.178 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 33. 



Of what use is all this ? Could Faraday 

 foresee that Morse would invent the tele- 

 graph or Bell the telephone? Could Helm- 

 holtz or Konig foresee the phonograph? 

 Fortunately we live at a time when any 

 addition to the world's knowledge of na- 

 ture's truths is sufficient justification for 

 any investigation however laborious. 



The bolometer has already taught us that 

 the firefly is a dozen times more economical 

 as a light producer than our best electric 



Fig. 5. A bolograph of the sodium double yellow 

 line indicating the niclcel line between tbem. This 

 will show the extreme delicacy of this method of feel- 

 ing and recording absorption lines. 



lights and a hundred times better than our 

 gas. It has taught us that our atmosphere 

 acts like a valve, transmitting in almost un- 

 diminished strength the short quick waves 

 of energj' radiated to us from the sun , but 

 refusing absolutely to return the long slow 

 waves in which the earth tries to radiate 

 the energy back into space. Without this 

 atmosphere we should all have been frozen 

 long ago. 



We now know of electric waves which 

 behave in every respect similarly to those of 

 light, but which are many times longer and 

 slower. Almost every month brings the 

 announcement of shorter and faster electric 

 waves, while Prof. Langley and his fellow 

 a borers are continually detecting longer 

 and slower light waves. Thus the boun- 



daries of our knowledge are forced forward, 

 and the unexplored strip becomes ever nar- 

 rower. Light is as it were the snowy cap 

 of a mountain. One explorer pushes down- 

 ward from the light top into the dark re- 

 gions lying below, Avhile another from the 

 broad and fertile valley of electricity strug- 

 gles upward into the unknown. Are the 

 two upon the same mountain ? Will they 

 ever meet? We hope so, we believe so, 

 but until they have clasped hands we are 

 not satisfied. Other workers may be found 

 to be upon the same ether mountain, gravi- 

 tation and other mysteries may there find a 

 solution. What is above our mountain, 

 unencumbered ether? thought? life? 



William Hallock. 

 Columbia College. 



VERTEBRATE PALEONTOLOGY IN THE 

 AMERICAN 3IUSEUM. 



The American Museum of Natural His- 

 tory has recently acquired the collection 

 of fossil mammals, made by Professor 

 Cope between 1872 and 1895. The collec- 

 tion represents eleven geological horizons, 

 including specimens from the Jurassic, 

 Laramie (Cretaceous), Puerco, Wasatch, 

 Wind Eiver, Bridger, Washakie, White 

 River, John Day, Loup Fork and Pleisto- 

 cene. The collections from the John Day 

 and Wasatch of New Mexico and Wj'oming 

 are exceptionallj^ perfect, and that from the 

 Puerco, together with the collection already 

 in the Museum procured by the expedition 

 of 1892, is unique. Four hundred and 

 seventy species are represented, of which 

 four hundred and two are types. The col- 

 lection is representative of all of Professor 

 Cope's researches upon the mammalia, with 

 the exception of the greater portion of his 

 work upon the Wheeler Survey, the tj'pes 

 of which are contained in the Smithsonian 

 Institution of Washington, and more re- 

 cently of his work upon the Canadian and 

 Texas Surveys. The most complete speci- 



