 

 by which the existing order of plant 

 and animal life has been reached. 



In conclusion Dr. Meyer pays an 

 eloquent tribute to Chicago, for which 

 he predicts a great future as a center 

 of science, literature and art. 



IMPORTANT PALEONTOLOGICAL 

 DISCOVERIES. 

 The origin of the proboscideans, the 

 Mammoth, Mastodon and Dinotherium, 

 has long remained an unsolved prob- 

 lem, and until recently no form was 

 known below the lower Miocene. Senor 

 Ameghino thought he had discovered 

 the ancestor of the group in the Santa 

 Cruz formation of Patagonia, but his 

 views were not shared by others, and 

 the late Professor Cope believed, with 

 much to support the belief, that the 

 founder of the family would be found 

 in Asia. 



During the summer of the present 

 j year Dr. C. W. Andrews, of the British 

 Museum, was engaged in collecting in 

 the FayUm, Egypt, obtaining numbers 

 of vertebrates from deposits believed to 

 be of Eocene or Oligocene age, most 

 probably the former. Among the mam- 

 mals represented was a small and 

 primitive species of Mastodon, named 

 Palceomastodon beadnelli, character- 

 ized by the simple structure of the last 

 grinder and by the fact that no less 

 than five teeth were in use at once on 

 either side of the lower jaw. Other 

 known species of Mastodon have but 

 three teeth in use at any one time on 

 either side of the lower jaw, so that 

 this indicates an animal of a much 

 more generalized type. More than this. 

 Dr. Andrews obtained numerous speci- 

 mens of another animal, named Meri- 

 theriu7n, about the size of a large tapir, 

 having large and tusk-like incisors and 

 molars, whose structure suggests that 

 of the teeth of the Dinotherium. This 

 creature Dr. Andrews considers to be 

 the long sought ancestor of the Mas- 

 todon type of proboscideans. The 

 fauna of these Egyptian beds is quite 

 different from that of deposits of cor- 

 responding age in Europe, and the few 

 species so far discovered hint that a 

 more complete knowledge will throw 

 much needed light on many obscure 

 questions in geographical distribution. 

 The indications are that prior to the 

 Miocene southern Africa was an exten- 



