Makch 26, 1915] 



SCIENCE 



463 



But when last summer the spirit of this new 

 world which has been created by modern sci- 

 ence, the spirit of reason, of cooperation, or 

 internationalism, was submerged in the wave 

 of blind nationalism which swept the world 

 back a thousand years towards barbarism, 

 when the crowning glory of science, the ob- 

 jective, impartial search for truth was for- 

 gotten, and prejudice and hate alone dictated 

 the words and acts of men, then it was felt 

 necessary to abandon the plans for the 

 Eontgen celebration. 



But here in America where, let us hope, the 

 spirit and the method of science still find some 

 advocates, it is fitting that on the twenty- 

 seventh of March we bring honor and apprecia- 

 tion to the seventy-year-old author of one of 

 the world's greatest discoveries — Conrad 

 Eontgen. 



R. A. MiLLIKAN 



Univeesity of Chicago, 

 March 18, 1915 



THE CONTENTS OF A SHARK'S STOMACH 



To THE Editor op Science: I have received 

 from Mr. W. F. Cameron, of Zamboanga, P. I., 

 a Stanford engineer, a photograph of a rare 

 shark, Rhinodon typicus, a specimen about 

 twenty feet long, taken on the island of Cebu. 

 A notable feature about this shark, which has 

 a very big mouth and small teeth, is that it 

 had in its stomach 7 leggings, 47 buttons, 3 

 leather belts and 9 shoes. He had probably 

 captured the cast-off garments of some com- 

 pany, otherwise the question arises — ^What be- 

 came of the odd legging and the odd shoe? 

 David Starr Jordan 



Leland Stanford Junior University 



THE scaled amphibia of THE COAL MEASURES 



The preservation of scales among true Am- 

 phibia has been well known for many years, 

 and their presence has been commented on by 

 Huxley, Cope, Dawson and others. Recently 

 the question of the crossopterygian ancestry 

 of the Amphibia has received considerable 

 support through the researches of Gregory, 

 Watson, Broom and Williston, so that it will 

 be of interest to state here the conditions of 



the scales among the few species of Amphibia 

 from the Coal Measures which show these 

 structures. Scales are known on several 

 genera of diverse relationship and seem to have 

 been present independent of any common 

 ancestry. These structures, presently to be 

 described, are true scales, and are not to be 

 confused with osseous scutes and ventral 

 scutellas. These latter structures will be dealt 

 with more fully in another place. 



Small scales hexagonal in form have been 

 observed in a brauchiosaurian genus, Micrerpe- 

 ton, from North America, though this dis- 

 covery has not so far been confirmed on addi- 

 tional material, although known to occur in 

 another genus, Eumicrerpeton. From the Coal 

 Measures of Ohio come two scaled micro- 

 saurian genera, one of which is Gercario- 

 morphus, described by Cope, though never 

 figured. The scales in this genus do not show 

 many of the fish characteristics, though they 

 resemble remotely some of the more aberrant 

 forms. The scales are dermal tubercles in- 

 serted in the skin, without any definite plan 

 of imbrication, such as is common among the 

 fishes, although the scales have a definite ar- 

 rangement simulating the fishes. The pattern 

 shows a remote resemblance to some of the 

 early ganoids. They are, moreover, true scales, 

 and as such possibly indicate one more link 

 added to the already full chain of facts which 

 ally the Amphibia and the fishes. 



The other genus from Ohio possessing 

 scales is imperfectly known, but was tenta- 

 tively allied, some years ago, to the genus 

 IcMhyerpeton, described many years ago by 

 Huxley from the Coal Measures of Ireland. 

 There is no assurance that the forms are so 

 closely related. They both possess scales of a 

 similar pattern and have an identical form 

 of vertebra. The scales in the only known 

 American species are so badly scattered that 

 nothing can be said of their arrangement. 

 Dawson's work on the scaled Amphibia of the 

 Coal Measures of ISTova Scotia is well known. 

 He has figured and described very completely 

 the scales of Hylonomus. They bear a great 

 resemblance to the scales of Cercariomorphus. 



The question now before us is whether the 



