32 THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 
of preparation. The scientific work of the 
expedition was in the hands of Dr. L. Hussa- 
kof, who obtained, in addition to the studies 
necessary for the correct mounting and color- 
ing of the specimens for exhibition, valuable 
data on the structure and natural history of 
this little-known ray. 
Two new leaflets by Dr. F. E. Lutz, 
assistant curator of invertebrate zodlogy, 
have recently been issued in the Museum’s 
educational series. The first deals with the 
thirty-four species of butterflies most common 
in the vicinity of New York City, each spe- 
cies being illustrated by a life-size figure. 
The second gives directions for collecting and 
preserving insects in the field. 
Tue Peruvian and Mexican collections of 
the Metropolitan Museum of Art have been 
deposited with the American Museum for 
an indefinite time and may be used either for 
study or exhibition purposes. 
THREE new exhibits of the department of 
anatomy and physiology in the synoptic hall 
on the third floor include a series of mounted 
limb-bones, showing the adaptation of 
mammalian limbs to their various modes of 
living, and two series of wax models illustrat- 
ing respectively the evolution of the verte- 
brate chondrocranium and the brain. 
Mr. Ernest THomMpson SEToN on the 
evening of November 27 gave a special 
lecture in the auditorium of the Museum on 
“Voices of the Night,’ in which he told the 
story of some of the wild animals of North 
America and gave imitations of their calls. 
A NEw edition of the General Guide to the 
exhibition halls of the museum has just been 
issued comprising 125 pages and 65 illustra- 
tions. Experience has shown that the 
changes in the Museum’s collections are so 
extensive that a guide must be issued at least 
once a year in order to keep pace with them. 
Important exhibits in the department of 
vertebrate paleontology have recently been 
opened to the public. The first of these is a 
skeleton of Scelidotherium, which is a part of 
the Cope Pampean collection secured through 
the generosity of the late Morris K. Jesup, 
former president of the Museum. This 
animal belongs to the sloth family and is 
interesting anatomically in its approach to 
the anteaters. Two nearly perfect skulls of 
horned dinosaurs have been added to the 
reptile collection. These are a part of the 
collection made by the Museum expedition 
to the Red Deer River, Alberta, in 1913. 
The skeleton of the giant carnivorous dino- 
saur, Tyrannosaurus, is being mounted in the 
Pleistocene hall, and the new duck-billed 
dinosaur, Corythosaurus, in the dinosaur hall. 
AppITiIons to the mineral collection com- 
prise an exchange with Professor W. Vernad- 
sky of the Imperial Academy of Sciences 
and a series of purchases made from the 
interest of the Bruce endowment. The 
former were interesting from locality, and 
among them powellite from the Urals merits 
mention. Noticeable among the purchases 
are native bismuth and the association of 
bismuth and molybdenite from North Queens- 
land, Australia; a remarkable native copper 
coated with solid malachite like a paint, 
from Michigan; small delicate crystalliza- 
tions of gold from Verespatak, Hungary; 
deep blue halite from Stassfurt, Germany; 
quartz (nodular) with inclusions of acicular 
bismuth from New South Wales; a handsome 
large crystallization of dioptase from South 
Africa; and the new mineral wilkeite from 
Riverside County, California. Some supe- 
rior specimens of species already represented 
were purchased, among which particular 
reference may be made to catapleiite, eryo- 
lithionite, eudialyte, narsarsukite, schizolite, 
steenstrupine and willemite from Greenland. 
Tue department of public health is at 
present engaged in the preparation of a 
special exhibit of military hygiene and sanita- 
tion, dealing with the health of armies, the 
hygiene of the individual soldier and the 
general problems of camp sanitation. 
A number of new exhibits illustrative of 
insect-borne diseases were added to the de- 
partment’s display during 1914, the most im- 
portant single exhibit being a model of the flea 
(carrier of bubonic plague) 1,728,000 times nat- 
ural size, prepared by Mr. Ignaz Matausch. 
The history of the bubonic plague in the past 
is shown by reproductions of a number of 
early paintings and by a series of maps 
illustrating the geographic spread of disease 
during its historic epidemics. A series of 
photographs of four American army surgeons 
who have discovered a mosquito transmis- 
sion of yellow fever, has been hung near the 
entrance of the hall. 
