254 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 685 



Medical Research at New York, various 

 public health laboratories, the laboratories 

 for research connected with many of the 

 more progressive hospitals and asylums of 

 the country, and last, but by no means 

 least, the agricultural experiment stations 

 with their increased funds, all offer oppor- 

 tunities for progressive work which, if 

 properly taken advantage of, promise 

 results of great importance in the develop- 

 ment of a more exact and broader knowl- 

 edge of the chemical processes of life. 

 To the chemist and physiologist there is 

 nothing to be desired more than an in- 

 crease in tlie activity of research ; research 

 guided by intelligence and knowledge, 

 coupled with an interest which knows no 

 discouragement. 



Russell H. Chittenden 

 dheffield Scientific School, 

 Yale University 



TEE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF VERTEBRATE 

 PALEONTOLOGY 



Thb society held its seventh annual 

 meeting at Yale University, New Haven, 

 Conn., December 25, 26 and 27, the fol- 

 lowing papers being presented and busi- 

 ness enacted. 



Dr. G. R. Wieland discussed the exterm- 

 ination of green turtles and whales, show- 

 ing that while the whaling industry had 

 been prosecuted fully a thousand years, in 

 which time some $272,000,000 worth of oil 

 and bone had been obtained, the total 

 number of whales killed was under one 

 million; but the destruction of this rela- 

 tively small number is fast exterminating 

 these marine mammals. After an ani- 

 mated discussion the society adopted the 

 following resolution: 



Resolved, That the American Society of Verte- 

 brate Paleontologists will aid in every way prac- 

 ticable those measures, legislative, international 

 and local, which will prevent the now immanent 

 destruction of the great marine vertebrates, espe- 

 cially whales, manatees, seals and green or other 



turtles, on the coasts of the Xjnited States and on 

 the high seas. 



Dr. F. B. Loomis described a fauna of 

 vertebrates {PoHJieus, Ichthyodectes, Sau- 

 rocephalus, Pachyrhizodiis, Empo, etc.) 

 found in the upper black shales making 

 the divide between the Cheyenne River and 

 Hat Creek, Wyo. This fauna being typi- 

 cal of the Niobrara indicated that the 

 upper beds of the so-called Ft. Pierre of 

 that region are Niobrara, and what is 

 beneath would be Niobrara and Ft. Ben- 

 ton. 



Dr. W. J. Sinclair showed that the ma- 

 terial of the Washakie was practically all 

 volcanic ash, probably distributed by wind 

 and streams. 



Dr. G. F. Eaton discussed the skull of 

 Pteranodon, showing that the basal portion 

 was peculiar in the development of the 

 parasphenoid, and unique in the possession 

 of diagonal rods running from the base of 

 the parasphenoid to the transpalatines. 

 The origin of the crest was partly at- 

 tributed to the great development of grasp- 

 ing muscles (connected with the supposed 

 piscatorial habit of feeding) and was com- 

 pared with incipient crests in the fish eat- 

 ing birds Plotus and Plialocrocorax. The 

 striking similarity of the pelvis to that of 

 birds was pointed out. 



Professor Joseph Barrell read a paper 

 in which evidence was given showing the 

 widespread development of flood plain de- 

 posits in the Old Red Sandstones basins 

 and the presence of a fluviatile piscine 

 fauna. The climate was genial and subject 

 to recurrent seasons of dryness. The foot- 

 prints of the earlier amphibia often show 

 also an association with fluviatile deposits 

 and an adaptation to even semiarid 

 climates. In the discussion of various 

 factors tending to bring about the evolu- 

 tion of the Amphibia the influence of re- 

 current seasons of dryness upon a fluviatile 

 fauna appeared to be by far the most 



