76 NATURAL SCIENCE [August 



be granted to his fellow-countrymen. Further than this, complaint 

 is actually made that foreign scientific men have already secured too 

 many of the fossil treasures of the island. We wonder whether the 

 naturalists of France, official and otherwise, have been consulted on 

 this subject, or whether it is merely the order of a politician ignorant 

 of the methods of scientific men. It will, indeed, be strange if the 

 enlightened Government of France, which does so much for the pro- 

 motion of research in foreign lands, should allow this policy to be 

 pursued in its latest dependency. Natural science has hitherto 

 known no division into nationalities. On the contrary scientific 

 work confers a free-masonry on those who pursue it, and is 

 the strongest force towards the federation of the world. It should 

 not be turned into a cause of division. It is not long since the 

 Colonial Government of Mauritius paid for excavations in that 

 island to exhume the fossil remains of birds. These were investi- 

 gated and described by our own ornithologists in the University of 

 Cambridge, and were faithfully returned by them to the President 

 of the Excavation Committee for preservation in the Museum of the 

 Colony. Among other treasures then obtained was the finest known 

 skeleton of the Dodo. This, however, along with other specimens, 

 was eventually removed from Mauritius to the Museum of Natural 

 History in Paris, where it is now one of the greatest ornaments. 

 Surely a nation which can accept foreign courtesy in such a manner 

 can ill afford to countenance such petty spite as that displayed in 

 the manifesto of the Governor of Madagascar. We trust it is 

 enough to draw the attention of French naturalists to the subject, 

 that they may use their influence in a matter which ought to be 

 beyond all political considerations. 



An Ameeican Pirate 



In our June number we published a specially written article, 

 entitled " A Geographical Commemoration : Vespucci, Deschnev, 

 and Vasco da Garna." This article has been reprinted in the 

 Scientific American for July 2, 1898 (vol. lxxix. p. 8). A few 

 verbal alterations have been made, causing the article to appear 

 as though prepared by the staff of the Scientific American. Five 

 lines in the article are, it is true, placed between quote-marks, and 

 ascribed to Natural Science ; but no one would imagine from this 

 that the whole article was lifted bodily from our pages. What 

 makes this treatment worse is, that we acknowledged quite fairly 

 and frankly that some of our statements concerning Vespucci were 

 taken from an account in our contemporary. This is not the first 

 time we have had to complain of similar piracy on the part of the 

 Scientific American. 



