146 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1310 



Such are frequently improvements in surgical 

 operations or medical treatment, whicli leads 

 to increased practise. Another case is that of 

 serums, etc., which may have been protected 

 and put on the market. Here compensation 

 can not be demanded, and pecuniary rewards 

 are generally unnecessary. On the other 

 hand, honors are often and justly bestowed 

 for such work. C. Discoveries that involve 

 neither gain nor loss to the investigator. 

 This class includes most of the good and some- 

 times great clinical, pathologic and sanitary 

 discoveries. Here also compensation can 

 scarcely be demanded, and honors are already 

 often given, but pecuniary awards should 

 sometimes be bestowed as an act of grace 

 when the value of a discovery greatly exceeds 

 the emoluments of the investigator. This 

 principle should hold even for men who are 

 directly paid for undertaking the research, 

 especially when such payment is (as usual) 

 small and the discovery great. Special atten- 

 tion is drawn to: (1) men who have refused 

 lucrative posts to complete researches; (2) 

 men who have refused to protect their work 

 for fear of limiting its application, and (3) 

 men who have carried out investigations for 

 governments for little or no payment, on 

 patriotic grounds. 



In the public interest, the committee in- 

 sists on these principles: (1) No medical dis- 

 covery should be allowed to entail financial 

 loss on him who has made it. (2) Compensa- 

 tion or reward should be assessed as equal to 

 the difference between the emoluments actually 

 received and those which a successful clinician 

 might have received in the same time. Addi- 

 tional reasons for this are that few medical 

 discoveries are patentable, and they seldom 

 give good grounds for promotion or for admin- 

 istrative appointments in the public services. 

 Whether a particular discovery shall receive 

 large or small assessment will depend, in ad- 

 dition, on these considerations: (1) Width of 

 application. For example, the work of many 

 of the older anatomists, physiologists, and 

 parasitologists, of Pasteur and of investi- 

 gators of immunity, have affected most recent 



discoveries. Discoveries on widespread dis- 

 eases, such as the work of Lister, Laveran or 

 Koch, are often more important that those 

 on more limited maladies. (2) Difficulty of 

 the work done. The solution of a difficult 

 problem requires more study and also more 

 time and cost, and therefore deserves more 

 recompense than a chance observation. (3) 

 Immediate practical utility. A strong plea 

 can be made for state remuneration in cases 

 of this kind unless they come under Class B. 

 Curiously, they never receive it, and academic 

 recognition is also often not forthcoming. 

 (4) Scientific importance. Discoveries not of 

 practical utility may become so at any 

 moment and should be included in the scheme 

 if sound and of wide application. 



During the last few years, the British gov- 

 ernment has disbursed an annual grant of 

 about $300,000, under the Medical Eesearch 

 Committee, for subsidizing investigations au- 

 thorized by the committee and carried on by 

 workers selected by it. This grant does not 

 remunerate discoveries already made, but 

 proceeds on the principle of payment for 

 prospective benefits. 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 



A POCONO BRACHIOPOD FAUNA 



The Pocono formation of the Appalachian 

 Mississippian measures is known to contain 

 marine fossils in places but little has been 

 published on the subject and the information 

 is scattered and difficult to assemble. The 

 writer has recently found two beds of sand- 

 stone in the Pocono Series on Laurel Moun- 

 tain in Tucker county. West Virginia, which 

 contain branchiopod impressions and has as- 

 sembled the following list of occurrences of 

 fossils in strata which are considered to be 

 of Pocono age. Since the present note is 

 written in the field, full descriptions of these 

 localities and complete citations to the litera- 

 ture are not given. 



POCONO FAUNAL LOCALITIES 



1. At Altamont, Maryland, on the western 

 limb of the Georges Creek-Potomac Syn- 



