290 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 582. 



eeedingly numerous in Florida. The 'sink- 

 hole' origin is assumed, however, to apply 

 to a very few only of these. 



Old Age in Brachiopods: H. W. Shimeb. 



Brachiopod shells show old age along 

 lines parallel to that exhibited by higher 

 animals; when maturity is passed the tis- 

 sues cease growing so rapidly and finally 

 begin to shrink. As the mantle, the prin- 

 cipal shell-secreting organ, shares in these 

 states, it must express them in its growth. 

 After a species has attained its fully ma- 

 ture size, which size varies in different 

 individuals, the decreasing rate of growth 

 is shown in the more or less sudden change 

 in the angle of curvature from the beak to 

 the front of the shell. This is followed 

 in very old individuals by the development 

 of a groove at the contact of the two valves, 

 indicating that actual shrinkage of the 

 mantle has occurred. Some of the other 

 accompaniments of old age are the lamel- 

 lose condition of the concentric growth 

 lines, development of spines and nodes, and 

 the thickening of the valves by internal 

 addition, especially around the muscular 

 impressions. Externally, old age char- 

 acters appear first at the cardinal angles 

 and advance progressively to the front of 

 the shell. 



Bipnoan Affinities of Arthrodires: C. E. 



Eastman. 



By means of a new interpretation of the 

 jaw parts of Arthrodires, which is here 

 suggested, homologies are established be- 

 tween them and the corresponding ele- 

 ments of dipnoans. The arrangement of 

 mylostomid dental plates is shown to be 

 closely paralleled in early stages of 

 Neoceratodus, and the functional lower 

 jaw is similarly articulated with the head- 

 shield. Intimate structural resemblances, 

 not only as regards cranial characters, but 



throughout the entire organization, are 



brought out through comparison of Arthro- ; 



dires with modern lung-fishes, and these ' 



are scarcely to be explained except on the : 

 theory of a common origin. All available 



evidence points to the correctness of New- j 



berry's original interpretation of Arthro- ] 



dires as armored dipnoans, a view which j 



is not now commonly entertained. Their i 



origin is traced through primitive ances- ; 



tral ceratodonts to the elasmobranch stem, j 



independently of crossopterygians. - 



The Great Catalogue of the Heber B. 

 Bishop Collection of Jade: G. F. Kunz. ' 

 The magnificent collection of jade which j 

 was made and presented by Mr. Heber R. ; 

 Bishop during his lifetime to the Metro- \ 

 politan Museum of Art, in New York, has 

 been installed in a room which Mr. Bishop 

 himself designed and had decorated by the 

 noted firm of AUard Freres, of Paris, to 

 make it the finest example on this con- 

 tinent of the style of Louis XV. The col- 

 lection is here placed in some fifteen elegant 

 cases, of gilt, bronze and plate glass, all in { 

 Louis XV. style, which with the decora- | 

 tions of the room illustrate a permanence j 

 and richness of material never excelled ] 

 even in the time of the artistic French | 

 monarch himself. 



The catalogue which is the subject of \ 

 this note is issued in two magnificent vol- \ 

 umes, and is limited to an edition of one ; 

 hundred copies, none of which goes to a | 

 private individual and none of which will 

 be sold. These volumes (stately folios) j 

 are printed on the finest quality of linen j 

 paper, and weigh, respectively, 69 and 55 ! 

 pounds, or 124 pounds together. They 

 contain 570 pages (Vol. I., 277 pp.. Vol. 

 II., 293 pp.), measuring nineteen by 

 twenty-five inches. There are 150 full- i 

 page illustrations, in the highest style of 

 execution— water-color, etching and lithog- , 



