Mabch 18, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



407 



T3E PALEONTOLOGIG GORRELATION 

 THROUGH THE BAGHE FVND 



In 1908 the National Academy of Sciences 

 appointed a committee on comparative re- 

 search in paleontological correlation with 

 power to add foreign and American associates 

 to their number. The committee was divided 

 into vertebrate and invertebrate sections. The 

 vertebrate section organized with the follow- 

 ing members : Professor H. F. Osborn, of Co- 

 lumbia University and the F. S. Geological 

 Survey, chairman; Professors Scott, of 

 Princeton University; Dollo, of Brussels Uni- 

 versity; Deperet, of Lyons University; Fraas, 

 of Stuttgart University; Koken, of Tiibingen 

 University; von Huene, of Tiibingen Univer- 

 sity; Williston, of the University of Chicago. 

 Associated for special subjects : Professor J. C. 

 Merriam, of the University of California; Dr. 

 E. Broom, of Victoria College, Stellenbosch ; 

 Dr. Santiago Both, of La Plata, Argentina; 

 Dr. W. D. Matthew, of the American Museum 

 of Natural History, secretary. 



The trustees of the Bache Fund of the Na- 

 tional Academy of Sciences through Professor 

 Charles S. Minot, secretary, appropriated $500 

 for the work of the committee during the year 

 1909, and recently made a second appropria- 

 tion of $500 for the year 1910. The fund is 

 used partly to defray the expenses of corre- 

 spondence, chiefly to direct investigation and 

 secure special reports from various members 

 of the committee and others. 



The council of the New York Academy of 

 Sciences in 1909 generously offered to co- 

 operate with this research by the publication 

 of the series of bulletins reporting progress. 

 These bulletins are partly published and illus- 

 trated with the aid of the Bache Fund. They 

 are as follows: Bulletin No. 1, "Plan and 

 Scope," by Henry Fairfield Osborn and W. D. 

 Matthew ; Bulletin No. 2, " Fossil Vertebrates 

 of Belgium," by Louis Dollo, translated by W. 

 D. Matthew; Bulletin No. 3, "Patagonia and 

 the Pampean Formation," review of correla- 

 tion of Santiago Both, with lists of character- 

 istic species and provisional systematic refer- 

 ences, by W. D. Matthew. 



The chairman of the committee has devoted 



his entire time (1909) to the preparation of a 

 book entitled " The Age of Mammals," in 

 which the . results of his researches upon the 

 correlation of the Tertiary and Quaternary 

 periods, and the development and succession 

 of mammalian faunas during the CsBnozoic 

 are set forth more fully and completely than 

 in previous publications, and with as broad 

 and popular a treatment as the subject per- 

 mits. 



The secretary has prepared a series of f aunal 

 lists of the Tertiary mammals of North Amer- 

 ica, on the lines laid out in the preliminary 

 bulletin entitled "Plan and Scope" (p. 45). 

 The object of these elaborate and extended 

 lists is to enable correlators to " get behind the 

 record," to enable them to critically consider 

 each faunal list, to estimate the weight of evi- 

 dence afforded by each species listed. In such 

 an estimate the exact level and locality, the 

 authority and date of description, the perfec- 

 tion or imperfection of the types, their loca- 

 tion (to facilitate reexamination) are always 

 essential factors; and such other data as may 

 seem of value are given in the annotations. 

 Mere lists of species without such data behind 

 them are apt to be confusing and misleading. 

 The results attained in correlations based 

 upon bare lists of species are almost always a 

 summary or average of discordant data. The 

 best that can be hoped for will be that it will 

 be a fair average; and where a preconceived 

 bias exists on the part of the workers in a par- 

 ticular region, it will often be so manifestly 

 incorrect that the results are generally rejected, 

 and the entire subject of correlation discred- 

 ited by them. Discordance in the evidence we 

 take to be a proof that there is somewhere an 

 error. The publication of these lists with 

 complete data as to each species recorded, and 

 with sections, lists of principal publications 

 and annotation of various kinds, will assist, it 

 is hoped, in locating and eliminating such 

 errors. 



Dr. Matthew has also in preparation lists of 

 all the American vertebrate faunae, with such 

 data as could be readily obtained. These art> 

 now completed down to the year 1900. They 

 will be submitted to the several authorities in 



