March 29, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



319 



prepare for it. Scientists are too busy to un- 

 dertake historical studies, and literary people 

 can hardly be exi)ected to reeducate themselves 

 along scientific lines. A bridge must be 

 built. The task of unification must be in- 

 trusted to specialists, equally well trained as 

 scientists and historians. There is no other 

 way out. Complete courses on the history of 

 science must be organized, and at least a few 

 men must be given the material possibility of 

 devoting themselves entirely to this work of 

 synthesis. 



The books of which I have spoken are new 

 tokens, among many, of the irresistible move- 

 ment which is leading to the organization of 

 these studies and we must be grateful to all 

 those who are lielping — either as scholars or 

 as vulgarizers. It remains to be seen which 

 university will take the lead; the others will 

 follow. George Sarton 



INVERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY 



Ix 1879 Hall described in a Report of the 

 New York State Museimi a curious fossil from 

 the Silurian, giving it the name Camarocrinus 

 siellatus. It was a large globose structure, in- 

 ternally divided into several chambers, attached 

 at one end to a stem agreeing with that of the 

 crinoids. Hall surmised that it represented 

 the base of some crinoid species, the other end 

 of the stem, with its calyx, being still unknown. 

 This explanation was generally accepted, but 

 the peculiar chambered bulbous form was sup- 

 posed to represent a special adaptation for a 

 floating mode of life, the bulb being in fact a 

 float, from which the crinoid hung suspended 

 in the water. In 1904 Dr. E. S. Bassler, of the 

 U. S. National Museum, found an apparently 

 promising locality for Camarocrinus a few 

 miles north of Cape Girardeau, Mo., along the 

 bluffs of the Mississippi River. This led Mr. 

 Frank Springer in 1912 to send Mr. F. Braun 

 to the locality, with the result of uncovering 

 the most marvelous specimens of crinoids, com- 

 pletely solving the mystery of Camarocrintis, 

 and furnishing the National Museum with a 

 slab about 4 by 5J feet, covered with remains 

 of the animals. This slab, now mounted in the 

 hall of invertebrate paleontology, will always 



remain one of the most striking paleontological 

 specimens in existence, for it shows the ani- 

 mals as they died, probably smothered by a 

 deposit of mud brought by a swift current from 

 some higher level. Mr. Springer has prepared 

 a detailed and beautifully illustrated account 

 of the new materials, and has taken occasion to 

 review all the congeneric species found in 

 America.^ 



It turns out that Camarocrinus is the basal 

 end of a well-known crinoid, described first 

 from Bohemia by Zenker in 1833. Zenker 

 called it Scyphocrinitcs, and according to the 

 rules of nomenclature this is the proper name, 

 but students of crinoids have chosen to shorten 

 such names, in the present case writing Scypho- 

 crinus. The Missouri slab proves to belong to 

 Zenker's original species, S. elegans, the 

 American specimens agreeing in all respects 

 with those from Bohemia. The basal bulb was 

 not afloat at all, but was embedded in the mud, 

 acting as a root. In its resemblances to and 

 differences from the calyx end it suggests some 

 interesting reflections in connection with the 

 researches of Professor C. M. Child, of Chi- 

 cago. To what extent is it pvirely adaptive, 

 and how much of its form and structure de- 

 pends upon a principle of partial repetition of 

 the fundamental structure of the animal? 



Although the Missouri slab represents the 

 Bohemian species, Mr. Springer finds that 

 there are no less than seven other forms of 

 Scyphocrinites (or, as he writes it, Scypho- 

 criniis) in American rocks. S. stellatus is 

 Hall's original Caviarocrinus; S. pratteni is a 

 very fine species from Tennessee, described 

 under another generic name by McChesney as 

 early as 1860; S. ulrichi was described by 

 Schuchert as a Camarocrinus; and finally S. 

 spinifer, S. mutahilis, S. pyhurnensis and 5. 

 gihhosus are published as new by Mr. Springer. 



The Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) rocks 

 of Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia and 

 Illinois have in recent years yielded a most in- 

 teresting assemblage of fossil insects, which 



I Frank Springer, ' ' On the Crinoid genus Scy- 

 phocrinits and its Bulbous Boot Camarocrinus, 

 Washington, Smithsonian Institution, 1917, 74 pp. 

 and nine plates. 



