Mat 23, 1919] 



SCIENCE 



483 



Mr. Smith and his wife on their return, 

 resumed their employment at the Carnegie 

 Museum, devoting themselves to the arrange- 

 ment of the Colombian material and to the 

 classification of the large and increasing col- 

 lections of mollusca belonging to the museiun. 

 One of the results of this period is the 

 "Catalog of the Genus Partula " which was 

 published in 1902. After about a year in 

 Pittsburgh, Mr. and Mrs. Smith felt the need 

 of a change and resolved upon removal to 

 "Wetumpka, Ala., where they began the syste- 

 matic collection of fresh-water shells, belong- 

 ing to the family of Strepomatidae, which 

 aboimd in the Coosa and other rivers of that 

 region. They were supported in their work 

 by four ardent conchologists : Mr. George H. 

 Clapp, of Pittsburgh, Messrs. John B. Hender- 

 son and T. H. Aldrich, of Washington, D. C, 

 and Mr. Bryant Walker, of Detroit, Mich., 

 who formed a " syndicate " to enable the work 

 to be done. When Mr. Aldrich dropped out of 

 their number. Professor H. A. Pilsbry, of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences in Philadelphia, 

 took the vacant place for such time as he was 

 able to command the necessary funds. In 

 1910 Dr. Eugene A. Smith, of the Geological 

 Survey of Alabama, induced Mr. and Mrs. 

 H. H. Smith to take charge of the museum at 

 the University of Alabama, and here they 

 have been engaged for nearly a decade in 

 arranging and caring for the collections which 

 have been accumulated principally by the Geo- 

 logical Survey of Alabama. For the past two 

 or three years the Alabama Museum and the 

 Carnegie Museum have been working con- 

 jointly in the exploration of the Tertiary de- 

 posits of Alabama, under the oversight of Mr. 

 Smith, and the result has been discovery of a 

 nimiber of new and rich deposits of Tertiary 

 mollusca. Vast series of specimens had been 

 gathered by our indefatigable friends, and the 

 last letter received by the writer contained a 

 request for a fresh supply of labels. It was 

 written only a day or two before the lamented 

 death of the sender. 



Mr. Smith was not a mere collector of nat- 

 ural history specimens. He was a naturalist 

 in the true sense of that much abused word. 



He had a wide and accurate knowledge of the 

 major divisions of the animal kingdom and 

 keen powers of discrimination. He was espe- 

 cially well versed in conchology, though he 

 wrote and published but little. He was a sys- 

 tomatist of far more than ordinary ability, 

 whose opinions were received with great re- 

 spect by those who employed him. He was 

 an accomplished linguist. He was familiar 

 with the Greek and Latin classics, spoke 

 Spanish readily and used Portuguese as if it 

 were his mother tongue. He also had a good 

 knowledge of French and German, sufficient 

 to enable him to consult works in those lan- 

 guages. He was one of the survivors of a 

 group of naturalist explorers and investiga- 

 tors to whom we are indebted for much of 

 our knowledge of the fauna and flora of trop- 

 ical America. He belonged to an illustrious 

 company which, beginning with Humboldt and 

 Bonpland, included in its ranks such men as 

 Alfred Eussel Wallace, Henry W. Bates, J. N. 

 Natterer, J. J. Tsehudi, J. B. Hatcher and 

 J. D. Haseman, who courageously faced dan- 

 gers in the wilderness in order to secure in- 

 formation at first hand as to the fauna and 

 flora of the great continent where they labored. 



W. J. Holland 



Carnegie Museum 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR 

 THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



PASADENA MEETING OF THE PACIFIC 

 DIVISION 



The third annual meeting of the Pacific 

 Division of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science will be held at Pasa- 

 dena, Calif., during tlie period June 19-22, 

 1919. On accoimt of the war no meeting was 

 held in 1918. 



The address of the retiring president. Dr. 

 D. T. MacDougal, on " Growth of Organisms " 

 will be delivered on Thursday evening in the 

 Palm Room of the Hotel Maryland, follow- 

 ing which a public reception will be held. 

 The address of welcome will be given by 

 President James A. B. Scherer, of Throop 

 College of Technology, and the response by 



