384 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sive and isolated continental area, or, 

 that at least it had no connection with 

 Europe. 



In the United States particular at- 

 tention has been given to working out 

 the pedigree, in the fullest sense of the 

 word, of the horse, and in doing this 

 the American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory has been especially favored by the 

 gift of a considerable sum of money 

 for that purpose. Under the direction 

 of Professor Osborn parties have been 

 successful in Texas and northeastern 

 Colorado in obtaining unusually com- 

 plete specimens of early horses. In the 

 former locality Mr. Gidley discovered 

 the fossil remains of a small herd of 

 Miocene horses of the genus Proto- 

 hippus, while in Colorado Messrs. 

 Matthew and Brown obtained very 

 complete specimens of Anchitherium 

 from the Upper Miocene associated with 

 at least three species of horse-like ani- 

 mals that represent side branches of 

 the equine tree. The disappearance of 

 horses from North America is a very 

 singular fact; they developed here, 

 literally growing up with the country, 

 and they ranged from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific and from Alaska to Pata- 

 gonia. It is even probable that they 

 migrated to Asia at the time the Mam- 

 moth was making his way eastward, 

 and yet they disappeared completely. 

 It would seem that Dr. Jordan's three 

 laws of distribution need the addition 

 of another to explain the dying out of 

 animals. It can not be said that a 

 series of species that developed in a 

 given region was not adapted to it, 

 and the rapid increase of horses that 

 run wild on the pampas of South 

 America and the plains of the west 

 shows that the modern horse was per- 

 fectly fitted to those regions. 



One more important discovery dur- 

 ing this year was the finding by Mr. 

 Barnum Brown, while collecting for the 

 U. S. National Museum in the Trias 



of Arizona, of plates of a huge laby- 

 rinthodont, at least as large as those 

 European species restored by Water- 

 house Hawkins in the likeness of 

 gigantic frogs, for their tails were not 

 then known. The specimens have been 

 identified by Dr. Fraas as belonging to 

 the genus Metopias, and he regards this 

 of special importance as showing that 

 the beds in Arizona correspond to the 

 historic Keuper of Europe, that genus 

 of amphibians being confined to that 

 formation. 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 

 We regret to record the deaths of 

 Mr. Clarence King, the eminent geol- 

 ogist; Sir William MacCormac, the 

 British surgeon; Professor Aleksandr 

 Aleksandrovic Kovalevskij, professor 

 emeritus of zoology at the University 

 of St. Petersburg, and Dr. Arthur 

 Konig, associate professor of the physi- 

 ology of the sense organs at the Uni- 

 versity of Berlin. 



The newly elected presidents of the 

 scientific societies, whose meetings are 

 described above, are as follows: The 

 American Chemical Society, President, 

 Ira Remsen, Johns Hopkins University ; 

 American Society of Naturalists, Pro- 

 fessor J. McKeen Cattell, Columbia 

 University ; American Morphological 

 Society, Dr. H. C. Bumpus, American 

 Museum of Natural History; American 

 Physiological Society, Professor P. H. 

 Chittenden, Yale University; Associa- 

 tion of American Anatomists, Professor 

 G. S. Huntington, Columbia Univer- 

 sity; American Psychological Associa- 

 tion, Professor E. C. Sanford, Clark 

 University; American Society of Bac- 

 teriologists, Professor H. W. Conn, 

 Wesleyan University; The Society for 

 Plant Morphology and Physiology, Pro- 

 fessor M. V. Spalding, University of 

 Michigan; The Geological Society of 

 America, Mr. H. N. Winchell, Minne- 

 sota. 



