JuNE 1, 1899] 
INET RE 
late acid breccia, late basic breccia, and late basalt sheets. 
Evidence of the long duration of the period of volcanic activity 
is furnished by the remains of plants found at different horizons ; 
over 150 species having been identified, many of them new to 
science. In one instance, a grand old tree, Seguota magnifica, 
was found firmly imbedded in the early basic breccia. 
In Narure for March 9 we gave a short account of the late 
Prof. Cope’s researches on the Vertebrate remains from the Port 
Kennedy bone deposit in Pennsylvania. We have since received 
the detailed account of the excavations carried on in 1894-96 
by Mr. Henry C. Mercer (Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc., Philadelphia, 
vol. xi. part 2, April 1899). The results lead to the conclusion 
that the original configuration of the fissure in which the remains 
were obtained was that of a deep, well-like chasm opening 
vertically downward from the sloping surface of a hill, and that 
the animals stampeded by a flood had rushed to their destruc- 
tion into the abyss. We have previously mentioned the 
principal fossil remains obtained. Of these, no less than 377 
individuals and 66 species were recognised, of which latter 40 
are extinct. No traces of man were discovered, and the 
general evidence favours the view that the fauna is of earlier 
date than that which witnessed the presence of man on the 
American continent. 
A RECORD of the work accomplished in the chemical labor- 
atory of the Austrian Geological Survey during the year 1898 
is summarised in the Director’s Annual Report ( Verhandlungen 
der k. k. geol. Reichsanstalt, No. t, 1899). In addition to the 
petrographical examination of many rock-specimens, the official 
work comprised the analysis of no less than 203 samples, such 
as coals, rocks, ores, and waters. Additional researches, carried 
out for scientific purposes, are also recorded. Many samples of 
the materials employed in the construction of the new Danube 
embankments were examined and reported upon by Dr. v. 
John, who also concluded the analyses of various Bohemian 
mineral waters. The results of this last work are published in 
the September number of the /ahrduch, 1898. Of special 
economic value are Herr Aug. Rosiwal’s experiments for ascer- 
taining methods which shall furnish definite standards whereby 
all the factors of stability determining the technical utility of 
building stones may be accurately measured. Some interesting 
results attained in this connection have already appeared in the 
Verhandlungen, Nos. 5 and 6, 1808. 
WE have recently received from the publishers parts 38-40 
of Prof. Enrico Morselli’s ‘* Antropologia Generale,” now in 
course of publication at Turin. As these fasciculi deal with 
the intricate problem of man’s evolution from the lower 
animals, they are of more than ordinary interest. The author 
has done wisely in reproducing a large number of the phylo- 
genetic trees published by modern zoologists, thus giving his 
readers an opportunity of seeing in what respects they agree or 
differ from one another. Manifestly, however, his sympathies 
are with Haeckel’s tree of mammals, in which, as is well 
known, the marsupials form an early offshoot from the main 
stem. As regards the anthropoids themselves, the author 
adopts Schlosser’s tree, in which a primitive gibbon (Prothy- 
fobates) is taken as a starting point, from which the gibbons 
rise as one branch, while Dryopethecus forms the main stem. 
This latter is continued directly upwards to give rise to the orang 
and chimpanzee, while on one side branches the gorilla, and 
on the other Pthecanthropus and Homo. The weak point of 
this is the wide separation of the chimpanzee and the gorilla. 
Apart from this, the gibbon-like character in the skull of 
Pithecanthropus (which can scarcely be regarded as generically 
distinct from Homa, unless mental characteristics be taken into 
account) affords considerable support to the general plan of the 
phylogeny. 
NO. 1544, VOL. 60] 
Two reprints from the Botanical Gazette have reached us, by 
Prof. C. J. Chamberlain and Prof. J. M. Coulter, both re- 
ferring to the phenomena of fertilisation and embryology in the 
Coniferee. 
THAT patient observer, Mr. Thomas Meehan, continues, in 
the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 
delphia, his contributions to the life-history of plants, mostly 
relating to the phenomena of fertilisation. 
THE most recently published part of Engler’s Botanische 
Jahrbticher, vol. xxvi. Heft 5, is chiefly occupied with the con- 
clusion of Kranzlin’s Orchidaceze of Guatemala and adjacent 
countries, and a further instalment of the editor's monograph of 
the Aracee. There are also revisions of the genera Ph2/odei- 
dyon, Dieffenbachia, and Tropaeolum. 
For the past ten years experiments have been carried on, on 
an extended scale, to test the suitability of the soil and climate 
of Indiana for the production of beet-sugar. The results of 
these experiments are now published in Azd/e¢zn No. 68 of the 
Purdue University Experiment Station (Lafayette, Ind.). They 
show that, wherever the needful precautions have been observed, 
beets of satisfactory character have been produced in every 
section of the State, and that it is probable that Indiana can 
produce enough beets. of satisfactory quality to furnish the raw 
material for a large number of factories. 
THE third part of Drs. D. S. Jordan and B. W. Evermann’s 
‘The Fishes of North and Middle America,” being a descrip- 
tive catalogue of the species of fish-like vertebrates found in the 
waters of North America, north of the Isthmus of Panama, has 
been issued by the Smithsonian Institution as Az//etz No. 47 
of the U.S. National Museum. 
Ir is a little surprising that Wiedemann and Ebert’s 
‘© Physikalisches Practikum,” the fourth edition of which has 
just been published by Friedrich Vieweg and Son, Brunswick, 
has not been translated into English. The volume contains 
a well-arranged and complete course of laboratory work suit- 
able for students who are already familiar with elementary 
physical operations. Physical-chemical experiments receive 
particular attention. 
Mr. C. BAKER has issued a new catalogue of microscopes 
and accessory apparatus. Many instruments for histological 
and bacteriological work are included in the catalogue, and 
outfits suitable for various technical purposes. It is evident 
from the catalogue that, apart from the medical practitioner, 
naturalist and amateur, the microscope is being more and more 
used in trade and professional work. 
THIRTEEN important memoirs are published in the 4ééz of 
the Naples Academy of Physical and Mathematical Sciences 
(1899, ser. ii. vol. ix). Among the subjects dealt with are: 
remains of great Pleistocene lakes and rivers in southern Italy, 
with special reference to the geological conditions which produced 
such plains as the great Vallone di Diano (full descriptions, 
with maps, are given of the Agri, Mercure, and Noce) ; 
chemical analyses of the waters of the hot springs of Iscia ; 
contribution to the biology of ferns; flora of the basin of the 
Liri; and fossil fishes of the Eocene chalk of Gassino, Pied- 
mont. The remainder of the memoirs deal with mathematical 
and geometrical subjects. 
WirHour disparaging the Smithsonian Institution in the 
slightest degree, it may be said that the most valuable part of 
the Annual Report is the appendix, which comprises a selection 
of interesting memoirs upon scientific subjects. The report for 
1897, just distributed, contains no less than thirty-eight memoirs 
of this kind, dealing with the position and progress of various 
