522 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XL. No. 1032 



preached, and it will remain unique for many- 

 generations to come. 



I am sure that the great body of scientific 

 people of this country will be in full sympathy 

 with the proposition here made, and it should 

 not be a difficult matter to select and appoint 

 a committee to carry it out successfully. The 

 sanction of Congress can doubtless be readily 

 secured, and the necessary means for the pur- 

 pose easily obtained through subscriptions 

 from American scientists and scientific insti- 

 tutions. E. W. Shufeldt 

 Washington, D. C. 



belgian professors and scholars 

 To THE Editor of Science: It would seem 

 to me that the present time is a particularly 

 appropriate one for our university adminis- 

 trators and other organizations having to do 

 with educational exchanges with Europe to 

 give a special consideration to professors in 

 Belgium. It is well known that in the uni- 

 versities of that country there are many men 

 eminent in the different departments of learn- 

 ing, and in the present necessarily deranged 

 conditions in their own country, an oppor- 

 tunity to teach, or work in laboratories, in 

 America might be particularly welcome. There 

 could naturally be no thought of a comple- 

 tion of the exchange by sending Americans 

 to Belgium at this time. 



It might also be a useful thing if some of 

 the generous benefactors of American insti- 

 tutions could establish at least temporary fel- 

 lowships or scholarships in appropriate Amer- 

 ican institutions, carrying with them a stipend 

 fully sufficient for academic, traveling and 

 living expenses, for the benefit of young 

 Belgians whose studies are interrupted by the 

 war and who are not called to take arms in 

 behalf of their country. Edwin B. Frost 

 Terkes Observatory, 

 September 30 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



The Middle Triassic Marine Invertehrate 

 Faunas of North America. By James 

 Perrin Smith. U. S. Geological Survey, 



Professional Paper No. 83. Washington, 



Government Printing Office, 1914. 4°. 



Pp. 254, pi. I-XGIX. 



Many years ago the author of this pai)»r 

 planned, with Professor Alpheus Hyatt, a 

 monographic treatment of the Triassic inver- 

 tebrate faunas of America. As time went on 

 it became evident that Professor Hyatt's other 

 engagements would prevent the carrying out 

 of this plan. With his advice and assistance 

 Professor Smith prepared a synoptic intro- 

 duction to the Cephalopod fauna, issued as 

 U. S. Geological Survey Professional Paper 

 No. 40. 



As the work went on it became evident that 

 the material would be too bulky for a single 

 volume, so the Upper, Middle and Lower 

 Triassic were planned to occupy each a single 

 volume. 



That the Middle Triassic part is now first 

 published follows from the fact that the 

 manuscript was nearer completion than the 

 others and contains more new material. The 

 classification is that of the synoptic intro- 

 duction above cited and is not repeated in 

 detail in the present volume. 



The Middle Triassic fauna consists in the 

 main, as here shown, of Cephalopoda, with a 

 few bivalves, brachiopods and echinoderms, 

 but not a single gastropod. 



Marine fossils of the Middle Triassic, ac- 

 cording to Professor Smith, are known in 

 North America, only from California, cen- 

 tral Nevada and British Columbia. The 

 Triassic of the eastern states is all non- 

 marine. The continental deposits of Western 

 America appear to have resulted from arid 

 conditions, but the fossils of the marine sedi- 

 ments were laid down in an arm of the ocean 

 and not in a closed basin like the Caspian Sea. 

 This is indicated by their close relation, 

 faunally, to those of the other Pacific borders 

 and to the ancient sea which in Mesozoic time 

 covered a large part of southern Asia. The 

 Middle Triassic of Western America is 

 divided into two zones, the lower having a 

 mixture of boreal and East Indian types and 

 called after its zone-fossil, Parapopanoceras; 

 the upper, with a Mediterranean fauna, plus 



