July 18, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



Ill 



therefore, been a scientific congress of great 

 importance. 



The papers which have been read before 

 the Association proper and in joint ses- 

 sion with the more closely affiliated socie- 

 ties have been numerous and of a high 

 order. About three hundred and sixty 

 papers have been thus presented, which is 

 a great increase over the number read at 

 the last meeting of the Association. 



A number of important measures con- 

 cerning the future of the Association have 

 been considered and amendments to the 

 constitution have been adopted rendering 

 the council more permanent in its member- 

 ship and thus probably more efficient in 

 its work, and also making the sectional 

 committees so constituted as to render their 

 greater efficiency a, matter of practical cer- 

 tainty. 



About sixty new members have been 

 elected during the meeting, and about 

 eighty members have been made fellows. 



Pittsburgh and its vicinity have pro- 

 vided visiting points of great scientific in- 

 terest, and the fact just stated, together 

 with the great courtesy and hospitality of 

 the local committee and the citizens of 

 Pittsbiurgh, have combined to make the 

 meeting now coming to a close a memorable 

 one in the annals of the Association. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



Reports of the Prin.ceton University Expedi- 

 tions to Patagonia, 1896-1899. IV., Pale- 

 ontology; Part II., Tertiary Invertebrates. 

 By A. E. Ortmann, Ph.D. Princeton, the 

 University. 1902. 4to. Pp. 45-332; pi. 

 XI.-XXXIX. 



The reports of the important expeditions 

 sent to Patagonia by Princeton University are 

 being published at the expense of the J. Pier- 

 pont Morgan fund, and in the present stately 

 volume we have the details of the stratigraphic 

 paleontology for which those interested in the 



geology of South America have been eagerly 

 waiting. 



The volume is printed with elegance and 

 taste and the plates, while a little formal in 

 drawing, are a refreshing contrast to the 

 wretched phototypes which disfigure so many 

 recent European paleontological memoirs. 

 While the photographic process is suited to the 

 reproduction, from the specimens, of a limited 

 class of objects, in a limited number of cases, 

 it completely fails to give what is required in 

 the case of fossil mollusks. When small, all 

 important details are apt to be lost ; and, when 

 large, the presence, in spots, of bits of detail, 

 only emphasizes the general failure of the 

 process as a whole. Eor this reason we con- 

 gratulate the author and editor of this volume 

 that they resisted the possible temptation and 

 have given us illustrations which really illus- 

 trate. But one criticism occurs to us in re- 

 viewing the make-up of the volume, and that 

 is a regret that an index to the paper is not 

 included in it. 



The memoir begins with an enumeration and 

 description of the material collected. A pains- 

 taking comparison is made with analogous 

 species in the northern hemisphere and also 

 with the species of the Tertiary of New 

 Zealand and Australia. Erom the Magellanian 

 beds 19 species are described, from the Pata- 

 gonian 151, and from deposits at and analogous 

 to those of Cape Fairweather, 15 species are 

 made known. 



It has been known for some years that the 

 opinions of several South American workers as 

 to the age and stratigraphy of the Patagonian 

 and other horizons, which they knew only from 

 fossils collected by others, were much in need 

 of revision. Two years ago Mr. J. B. Hatcher, 

 in charge of the expedition, after careful in- 

 spection of the type localities, and Dr. Ort- 

 mann on the testimony of the fossils collected, 

 arrived at certain conclusions which were pub- 

 lished with sections in the American Journal 

 of Science for 1900. The paleontological evi- 

 dence upon which those conclusions rest is now 

 furnished in the fullest detail. If any one 

 hitherto has suspended judgment, he may 

 now yield 'to conviction in full confidence that 

 the case is proved. No question can arise. 



