July 14, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



53 



admitted the possibility of Triassic rocks in 

 the neighborhood of New London only because 

 Bathygnathus was found there and was con- 

 sidered as a Triassic dinosaur. Hardly had 

 the letter been posted when I received from 

 Dr. von Huehne his paper on the ' Pelyco- 

 saurier im Deutschen Muschelkalk ' (iV. 

 Jah?-h. f. M. G. u. P. Beilage, Band XX., p. 

 343), in which he arrives at exactly the same 

 ■conclusion as to the nature of the fossil and 

 the age of the beds. Aside from settling the 

 age of the beds of Prince Edwards Island the 

 ■discovery is of interest in extending the range 

 of these forms which have previously been 

 known from Texas, Vermillion County, 111., 

 and Bohemia. It is interesting also to note, 

 :as pointed out by von Huehne, that Owen in 

 the Q.J. Cr. S.J, 1876, pointed out that Bathyg- 

 nathus was probably related to the theriodonts. 

 This suggestion has been disregarded in favor 

 ■of the dinosaurian nature of the fossil and 

 has so kept alive the error in the age of the . 

 fceds. E. C. Case. 



A SYSTEM FOR FILING PAMPHLETS. 



No system for filing pamphlets will meet 

 the requirements of all workers, but a plan 

 that I have used for some years has proved 

 •so satisfactory and met with the approval of 

 so many of my friends that I venture to 

 present a brief outline of it, in order that 

 others may perhaps be benefited. I make no 

 claim for originality except, perhaps, in the 

 size of the boxes. 



I use pasteboard boxes very much like those 

 Tised by the Book Lovers' Library to protect 

 its volumes, ten and one half inches high, 

 seven and one fourth inches deep and one inch 

 ihick, the back or edge nearest the wall, as 

 they stand on the shelf, being open.* Each 

 box holds only a small number of pamphlets, 

 and therein lies the chief advantage, as the 

 small boxes facilitate a great subdivision of 

 subjects. 



In my series of ' Birds, geographic,' for 



instance, I have a box for faunal papers for 



every state in the United States and for some 



states several boxes, the subdivision in these 



cases being by authors. Every faunal bird 



■ * Made by Jesse .Jones Paper Box Co., 715 Com- 

 Taerce St., Philadelphia, at $3.50 per hundred. 



paper is marked in the corner ' Bg,' followed 

 by a number indicating a country, the United 

 States being, for instance, 4, with each state 

 designated by a decimal number, so that a 

 Pennsylvania faunal bird list would be marked 

 ' Bg 4.9,' the Pennsylvania box bears this label 

 on the back and also one inscribed ' Birds of 

 Pennsylvania.' 



I have then a card catalogue of all my 

 separata, etc., arranged by authors with a 

 reference to the box number. It is thus pos- 

 sible to take from the shelf at once all the 

 papers relative to a given subject or by the 

 card list to locate any paper that may not be 

 where I expected to find it or to see if I have 

 a paper by a certain author. 



In the case of a composite paper it may be 

 arranged where most frequently sought and 

 a cross reference be entered on a stiff sheet of 

 octavo paper placed in the other box where it 

 might be arranged. In fact, a sheet like this 

 in every box with cross reference titles is of 

 great convenience. 



Bound volumes may be arranged in their 

 proper place on the shelves and catalogued 

 just like the pamphlets. 



This system permits of endless variations 

 in the method of classification. For my 

 ornithological series I have the following 

 divisions : 



Ba, anatomy; Bb, bibliography; c, classifi- 

 cation; d, destruction and extinction; e, eco- 

 nomic ornithology; f, food; g, geographic 

 lists; h, hybrid, albinos, etc.; 1, museum cata- 

 logues ; m, molt and pterylography ; n, migra- 

 tion ; 0, nests and eggs ; s, systematic mono- 

 graphs, etc. ; V, song. Bg and Bs are, of 

 course, the large series, the others occupying 

 only two or three boxes each. 



The arrangement of pamphlets relating to 

 so broad a subject as ornithology, by authors, 

 is almost useless, as it is impossible to remem- 

 ber all who have written, for instance, on the 

 birds of Pennsylvania. My plan gives you all 

 these papers together on the shelf without 

 consulting the card list, while if the arrange- 

 ment by authors is needed the cards furnish it. 



WiTMER Stone. 

 Academy Natural Sciences, 

 Philadelphia. 



