232 



SCIENCE 



N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 764 



Thomas Patrick Irving: "The Ultimate Source 

 of the Spectrum." 



QEOKGB WASHINGTON ITNIVEESITY 



Harry Wilson Houghton: "The Ett'ect of Cold 

 Storage on Chicken Meat." 



George Whitfield Stiles: "The Possibility of 

 Shellfish Contamination from Sewage-polluted 

 Waters." 



TJNIVEBSITY OF ILLINOIS 



Robert Stewart : " Quantitative Relationships 

 of Carbon, Phosphorus and Nitrogen in Soils." 



Ernest Shaw Reynolds : " Relations of Parasitic 

 Fungi to their Host Plants." 



UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA 



Alois F. Kovarik: "The Eflfect of Changes in 

 the Pressure and Temperature of a Gas upon the 

 Velocity of the Negative Ions Produced by Ultra- 

 violet Light." 



William McDonald: "Agricultural Education." 



TJNIVEBSITT OF NEBBASKA 



Clarence Emerson : " The Relation of the Com- 

 mon Milk Streptococci to the Streptococcus Py- 

 ogenes." 



Joseph Allen Warren : " Agricultural Geography 

 of Nebraska." 



LELAND STANFOSD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY 



John Pearce Mitchell : " The Normal Constitu- 

 ents of the Potable Waters of the San Francisco 

 Peninsula." 



Albert Christian Herre : " A Lichen Flora of 

 the Santa Cruz Peninsula, California." 



BOSTON UNIVERSITY 



Guilielmus Henricus Watters : " The Opsonic 

 Method of Treating Disease." 



UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI 



Robert E. C. Gowdy: "The Fatigue of Metals 

 Subjected to the Roentgen Radiation." 



UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA 



Stroud Jordan : " Condensation of Chloral with 

 Primary Aromatic Amines." 



NOETHWESTEEN UNIVEBSITY 



Harold Stiles: "A Determination of Wave- 

 length of the Arc and Spark Spectra of Mercury." 



VANDEBBILT UNIVERSITY 



Allan Fulson Odell : " A Spectographic Study 

 by Means of a Grating (Replica) Spectroscope, 



and the Determination of the Wave-lengths of the 

 Arc Spectrum of Tantalum." 



UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN 



Willibald Weniger : " Infra-red Absorption 

 Spectra." 



DVBEB'S "CONTRIBUTION" TO GESNEB'S 

 NATURAL HISTORY 



The statement that Diirer " contributed " 

 one or more drawings to Gesner's famous 

 " Natural History " was called to my atten- 

 tion many years ago, when the error appeared 

 to be sufficiently obvious, but not having the 

 proper materials then in hand, it was not 

 traced to its source. 



Attention was again directed to the subject 

 by a recent history of biology, in which it is 

 stated that " his (Gesner's) friend supplied 

 one of the originals — the drawing of the rhi- 

 noceros." Again in a delightful essay on 

 Gesner, written some years ago by a revered 

 teacher and friend, we are told that " the 

 names of very few of the draughtsmen and 

 engravers " of the " History " are known, but 

 Gesner says that Lucas Schron drew the birds, 

 and that Albrecht Diirer made the cut of the 

 rhinoceros. 



This suggests that Diirer was not only the 

 author of the engraving, but that he actually 

 made it for Gesner's work, and this impres- 

 sion is confirmed when we read farther on of 

 "His contemporary and friend, Diirer." 



The truth of the matter is easily set forth. 

 Albert Diirer made the original of the rhi- 

 noceros picture, but he did not " contribute " 

 it to the " Historia Animalium," nor was he 

 strictly a contemporary, or in any sense a 

 friend of the author. 



When Albrecht Diirer (1471-1528) died, a 

 world-famous artist, Conrad Gesner (1516- 

 1565) was a lad of twelve, and the " Historia 

 Animalium" (1551-1558) did not begin to 

 appear until nearly forty years after the en- 

 graving of the rhinoceros was made and pub- 

 lished. Gesner simply borrowed this plate, 

 and in accordance with his commendable cus- 

 tom, acknowledged it in a descriptive note or 

 legend placed beside the cut. Diirer's name 

 here appears for the first, and so far as I have 



