810 



SCIENCB 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 727 



in M. elatus. The lateral transverse process 

 of tlie fifteenth dorsal is simple at its outer 

 extremity and does not form an oblique plate 



C'f 





Diagrammatic view of upper back part of skulls 

 of (1) M. petersoni, (2) M. elatus. aa, superior 

 ridges; pp', parietals; ff', f rentals; ip, inter- 

 parietal. 



of bone projecting downward and backward 

 and perforated by a large foramen, as is the 

 case in the corresponding vertebra in Moropus 

 elatus. The prezygapophyses of the anterior 

 lumbar vertebrse in M. petersoni more closely 

 resemble those of the preceding dorsals and 

 are not as distinctly lumbar in their char- 

 acter as is the case in Moropus elatvs. The 

 prezygapophyses of the posterior dorsals all 

 look more decidedly upward in M. petersoni 

 than they do in M. elatus, and their anterior 

 extremities are relatively far more widely sepa- 

 rated from the superior margin of the cen- 

 trum. The general structure of the feet is 

 the same as in Moropus elatus, having four 

 toes in the fore foot, the outer toe being 

 obsolescent, and three toes on the hind foot; 

 but the feet are slenderer and the bones not 

 nearly so massive as in the larger species. 



The type specimens representing the species 

 are contained in the Carnegie Museum and 

 are in part the series of bones to which have 

 been attached in the Carnegie Museum Cata- 

 logue of Vertebrate Fossils the numbers 

 1703 A (cervicals), 1703B (anterior dorsals), 

 1Y03C (posterior dorsals and lumbars), 1700 

 (mounted hind limb and pes), lYOl (a 

 mounted fore limb and manus), 1707 (a 

 partially restored skuU). 



Associated with the skull as a paratype may 

 be mentioned the upper posterior part of a 

 cranium of a skuU designated by the figures 

 H. C. 133, kindly loaned to the writer for 

 study by Mr. Harold Cook. Professor E. H. 

 Barbour in Volume III., Part 2, of the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Nebraska (Fig. 2) has repre- 

 sented a fragment of the posterior part of the 

 skull of an immature specimen of Moropus 

 petersoni, without naming it. 



W. J. HoLLAIrt) 



Caenegie Museum, 

 November 13, 1908 



AN ELECTRICAL RESISTANCE METHOD FOR THE 



RAPID DETERMINATION OF THE MOISTURE 



CONTENT OF GRAIn' 



The shipping and storing qualities of grain 

 are so dependent upon its moisture content 

 that an accurate knowledge of the moisture 

 in grain in storage and transit is highly 

 desirable. This subject has been given spe- 

 cial attention by Brown and Duvel,^ who 

 have described a rapid method of making such 

 moisture determinations. Their method con- 

 sists in boiling the grain in an oil having 

 a flashing point much above the boiling point 

 of water, condensing the water which distils 

 off, and collecting and measuring it in a suit- 

 able graduate. Moisture determinations can, 

 by this method, be made in about one haK 

 hour, whereas determinations in the water 

 oven require several days. This method is, 

 however, suitable for laboratory use only, 

 necessitating the collecting of samples before 

 the determinations can be made, and does not 

 appear to be adapted to grain products such as 

 meal and flour. At the request of the Office of 

 Grain Standardization, the writer undertook 

 the development of an electrical resistance 

 method of measuring the moisture content of 

 grain adapted to measurements in the car or 

 elevator as well as in the laboratory, and re- 

 quiring only two or three minutes for a de- 

 termination. The measurements so far have 

 been confined to wheat. The results obtained 

 are so promising that a brief preliminary 



' See Circular 20, Bureau of Plant Industry. 



'Bulletin 99, Bureau of Plant Industry, U. S. 

 Department of Agriculture, 1907. 



