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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 788 



fied himself against the cold winter, and 

 with his wife to supervise the domestic 

 arrangements in camp, and three laborers 

 to aid him, he is endeavoring to rapidly 

 extricate the skeletons from the hard sand- 

 stone in which they are imbedded. He 

 writes enthusiastically of his work, and in 

 a recent letter says, " We have found what 

 paleontologists have been searching for for 

 the past forty or fifty years, skeletons of 

 sauropod dinosaurs of huge size, apparently 

 absolutely complete, every vertebra in posi- 

 tion, and even the ribs in place — not removed 

 more in any instance than two or three 

 inches from the point where they articulate 

 with the facets of the vertebrse." Every pre- 

 caution is being taken to recover these speci- 

 mens as they have been found. A photo- 

 graphic record is being kept of the position of 

 every bone, and it is hoped that when the 

 great undertaking is completed a very impor- 

 tant addition will have been made to our 

 knowledge of the osteology of the sauropod 

 Dinosanria. One of the interesting features 

 in this connection is the discovery of the 

 sternal ribs, which never have hitherto been 

 found in position in connection with the 

 Sauropoda. 



Dr. Percy E. Raymond has been during the 

 past year carrying on extensive researches in 

 the region of Pittsburgh, and has made val- 

 uable and interesting observations upon the 

 strata of western Pennsylvania, upon which 

 he will shortly publish, showing the existence 

 of extensive marine faunte at points where 

 such deposits were hitherto not known to 

 exist. He has also been successful in discov- 

 ering some new species of invertebrates, as 

 well as the remains of some vertebrates. His 

 studies are calculated to throw great light 

 upon the formations of the region, which 

 have hitherto been only superficially exam- 

 ined. 



Two replicas of the skeletons of Diplodocus 

 carnegiei were prepared and in the fall of the 

 year were presented, one to the Emperor of 

 Austria, the other to the King of Italy. The 

 first specimen is located in the Imperial Mu- 

 seum at Vienna, the second in the Museum of 



the Istituto Geologico at Bologna. These 

 replicas were made at the expense of Mr. 

 Andrew Carnegie and presented on his behalf to 

 the Emperor and the King by Dr. W. J. Hol- 

 land, who, with his assistant, Mr. Coggeshall, 

 set them up. Dr. Holland was personally re- 

 ceived by the Emperor of Austria, who con- 

 ferred upon him the cross of an Officer of the 

 Order of Francis Joseph, and conferred upon 

 Mr. Coggeshall the cross of the Order of 

 Merit, surmounted with the crown. The 

 King of Italy has conferred upon Dr. Hol- 

 land the cross of Commander of the Crown 

 of Italy, and upon Mr. Coggeshall the cross 

 of Chevalier of the same order. In recogni- 

 tion of Mr. Carnegie's generosity the authori- 

 ties of the city of Bologna have sent to the 

 library of the Carnegie Museum a complete 

 set of the writings of Aldrovandi, in thirteen 

 volumes in the original binding. The set is 

 singularly beautiful and well preserved. The 

 Istituto Geologico at Bologna has presented 

 to the Carnegie Museum a series of beautiful 

 specimens of the fossil fishes of Monte Bolca, 

 which are being prepared for exhibition. 



One of the interesting accessions to the 

 paleontological collections of the Museum 

 during the past year has been an enormous 

 tusk of Eleplias columbi Falconer, found on 

 the banks of the Allegheny Eiver in the 

 suburbs of Pittsburgh. It was washed out 

 during a freshet. It is nearly nine feet in 

 length. 



During the year a beautifully mounted 

 skeleton of Portheus molossus Cope, fifteen 

 feet in length, the most perfect in existence in 

 any museum, has been mounted and placed 

 upon the walls. 



The vertebrate material obtained and ac- 

 cessed for the museum during the past twelve 

 months is extensive, aggregating many hun- 

 dreds of numbers, and the invertebrate ma- 

 terial is even more extensive. 



OPTICALLY ACTIVE SUBSTANCES CON- 

 TAINING NO ASYMMETRIC ATOM 

 The statement is frequently made that 

 optical activity is due to the presence in the 



