July 25, 1902.] 



SCIENCE. 



153 



room has become may be partly understood by 

 reading- Mr. Ratlibun's report, but only those 

 conversant with the circumstances in the case 

 can fully apisreeiate the inconvenience, loss of 

 time and money, and danger of loss from fire 

 caused by the existing order of things. 



The city of Glasgow is just now finishing a 

 museimi that will cost $1,500,000, and it would 

 seem that a nation so fond of boasting of its 

 wealth as is the United States might at least 

 spend thrice that sum in the construction of 

 a building. 



From the reports one gathers that in all 

 these institutione there is special activity 

 in the departments of anthropology and ver- 

 tebrate paleontology, and in both of these 

 departments the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural Plistory, largely through the liberality of 

 its friends, stands first. Through the activity 

 of its collecting parties this institution has 

 made good progress with its extremely inter- 

 esting exhibit illustrating the history of the 

 horse family. Although this is now much more 

 complete than any other similar collection ex- 

 tant, the Curator hopes eventually to secure 

 every form between the little Eocene ancestor 

 and the large horse of the Pleistocene, and to 

 add skeletons of typical breeds of modern 

 horses as well. 



In paleontology the Field Columbian Mu- 

 seum has added the largest bone of any animal 

 yet found, in the shape of a femur of Camara- 

 saurus, six feet eight inches high, while it has 

 also placed on exhibition a complete foreleg of 

 the great Morosaurus. 



The comment may be made that all these 

 fine fossils have been the result of field work, 

 and that the U. S. National Museum has no 

 funds for this purpose. 



As usual the Field Columbian Museum 

 makes a good showing in its exhibition series 

 of mammals, the most notable being a group of 

 African wart hogs mounted by Mr. Akeley. 

 The piece of the year of the American Museum 

 is the bird rock group of Mr. Denslow, and an 

 illustrated pamphlet describing this may be 

 had for the nominal sum of ten cents. 



In entomology and botany the National 

 Museum stands first with its accessions of 

 85,000 specimens of insects, arachnida and 



myriapoda, and 27,000 herbarium specimens, 

 and it is a pleasure to add that the greater 

 number of these came as gifts. 



The American Museum announces the in- 

 stallation of the famous Bement collection of 

 minerals and of the fine series of gems pre- 

 sented by J. Pierpont Morgan. The National 

 Museum has received on deposit from Dr. 

 Shepard the Shepard collection of minerals 

 which includes many rare forms. 



Both the Field Colvunbian and American 

 Museums make provisions for lecture courses; 

 the latter, indeed, has always made a special 

 point of its lectures to teachers, and has a 

 Department of Public Instruction and one of 

 the best equipped lecture halls in the country. 

 The one institution notes a falling off in its 

 attendance, the other a decided increase, so 

 that at times the lecture hall was insufficient 

 for the acconunodation of the public. The 

 National Museum has had no lecture course 

 for several years, but if it has not^ it has im- 

 parted much direct information in response to 

 requests from various parts of the country, to 

 say nothing of those made by passing indi- 

 viduals. It is noted that 700 lots of specimens 

 were submitted for identification, and that the 

 number of letters answered was about 5,000. 

 It can readily be seen that this work makes 

 great inroads on the time of the scientific 

 staff and clerical force, while it may be said 

 that the direct results to the Museum are few. 

 The indirect benefit, however, is probably con- 

 siderable, though nothing like that occurring 

 to the American Museum through its Depart- 

 ment of Public Instruction. 



The National Museum announces the com- 

 pletion of Jordan and Evermann's 'Fishes of 

 North and Middle America,' the American 

 Museum has published the last part of the im- 

 portant 'List of Types of Invertebrate Fos- 

 sils,' while the Field Museum has issued 'A 

 iSjmopsis of the Mammals of North America 

 and the Adjacent Seas,' a work that, for the 

 first time, places a comprehensive work on our 

 mammals within reach of every one. The Na- 

 tional Museum has published the most papers, 

 as it should with its special appropriation. 

 But this institution is very liberal in the mat- 

 ter of distribution, as well as in publishing 



