44 



THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



The attendance at the Museum during 

 1913 exceeded by 19,000 the attendance of the 

 previous year. 



Dr. Robert Broom, as has been announced 

 in previous numbers of the Journal, has been 

 spending some months at the American Mu- 

 seum for the purpose of studying and com- 

 paring the ancient Permian reptiles of South 

 Africa and the United States. The results of 

 his work published in the Museum Bulletin 

 and more briefly noticed in the Journal, 

 form an important addition to scientific 

 knowledge of these animals. His splendid 

 private collection has been purchased for the 

 Museum and will when completely prepared 

 and mounted afford an exhibit of these ancient 

 and peculiar reptiles, no less remarkable and 

 instructive than the Texas Permian collec- 

 tions of which the Museum has been justly 

 proud. A preliminary exhibit of a few se- 

 lected specimens from the Broom collection 

 has been placed on exhibition in the case 

 opposite the elevator, on the fourth floor. 



Dr. Robert Broom will sail for Scotland 

 on January 24. In the work that he has 

 been doing in America reference may be made 

 to his redescription of the pectoral fin of 

 Sauripteris taylori. This was a specimen that 

 belonged to the Hall collection and was origi- 

 nally described in 1843. He points out that 

 it throws new light on the origin of the five- 

 fingered limb from the fish's fin. Also he has 

 made a study of a number of the American 

 Permian reptiles and has at present in press 

 a paper in which he points out the affinities 

 of these early American types with the South 

 African. 



Mr. Walter Granger as a result of his 

 expedition to New Mexico last summer 

 brought to the Museum a finely preserved 

 skull of Polymastodon discovered by Dr. 

 W. J. Sinclair of Princeton. This is one of 

 the "Multituberculates," mammals found 

 chiefly in the ancient formations of the Age 

 of Reptiles. Very little of these animals 

 has been known except for the jaws and 

 teeth and their relationship has been much 

 disputed. With the additional evidence fur- 

 nished by this specimen, the conclusion is 

 given by Dr. Robert Broom, who has de- 

 scribed it, that they are related to the 

 Monotremes or egg-laying mammals of Aus- 

 tralia and New Guinea, which are perhaps 



their degenerate descendants. Polymasto- 

 don was originally described by Cope and the 

 type specimens are in the American Museum. 

 It was at first thought to be allied to the mar- 

 supial group. Later Cope suggested its 

 affinities with egg-laying mammals of Aus- 

 tralia. Still later scientific opinion swung 

 back to the old idea that it was marsupial. 

 This new skull shows conclusively that it is 

 not at all allied to the marsupials but that 

 in confirmation of Cope's views and of those 

 long held by Dr. Broom, it is probably fairly 

 nearly allied to the egg-laying mammals. 



The lectures on "Heredity and Sex" de- 

 livered in the spring of 1913 as the Jesup 

 Lectures at the American Museum of Natural 

 History by Thomas Hunt Morgan, Ph.D., 

 professor of experimental zoology at Colum- 

 bia University, have recently appeared in 

 book form from the Columbia University 

 Press. 



The installation of the Alaskan moose at 

 the entrance to the hall of North American 

 mammals places this magnificent animal, the 

 giant of the deer family, in an appropriate 

 position, where it forms a fitting introduction 

 to the fauna of North America. It also dis- 

 plays the light, metal-framed case at its best, 

 showing how great size may be combined with 

 extreme lightness. The case, measuring 6x10 

 X 10 feet, is one of the largest of its kind that 

 ever has been constructed, yet its frame of 

 bronze is only seven-eighths of an inch in 

 width. This style of case is indeed admira- 

 bly adapted for the display of large single 

 specimens, there being just enough frame to 

 individualize the object — as a line around 

 the title of a pamphlet gives it character. 

 Perhaps for wall cases however and for large 

 open groups a wooden case, or at least one 

 with a fairly heavy frame, is better, giving 

 the objects the appearance of being better 

 protected or shut off from the surrounding 

 objects of the hall. 



At the meetings of the American Anthro- 

 pological Association held at the Museum 

 from December 29 to 31 the following papers 

 were read by members of the Museum's staff: 

 "The Horse and the Plains Culture," Dr. 

 Clark Wissler; "Wayside Shrines in North- 

 western California," Dr. P. E. Goddard, 

 also "Is there Evidence, other than Linguis- 

 tic, of Relationship between the Northern 



