24:8 



THE AMElUrAX MUSEUM JOUBXAL 



public health of the American Museum, pro- 

 vides a marketing list designed to show what 

 food an average family of two adults and 

 three children should buy weekly on an in- 

 come of fifteen hundred dollars a year. The 

 list sets forth the various proportions of 

 starch, sugar, fat, protein, fruits, vege- 

 tables, and milk which should be consumed 

 during the week to insure a well-balanced 

 and healthful diet and at the same time 

 provide for the economies urged by the 

 United States Food Administration. The 

 public is asked to check u-p weekly purchases 

 and see if food has been bought intelli- 

 gently. All possible readjustments in our 

 former mode of living should be made to 

 meet the special needs of our army in France 

 and of our Allies. 



A particularly large and handsome speci- 

 men of copper ore from Arizona and an 

 unusual specimen of lemonite and man- 

 ganese oxide showing a mosslike devel- 

 opment, in which are crystals of native 

 copper bearing tufts of malachite, have been 

 presented to the American Museum by Dr. 

 L. D. Eicketts. 



Ax accession of considerable importance 

 to the work in herpetology at the American 

 Museum was recently obtained through an 

 exchange with the Conunercial Museum of 

 Philadelphia. While there are many exotic 

 species in this collection, especial interest 

 attaches to the specimens from Costa Eica 

 and Colombia, which include the types of 

 twenty-five species described by Cope. The 

 bulk of this material was collected by Mr. 

 George K. Cherrie for the Museo Nacional 

 of Costa Eica. In return for these speci- 

 mens an exhibit of cotton plants, prepared 

 in the taxidermy shops of the American 

 Museum, will be sent to the Commercial 

 Museum. 



The Fifth Annual Eeport of the Pension 

 Board of the American Museum, for the 

 year 1917, shows the increase of membership 

 in this Fund during the year to be thirty- 

 six, with losses due to resignations, dismis- 

 sals, retirements, and deaths to the number 

 of twenty-one, making the present total 256. 

 Through the good ofiices of friends of the 

 institution, the Board has been enabled to 

 provide various forms of relief in the way 

 of employment or medical attention to the 



members of families of deceased subscribers. 

 In addition, endowed beds in the Mt. Sinai 

 and Presbyterian hospitals have been placed 

 at the disposal of the secretary, Mr. George 

 X. Pindar, where free attendance will be 

 given to employees who may need hospital 

 treatment. Through a plan formulated by 

 the officers of the Board, and by the gener- 

 osity of certain trustees who advanced the 

 necessary funds, opportunity to subscribe to 

 the Liberty Loans on easy payments was 

 given to the members. Many officers and 

 members of the Fund, which amounted to 

 $22,250, are now in w'ar service. Dr. George 

 M. Mackenzie, medical examiner for the 

 Board, is at the Brooklyn Navy Yard serving 

 as medical examiner for the Naval Eeserve 

 Force. Mr. S. Herbert Wolfe, consulting 

 actuary, after being detailed to Washington 

 where he assisted in drafting the present 

 measure for soldiers' insurance and com- 

 pensation in the United States, was sent to 

 France. Of the members, some have entered 

 the Federal Service from the National 

 Guard, some have enrolled in various 

 branches of the Army, and others have en- 

 tered the Navy. 



According to Chancellor Jordan of Stan- 

 ford University, a new food fish, which may 

 prove of considerable economic importance, 

 has appeared in the California market. This 

 is the priest fish (Erilepis), which reaches a 

 weight of two hundred pounds and is found 

 also in Japan. Dr. Jordan says: "It will 

 probably be found in abundance on rocky 

 shallows in the North Pacific; if so, it will 

 prove one of our best food fishes, ranking 

 with the halibut. The flavor is rich and 

 delicate, a little fat, but the oil without the 

 strong flavor seen in mackerels and sardines. 

 It is in fact very much like that of Anoplo- 

 Ijorna, which is now being largely pushed 

 under the name of 'sablefish' and is, by the 

 way, both fresh and smoked a real addition 

 to our food supplies. The fishermen caU the 

 priest fish 'deep-water cod.' " The priest fish 

 has not the least right to be called cod, nor 

 indeed have several other excellent food 

 fishes which bear the name, for instance, the 

 Alaska black cod, another name for the 

 sablefish, and the cultus cod, an excellent 

 and important food fish of our Pacific coast 

 which reaches a weight of from thirty to 

 forty pounds. All three of these fishes are 

 related to one another and remotely related 

 to the seulpins, a very uncodlike group. 



