Mat 20, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



lib 



install, arrange and label it. It would have 

 been impossible to have found any one so well 

 qualified for this task; he seemed to recognize 

 every specimen as it was unpacked and each 

 one became the test of pleasant or esciting 

 memories. 



It was not long after Professor Whitfield's 

 assumption of this important charge that the 

 publication of the Bulletin of the American 

 Museum was begun, and paleontological 

 papers from his pen appeared upon its pages. 

 It is quite unnecessary to review all of these; 

 they consisted of descriptions of new species, 

 genera, revisions, notes, emendations and 

 figures of hitherto unfigured species, and 

 original identifications and discussions. Per- 

 haps the most important were his descriptions 

 of the fossils of the Port Cassin beds in 

 Vermont, his admirable treatment of the sub- 

 ject of Uphaniaenia and Dictyophyton, re- 

 ferring these problematic bodies to sponges, 

 a position firmly established by later obser- 

 vations, his detection of a fossil scorpion in 

 the Waterlime beds of New York, his papers 

 on Cretaceous Syrian fossils, on fossil marine 

 algffi, on the Cretaceous Eudistae of Jamaica 

 and his review of the anomalous genus Bar- 

 rettia from the same island. He occasionally 

 intercalated in these fossil studies a paper 

 upon living forms, as his experimental obser- 

 vations upon Lymnea megasoma, a new 

 sponge from Bermuda and a new coral from 

 the Bahamas. 



He completed during these years his great 

 work on the fossils of the Cretaceous and 

 Tertiary of New Jersey, a work achieved 

 under very serious difficulties, and with most 

 fragmentary and insufficient material. These 

 memoirs were published by the H. S. Geolog- 

 ical Survey. The genus Whiifieldia, a mem- 

 ber of the meristelloid brachiopods, was 

 named by Professor Davidson after him, and 

 his name as a specific designation appears up 

 and down the pages of paleontographical lit- 

 erature. Unostentatious, of a reserved, al- 

 most severe demeanor, animated by an 

 intense love of his science, his life was passed 

 peacefully and pleasantly, amid unruffled 

 domestic relations, in unbroken association 



with the objects of his conscientious and un- 

 remitting study. 



L. P. G. 



CONFERENCE ON AGRICULTURAL NATURE- 

 STUDY 



The conference on the teaching of agricul- 

 ture in the common schools of Illinois was 

 held from March 24 to 26, an enthusiastic 

 session at the University of Illinois at Ur- 

 bana. This was the first meeting of its kind 

 in the United States, and educators from all 

 over the state of Illinois and neighboring 

 states took part in its sessions. Among those 

 present were D. J. Crosby, U. S. Expert in 

 Agricultural Educational Work, Washington, 

 D. C, and representatives of railroads, mem- 

 bers of agricultural faculties from neighbor- 

 ing states, members of the legislature, county 

 superintendents, normal school faculties, 

 farmers' institute officials, rural school direc- 

 tors, domestic science leaders, manual train- 

 ing leaders, practical farmers and land 

 owners, technical men, college and univer- 

 sity professors, state departments of public 

 instruction. 



The conference was inclined to move 

 slowly along this new line of activity. It 

 took, however, two or three steps that are 

 destined to be very important in the educa- 

 tional work of the schools of the state. It 

 was strongly urged that a course of study in 

 agriculture be planned for the elementary 

 schools of the state. A committee was ap- 

 pointed for this purpose consisting of Pro- 

 fessor Fred. L. Charles, University of Illi- 

 nois; County Superintendent Mcintosh, 

 Monticello, Illinois; Miss Alice J. Patterson, 

 State Normal University, Normal, 111.; As- 

 sistant State Superintendent, U. J. Hoffman, 

 Springfield, HI. 



It was arranged that a second meeting of 

 the conference be held next year in connec- 

 tion with the agricultural short course at the 

 University of Illinois, when something over 

 a thousand people of the state wiU be as- 

 sembled to study agriculture in its various 

 phases. 



The following standing committee was ap- 



