4i8 



THE POPULAR SCIEXCE MONTHLY. 



dcnces of the association of cremation and 

 inhumation have been observed ; Miss 

 Fletcher's studies of living Indians and 

 their social and religious customs ; and Miss 

 Zelia Nuttall's readings of ancient Mexican 

 inscriptions. The present report completes 

 the third volume, including seven years, of 

 the series of reports. The three volumes 

 together furnish a complete history of the 

 institution for twenty years, and represent 

 a great deal of arcb;eological research. 



ExrLOKATIONS ON THE WkST CoAST OF FLOR- 

 IDA AND IN THK OkEECIIOBKE WILDER- 

 NESS. By Angelo IIeilpuin. Published 

 by the Wagner Free Institute of Science 

 of Philadelphia. Pp. 134, with Nineteen 

 Plates. 



The Wagner Free Institute of Science, 

 of whose transactions this memoir consti- 

 tutes the first volume, was founded by the 

 late William Wagner, who, after having 

 accumulated a museum, library, and col- 

 lections of apparatus, and sustained pub- 

 lic scientific lectures for thirty years, be- 

 queathed his property to a Board of Trus- 

 tees. The Institute was incorporated in 

 1885, and organized a faculty of four pro- 

 fessors, who are to give free lectures, and 

 teach the method of, and make, research. 

 Provision is also contemplated, when re- 

 sources shall admit of them, in aid of origi- 

 nal research, and the publication of its 

 results. The expedition of which the pres- 

 ent work records the results was dispatched 

 under its auspices, with the personal co-op- 

 eration of Mr. Joseph Wilcox, one of its 

 trustees. At the time of Mr. Ileilprin's 

 visit, P'lorida was, in respect to geographi- 

 cal, zoological, and geological features, very 

 nearly the least known portion of the na- 

 tional domain. Not even its broader geo- 

 logical aspects had been determined, and 

 nearly every one believed that it was a 

 structure of coral. Observations were con- 

 ducted on the west coast as far south as the 

 mouth of the Caloosahatchie, and thence 

 eastward into the wilderness of Lake Okee- 

 chobee. The zoological researches com- 

 prised an examination of the littoral oceanic 

 fauna and the fauna of the Okeechobee lake- 

 rogion, which, in the author's belief, had 

 not hitherto been systematically investi- 

 gated. Respecting the geological character 

 of Florida, the author concludes that the 



whole State belongs exclusively to the Ter- 

 tiary and Post-Tertiary periods, and conse- 

 quently represents the youngest portion of 

 the United States ; that there is not a par- 

 ticle of evidence sustaining the coral theory 

 of the growth of the peninsula, but all the 

 evidence points against it, and indicates that 

 the land has been formed by the usual 

 methods of sedimentation and upheaval ; 

 while the coral tract is limited to a border 

 region of the south and southeast. Man's 

 great antiquity on the peninsula is regarded 

 as established beyond a doubt, "and not 

 improbably the fossilized remains found on 

 Sarasota Bay, now wholly converted into 

 limonite, represent the most ancient belong- 

 ings of man that have ever been discov- 

 ered." 



An Abstract of the Oleomarg/eixe Ques- 

 tion. Presented by the Garden City 

 Dairy Company of Chicago. Chicago : 

 Knight & Leonard Company. Pp. 18, 

 legal cap. 



The object of this presentation is to 

 point out the existing errors in national 

 legislation on the subject, with the expecta- 

 tion of procuring their correction. The au- 

 thors admit that legislation to regulate the 

 manufacture of oleomargarine and guard its 

 purity, and taxation commensurate with the 

 taxation of other articles of trade, are prop- 

 er, but contend that the present acts, being 

 new and on a new subject, need revision ; 

 and insist that wTong motives have entered 

 into their construction. There were three 

 motives, they hold, that led to the adoption 

 of the oleomargarine law: to prevent the 

 sale or use of any poisonous or unwhole- 

 some article in the guise of butter ; to re- 

 quire the new food-product, oleomargarine 

 or butterine (when absolutely wholesome), 

 to be sold honestly under its own proper 

 name, that the consumer might know when 

 he bought oleomargarine that he was not 

 buying butter; and to protect "butter" by 

 taxing oleomargarine and oleomargarine- 

 dealers to such an extent that the business 

 of manufacturing this new food-product 

 might be destroyed. Concerning the first 

 motive, they allege that "the facts show 

 plainly that there was no occasion whatever 

 for the enactment of the law " — there was 

 no impure or unwholesome oleomargarine. 

 As to the second motive, " All thinking and 



