234 Annals of the Carnegie Museum. 



pictures of objects, demand to l)e shown the objects themselves. This 

 desire is most natural and laudable, but its gratification entails upon 

 the staff of every Museum a vast amount of work, which consumes 

 time, but wliich can not be avoided, even with the best arrangement 

 of exhibits and labels. This is a fact which those who are not 

 familiar with the administration of a Museum often fail to realize. 



Volume VIII of the Memoirs of the Museum has passed through 

 the press and has been published in bound form, separates of the 

 different papers therein having long since been issued. The volume 

 contains three memoirs, the first of which upon the Naiades of Penn- 

 sylvania, is the conclusion of Dr. Ortmann's work upon this sub- 

 ject; the second memoir is from the pen of Dr. O. E. Jennings, 

 and is a report upon the fossil plants collected by Mr. Douglass in 

 the beds of volcanic ash near Missoula, IMontana; the third memoir, 

 completing the volume, is a monographic paper upon the Naiades 

 (mussel-shells) of the South American continent, prepared by Dr. 

 A. E. Ortmann. 



While the collection of South American Naiades in the possession 

 of the Carnegie Museum is far from being complete, it is, neverthe- 

 less, very large, and is quite exceptional in that it probably preserves 

 .to a greater extent than any other collection in existence the animals 

 -which deposit the shells, the so-called " soft parts." In past time the 

 'greater part of conchological work dealing with classification has been 

 based almost exclusively upon the " hard parts," the shells themselves, 

 ^without reference to the structure of the living animal which con- 

 structs and inhabits them. Dr. Ortmann's paper possesses the merit 

 of being the first publication upon the mussel-shells of South Amer- 

 ica, which treats of the subject from the broader point of view, giv- 

 ing an account of the anatomical structure of the animals which form 

 the shells. 



Among the notable events which have taken place since the last 

 issue of the Annals was the visit of Madame Marie Curie to 

 Pittsburgh. 



It fell to the lot of the Director of the Carnegie Museum to be 

 phosen as the chairman of the committee appointed in Pittsburgh to 



