68 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 185. '^ 



the Museum, distract them for a moment 

 by a mechanical carriage, a street proces- 

 sion or an April shower, and I doubt if the 

 distinct recollection of one shell, one bird, 

 one gem or one mineral could be satisfac- 

 torily traced upon their minds. 



Of course, the Museum helps the great 

 populace ; it gives them a pleasant and 

 desirable environment of order and beauty 

 and interest, but its educational power in a 

 specific sense is limited almost entirely by 

 knowledge, previously acquired amongst its 

 visitors, of the things it contains. But let 

 no maleficent construction be given to these 

 words. The Museum of Natural History is 

 a wonderfully helj^ful adjunct to all forces 

 leading to sanity and happiness. To the 

 most untutored it brings delightful revela- 

 tions of the variety and the mysterj^ of 

 nature, and to those who love that wide 

 retinue of facts and impressions which the 

 fields and the woods, the tenanted air and 

 the resounding sea, constantly yield, how 

 full and eloquent it seems ! 



The consecrated attitude of mind which 

 in Wordsworth's Ode on the Intimations of 

 Immortality, expressed its ecstacy in the 

 wonderful lines : 



"And O ye fountains, meadows, bills and groves, 

 Think not of any severing of our loves ! 

 Yet in my heart of hearts I feel your might ; 

 I only have relinquished one delight, 

 To live beneath your more habitual sway ;" 



or that intensity of absorption with Nature 

 which made the hand of Thoreau pen these 

 salient phrases in his Cape Cod : " We often 

 have to think now of the life of men on 

 beaches — at least in mid-summer when the 

 weather is serene ; their sunny lives on the 

 sand, amid the beach-grass and the bay 

 berries, their companion a cow, their wealth 

 a jag of driftwood, or a few beach-plums, 

 and their music the surf and the peep of 

 the beach-bird ;" both of these relations to 

 Nature so contrasted, rediscover in the 

 museums of natural history the stimulus 



and the justification to their satisfying 

 joys. 



L. P. Geatacap. 



Ameeican Musedji of Natueal Histoey. 



GEORGE BAUB. 



The telegraphic despatches have brought 

 us the sad information of the death of Dr. 

 George Baur, of the University of Chicago. 



About a year ago Dr. Baur was compelled 

 to quit his work and to seek rest. It has 

 been known to some of his friends that his 

 state of health was not improving, but his 

 death must come as a surprise to all. Some 

 of his more intimate friends will doubtless 

 give us a biographical sketch of this young, 

 but already eminent naturalist. The writer, 

 who enjoyed somewhat close association 

 with him for a space of four years, desires 

 to pay a tribute to his memoiy. 



Dr. Baur was a native of Germany and 

 he took his doctor's degree at the Univer- 

 sity in Munich in 1882. Here he studied 

 histology under Dr. Kupffer and paleon- 

 tology under the distinguished Dr. Karl 

 Zittel. He had previously spent some 

 months with Dr. Leuckart in Leipzig. He 

 gave special attention to osteology and 

 vertebrate paleontology, and his inaugural 

 dissertation was entitled ' Der Tarsus der 

 Vogel und Dinosaurier.' It appeared in 

 the Morphologisches Jahrbuch for 1882. 



Unless the writer is in error. Dr. Baur 

 came to this country in 1884:. He became 

 assistant to Professor O. C. Marsh, in the 

 paleontological laboratory of the latter at 

 New Haven, and continued in this position 

 until January, 1890. During this period 

 he devoted his energies to the fossil rep- 

 tiles, a group to which he ever afterwards 

 gave especial attention, and upon which 

 he published a number of papers. During 

 the summer of 1890 he spent some time in 

 western Kansas, where he collected fossil 

 reptiles and fishes for Dr. Zittel. Shortly 

 after leaving New Haven he received a call 



