376 NATURAL SCIENCE. June, 1895. 



of inextricable complexity. It is, therefore, with peculiar pleasure 

 that we learn that an authoritative monograph of these wonderful 

 and beautiful beings is shortly to be issued. 



Since the year 1859, or thereby, Charles Wachsmuth, who lives 

 at Burlington, Iowa, in the very heart of the crinoid country, has 

 devoted his life to the study of these animals. A large collection 

 which he made was bought for the Museum at Cambridge, Mass., 

 by Professor Louis Agassiz, at whose invitation Wachsmuth settled 

 at the University to take charge of the whole collection of crinoids. 

 The firstfruits of his study were published in 1877. After a time 

 Wachsmuth returned to Burlington and began to form a second 

 collection ; much of this he was, unfortunately for himself, forced 

 to part with, this time to the enrichment of the British Museum, in 

 whose galleries some of his magnificent specimens are displayed. 

 Association with Frank Springer enabled him to continue his collec- 

 tion and his studies, so that the series of fossil crinoidea made by the 

 two friends is unrivalled even by the great collections of London, 

 Harvard, or Stockholm, and their " Revision of the Palaeozoic 

 Crinoids" has long held the front rank among all works on the 

 subject. In their knowledge of the writings of others, in their 

 accurate discrimination of generic and specific characters, and in their 

 important contributions to the morphology of the crinoids, these 

 gentlemen have shown themselves most fitted to prepare that desired 

 necessity, a monograph of the fossil crinoids of North America. 

 The magnitude of the task, the failing health of the elder worker, 

 and the business cares of the younger, have prevented the completion 

 of more than a portion, that, namely, which deals with the Crinoidea 

 Camerata. The text of this portion alone will fill between 600 and 

 700 quarto pages, while no less than eighty-three plates, of extreme 

 beauty, have been drawn by A. M. Westergren, J. Ridgway, and C. R. 

 Keyes, under the immediate supervision of the authors. It is fitting 

 that Professor Alexander Agassiz and the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology at Harvard should undertake the publication of this mono- 

 graph. It will appear as one of the Memoirs of the Museum, so soon 

 as the plates can be photographically reproduced from the original 

 pencil drawings — that is, it is hoped, early in 1896. The price will 

 be thirty dollars. As the edition will be limited, intending sub- 

 scribers are requested to send their names to Professor Agassiz at 

 the earliest possible date. A work of such usefulness and importance 

 needs no recommendation from us ; we can only hope that the enter- 

 prise of the publishers and the devotion of the workers may meet 

 with due appreciation from the scientific public, and that Charles 

 Wachsmuth and Frank Springer may be spared many years of health 

 and leisure, to place the crown on this worthy monument of American 

 palaeontology. 



