1898] NOTES AND COMMENTS 155 



is a remarkable disk-like expansion of the four plates forming the 

 terminal ring of the anal tube of some crinoid, probably Callicrinus." 

 We have no doubt whatever that this is the correct interpretation. 

 CaUicrinus (PI. TX., fig. V.) is a genus that does not differ in essentials 

 from Eiicalyptocrinus, and its presence in America has only recently 

 been established by Wachsmuth and Springer. Its remains occur 

 in the Niagara Limestone, associated with Cryptodiscus, and we would 

 specially point to G. cornutus, Hall s]i., as likely to be connected with 

 " Cryptodiscus." At any rate, no one acquainted with the Callicrini 

 of Europe and their strange anal expansions can doubt that Crypto- 

 discus represents the same structure ; we may refer Mr Weller to 

 Angelin's " Iconogi'aphia Crinoideorum " (Stockholm, 1878), plate 

 xxiv., figs. 25, 26, CaUicrinus costatus; plate xxviii., figs. 14, 15, 16, 

 C. mitrchisonianus \ and fig. 18, C. koninckianus (Figs. I., II., III.). 



Since the above was written, the December number of the 

 Journal of Geology has come to hand, and in it is Mr Weller's 

 fuller description of Mr Teller's specimens, this time as CaUicrinus. 

 There is, however, nothing of importance to add to what has just 

 been said. Mr Weller may be congratulated on the promptness 

 and frankness with which he repairs an error, but it is a pity that 

 his editor could not manage to eliminate his first paper ; for, though 

 the value of his figures and careful descriptions is undiminished, the 

 specific names must eventually prove synonyms of those already 

 given to the calyces. Our American friends like to be in a hurry, 

 and Mr Weller has not even taken time to give either the measure- 

 ments of all his species or a statement of the relative size of his 

 figures, or the dates and page-numbers of the passages he quotes. 

 Nor can one tell from his figures whether the objects are concave or 

 convex. There is at this moment a wide opening in America for a 

 new student of fossU echinoderms, but unless one appears who will 

 turn out far more careful work than has hitherto been published, we 

 shall not welcome him with any rapture. 



Pettifogging Science 



When we spoke of " our American friends," we did not mean to 

 imply that there were no such offenders in other parts of the world, 

 nor did we forget that America too has its earnest workers. We 

 are urged to this explanation by an admirable address from a leading 

 American biologist, published in Science for January 14. Dr C. 0. 

 Whitman, who, it is interesting to note, is connected with the same 

 University as Mr Stuart Weller, writes as follows : " The avalanche 

 of modern biological literature consists too largely of scrappy, frag- 

 mentary, disconnected products of a multitude of investigators, all 

 working as so many independent individuals, each snatching what- 



