Mat 5, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



465 



type ; cousequently it would be misleading to speak 

 of this Hesperopithecus at present as an anthro- 

 poid ape ; it is a new and independent type of 

 Primate, and we must seek more material before 

 we can determine its relationships. It is cer- 

 tainly not closely related to Pithecanthropus 

 erectus in the structure of the crown, for Pithe- 

 canthropus has a single, contracted crown in which 

 the superior grinding surface has a limited erenu- 

 lated basin, whereas Hesperopithecus has a widely 

 open crown with broadly channeled or fun-owed 

 margins, . and a postero-internal crest suggesting 

 the hypoeone of a higher Primate form. The dis- 

 position of the roots in Hesperopithecus, in Homo, 

 in Pithecanthropus, is shown to be very broadly 

 similar in comparative Fig. 2. The Hesperopi- 

 thecus molar is three-fauged, the postero-extemal 

 fang having been broken off in the type; the 

 internal fang shows a median internal groove 

 and a tendency to a deep external groove on the 

 outer side. 



Since 1908 there has been in the American 

 Mvisenm collection from this same horizon an- 

 other small Avater-worn tooth, discovererd by 

 Dr. William D. Matthew. The specimen be- 

 longed to an aged animal and is so water-worn 

 that Dr. Matthew, while inclined to regard it 

 as a Primate, did not venture to describe it. 

 It now appears, from close comparison with 

 the type of Hesperopithecus, to be closely re- 

 lated generieally, even if it is not related spe- 

 cifically. The greatly enlarged drawing (Fig. 

 3), reproduced to the same scale as that of the 

 type above described, shows that the molar 

 pattern is fundamentally similar. The crown 

 differs in its much more triangular form and, 

 were it not for its extremely worn surface, we 

 should unhesitatingly pronounce it as a third 

 superior molar; it has, therefore, been given 

 this position provisionally in the diagram; it 

 seems to confirm the opinion of Gregory and 

 Hellman that the type of Hesperopithecus is a 

 second superior molar. 



The geologic age of these two specimens is 

 now believed to be the same as that of Thou- 

 sand Creek, Nevada, and Rattlesnake, Oregon, 

 among the fauna of which Pliohippus is very 

 abundant and varied; it also contains Ilingo- 

 eeras and other strepsicerine antelopes of 

 Asiatic affinity ; it is the last American fauna in 

 which occurred the rhinoceros, preceding the 



Blanco fauna in which the Asiatic brevirostrine 

 M. mirificus first occurs. 



Henry Fairfield Osborn 

 American Museum 

 OP Natural History, 

 New York, N. Y. 



MEDALS AND DINNER OF THE NA- 

 TIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



At the annual dinner of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences, held at the Hotel Powhatan on 

 Tuesday evening, April 25, 1922, two medals 

 were awarded. 



The J. Lawrence Smith Medal was bestowed 

 upon Dr. George P. Merrill, curator of geology 

 at the United States National Museum. This is 

 a gold medal of the value of $200, from a fund 

 established in 1884, as a reward for "original 

 investigation of meteoric bodies." But because 

 investigators in this field are so rare it has not 

 been given since 1888. Dr. Whitman Cross, 

 in his S23eeeh presenting the medal, jjointed out 

 that Dr. Merrill had continued to carry on the 

 work of his predecessor, J. Lawrence Smith, 

 on meteorites by the application of modern 

 methods of analysis. The earlier analyses of 

 meteorites were not always to be relied upon, 

 and Dr. Merrill in his long years of research 

 has been able to show that some of the elements 

 previously reported as having occurred in 

 meteorites are absent and, at the same time, he 

 has extended the list of elements and com- 

 pounds that do exist in these bodies. Among 

 other minerals he has found a calcium phos- 

 phate similar to apatite, which has been named 

 in his honor Merrillite. Dr. Merrill also has 

 discovered evidences of metamorphism in mete- 

 orites, cases where a mineral structure has been 

 broken up and the fragments later fused to- 

 gether like the conglomerates found in igneous 

 rocks in the earth's crust. 



Dr. Merrill in receiving the medal said that 

 meteorites had in all ages attracted a great 

 deal of popular interest. In the earliest times 

 they were worshipped as divine and nowadays 

 the newspapers give great attention to any 

 meteoric fall. Yet few scientists have made 

 them the subject of concentrated and long- 

 continued study. In his work. Dr. Merrill said 



