SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 



133 



Sulphiu' Springs, Montana; A Fossil 

 Egg from South Dakota (No. 5), by 0. 



C. Fnrringto7i, relative to the egg of an 

 anatine bird from the early Miocene; 

 and Contributions to the Paleontology of 

 the Upper Cretaceous Series (No, 6), by 

 IF. A". Logan, in which seven species of 

 Scaphites, Ostrea, Gasteropoda, and cor- 

 als are described. In the Zoological Se- 

 ries, Prcliniinary Descriptions of New 

 Rodents from the Olympic Mountains (of 

 Washington) (No. 11), by D. G. Elliot, 

 relates to six species; Notes on a Col- 

 lection of Cold-blooded Vertebrates from 

 the Olympic Mountains (No. 12), by S. 

 E. Meek, to six trout and three other 

 fish, four amphibia, and three reptiles; 

 and a Catalogue of Mammals from the 

 Olympic Mountains, Washington, with 

 descriptions of new species (No, 13), by 



D. G. Elliot, includes a number of spe- 

 cies of rodents, lynx, bear, and deer. 



Some Notes on Chemical Jurispru- 

 dence is the title given by Harwood 

 Huntington (260 West Broadway, New 

 York; 25 cents) to a brief digest of pat- 

 ent-law cases involving chemistry. The 

 notes are designed to be of use to chem- 

 ists intending to take out patents by 

 presenting some of the difficulties at- 

 tendant upon drawing up a patent strong 

 enough to stand a lawsuit, and by ex- 

 plaining some points of law bearing on 

 the subject. In most, if not all, cases 

 where the chemist has devised a new 

 method or application it is best, the au- 

 thor holds, to take out a patent for self- 

 protection, else the inventor may find 

 his device stplen from him and patented 

 against him, 



A cave or fissure in the Cambrian 

 limestone of Port Kennedy, Montgomery 

 County, Pa., exposed by quarrymen the 

 year before, was brought to the knowl- 

 edge of geologists by Mr, Charles M,. 

 Wheatley in 1871, when the fossils ob- 

 tained from it were determined by Prof. 



E. D. Cope as of thirty-four species. At- 

 tention was again called to the paleon- 

 tological interest of the locality by Pres- 

 ident Dixon, of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences of Philadelphia, in 1894. The 

 fissure was examined again by Dr. Dixon 

 and others, and was more thoroughly 

 explored by Mr. Henry C. Mercer. Mr. 

 Mercer published a preliminary account 

 of the work, which was followed by the 

 successive studies of the material by 



Professor Cope preliminary to a com- 

 plete and illustrated report to be made 

 after a full investigation of all accessible 

 material. Professor Cope did not live to 

 publish this full report, which was his 

 last work, prepared during the sufl'ering 

 of his final illness. It is now published, 

 just as the author left it, as Yertebrate 

 Remains from the Port Kennedy Deposit, 

 from the Journal of the Academy of 

 Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, Four 

 plates of illustrations, photographed 

 from the remains, accompany the text. 



The machinery of Mr, Fred A. Lu- 

 cas's story of The Hermit Naturalist re- 

 minds us of that of the old classical 

 French romances, like TOlemaque, and 

 the somewhat artificial, formal diction is 

 not dissimilar. An accident brings the 

 author into acquaintance and eventual 

 intimacy with an old Sicilian naturalist, 

 who, migrating to this country, has es- 

 tablished a home, away from the world's 

 life, on an island in the Delaware River, 

 The two find a congenial subject of con- 

 versation in themes of natural history, 

 and the bulk of the book is in effect a 

 running discourse by the old Sicilian on 

 snakes and their habits — a valuable and 

 interesting lesson. The hermit has a ro- 

 mance, involving the loss of his mother- 

 less daughter, stolen by brigands and 

 brought to America, his long search for 

 her and resignation of hope, and her ul- 

 timate discovery and restoration to him. 

 The book is of easy reading, both as to 

 its natural history and the romance. 



We have two papers before us on the 

 question of expansion. One is an ad- 

 dress delivered by John Barrett, late 

 United States Minister to Siam, before 

 the Shanghai General Chamber of Com- 

 merce, and previous to the beginning of 

 the attempt to subjugate the islands, on 

 The Philippine Islands and American 

 Interests in the Far East. This address 

 has, we believe, been since followed by 

 others, and in all Mr. Barrett favors the 

 acquisition of the Philippine Islands on 

 the grounds, among others, of commer- 

 cial interests and the capacity of the 

 Filipinos for development in further civi- 

 lization and self-goA'ernment ; but his 

 arguments, in the present aspect of the 

 Philippine question, seem to us to bear 

 quite as decidedly in the opposite direc- 

 tion. He gives the following picture 

 of Aguinaldo and the Filipino govern- 



