32 THE AMERICAN MONTHLY [Feb 
make any use of in our most lavish endeavors. Nature 
itself is merciless in taking life and sending materials to 
her devout worshipers. There is no need or excuse for 
man to subject himself to the opprobrium of cranks and 
of Societies for the Prevention of Cruelty. When Na- 
ture is ones ally, he may laugh at S. P. C. A.s composed 
of sickly women. 
It is really astonishing and should be humiliating to 
the crowds of American “‘professors’’ who teach and put- 
ter, putter and teach, but never discover anything to 
compare with European discoveries. Of these hundred 
and one methods cited by Greeff, lam sorry not to be 
able to find a single one bearing the name of an Ameri- 
can; of the hundred or more citations from books, pamph- 
lets and periodicals, in Greeff’s book not one is from 
American sources,—all are European and practically all 
are Continental. Our English brethern are first re- 
flectors of Continental knowledge and we are secondary 
mirrors! Yet greater facilities, more money and larger 
salaries are lavished upon our “‘professors” by state and 
sectarian colleges or by national and state governments 
than are at the command of EKuropean savants. Why is 
this thusly ? 
The Economic Sea-weed, Porphyra. 
This genus contains so much jelly that it is used for 
food and as an article of commerce by Chinamen and 
Pacific Coast Indians. A student in the University of 
California has included in a thesis eleven species of Por- 
phyra, viz., laciniata, leucosticta, perforata, nereocystis, 
naiadum, amplissima, miniatum, tenuissima, abyssicola, 
variegata, occidentalis, as found on the Pacific coast. 
Hus’s article occupies 64 pages of the Proc. Cal. Acad. 
Sci. II, 6. Those interested in the jargon of rejected 
synonyms, localities, habitat, etc., should see the paper. 
