586 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1198 



Mr. L. O. Howard, consulting engineer of 



Salt Lalve City, lias been appointed dean of 



the School of Mines of the State College of 

 Washington at Pullman. 



At the Stevens Institute of Technology, L. 

 A. Hazeltine has succeeded the late Professor 

 Ganz as acting professor of electrical engi- 

 neering in charge of the department. 



James H. Ellis, research associate in phys- 

 ical chemistry at Throop College of Technol- 

 ogy, Pasadena, Cal., has become a member of 

 the physics department of the college as in- 

 structor in electrical measurements. 



Me. I. L. Miller, of Indiana University, 

 has been appointed professor of mathematics 

 in Carthage College. 



Professor A. S. Leyton has resigned the 

 chair of pathology and bacteriology of the 

 University of Leeds. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



SOCIEDAD CIENXfFICA ANTONIO ALZATE 



For those who have been led by a perusal 

 of the daily papers to suppose that Mexico 

 was in a progressive state of disorganization, 

 the recent issues of the "Memorias" of the 

 " Sociedad Cientifica Antonio Alzate," of Mex- 

 ico City, will afford good proof that their 

 hasty judgment had been erroneous. 



The thirty-sixth volume of the Memorias of 

 this Society, which has just appeared, and 

 comprises T40 pages of text with 82 plates, is 

 entirely devoted to a monograph on the State 

 of Puebla by Seiior Enrique Juan Palacios."^ 

 His study falls into three main sections, the 

 first of which regards the ethnology, geology 

 and climatology of the state, the second, its 

 flora and fauna, its industries, its mineral 

 resources, and its commerce and means of 

 communication; the third section treats of the 

 political divisions of the state, and of its 



1 ' ' Memorias y Rivista de la Sociedad Cienttfica 

 Antonio Alzate," published under the direction of 

 the perpetual secretary, Rafael Aguilar y Santillan, 

 Tomo 36, 2 parts, Mexico, June, 1917. 740 pp., 82 

 pits., 8°, "Puebla, su territorio y sus habitantes, " 

 by Enrique Juan Palacios. 



history, embracing a description of its prin- 

 cipal communities, chief among which is of 

 course the city of Puebla, consisting of about 

 100,000 inhabitants. 



The area of the state is given by the writer 

 as 33,653 square kilometers, or about 14,000 

 square miles, and its population as nearly 

 1,100,000, showing a density of nearly 80 to 

 the square mile. In population it ranks third 

 among the Mexican states. The white race 

 numbers 86,000, the population of mixed race 

 826,000 (three quarters of the whole), and the 

 Indians, nearly 200,000. "Within its territory 

 is the highest peak in North America, with the 

 exception of Mount McKinley. This is the 

 mountain bearing the Indian name Citlaltepal, 

 or " Smoking Mountain," though often called 

 Orizaba. It rises to a height of 5,675 meters, 

 or 18,614 feet, and is an extinct, or at least 

 an inactive volcano. 



The fossil remains found in the state of 

 Puebla are of considerable importance. Among 

 them are bones of Elephas Columhi Falconer, 

 found at San Jeronimo, in the district of 

 Tehuacan, and also in the region about the 

 city of Puebla. Within the limits of its mu- 

 nicipality, at Molino de Santa Barbara, fossil 

 elephant tusks have been unearthed; masto- 

 don tusks have also been discovered in the 

 state, as well as teeth of Elephas primigenius 

 (pp. 54, 55). 



Ample space has been devoted to the min- 

 eral resources of Puebla and to their exploita- 

 tion. While the principal interests of the 

 state are agricultural and industrial, there 

 were, according to the statistical report of 

 1907, as many as 29 mines then in operation 

 (copper, iron, gold, silver and lead), the num- 

 ber of persons employed being 1,068; the pro- 

 duction was valued at 1,168,428 Mexican 

 dollars. Most of these mines must have been 

 small undertakings, since Southworth in his 

 Mining Directory for 1908 only notes three 

 mines as in active operation, that of San 

 Lucas (gold and silver) in the district of 

 Tehuacan; that of Tetala, an English com- 

 pany organized in 1904, with a capital of 

 £100,000, and the mine "La Aurora" of 

 Tezuitlan, an enterprise dating from 1905, 



