132 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 187. 



The report of the Joint Select Committee of 

 the British House of Lords and House of Com- 

 mons on electrical energy (generating stations 

 and supply) has been published in a Blue Book. 



A COMMISSION has been appointed to revise 

 the United States patent laws. 



As we have already stated, the Albert Medal 

 of the Society of Arts has this year been 

 awarded to Professor Bunsen. At the annual 

 meeting of the Society held recently, says 

 Nature, the work of Professor Bunsen was re- 

 ferred to by the Council in the following words : 

 "Amongst the numerous and important scien- 

 tific discoveries which have rendered the name 

 of Bunsen famous wherever science is valued, 

 perhaps the most striking is the one in which 

 he was associated with his distinguished col- 

 league. Professor Kirchoff, viz., spectrum analy- 

 sis, a discovery which has shed a new and 

 unexpected light on the composition of terres- 

 trial matter, and has enabled us to obtain a dis- 

 tinct knowledge of the chemical composition of 

 sun and stars. The contributions which Bun- 

 sen has made in the application of chemistry 

 and physics to the arts and manufactures are of 

 the utmost value, and their importance may be 

 measured by two out of many instances. The 

 Bunsen battery was, until the introduction of 

 the dynamo, the cheapest source of electricity ; 

 the Bunsen gas-burner, by which a non-lumi- 

 nous, smokeless, but highly heated flame is ob- 

 tained, is now not only indispensable in all 

 laboratory work, but is used for heating pur- 

 poses in thousands of houses and manufactories, 

 and for illumination, by the incandescent sys- 

 tem, in millions of lamps. Beyond these Bun- 

 sen's contributions to the sciences of chemistry 

 and physics have been of the highest impor- 

 tance ; but, perhaps, the greatest benefit which 

 he has conferred, through a long life devoted to 

 the advancement of science, has been the influ- 

 ence which he has exerted as a teacher. 



stroyed by fire last March. In addition to this 

 gift instruments and machinery to the value of 

 $30,000 have been given to furnish the building. 



Me. John D. Rockefeller has subscribed 

 $10,000 toward the special fund now being col- 

 lected for Barnard College. 



Cakroll College, of Waukesha, Wis., has 

 received from Mr. and Mrs. Ralph Voorhees, of 

 New Jersey, a gift of $50,000 on condition that 

 $50,000 more be subscribed by October 1st. 

 $6,000 towards the latter sum has already been 

 subscribed. 



The University of Paris has instituted a de- 

 gree of 'Doctor' without any qualifying word. 

 The n.ew degree is open to foreigners and the 

 tests are a thesis in French or Latin and a few 

 questions on subjects selected by the candidates. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



MIOCENE EDENTATES. 



In the American Naturalist for December, 

 1886 (p. 1044), Professor Cope described a num- 

 ber of osseous scuta and toe bones as those of 

 a ' giant armadillo from the Miocene of Kansas, ' 

 under the name Caryoderma snovianum. The 

 type specimen is now in the University of Kan- 

 sas Museum. The scuta and toe bones are iden- 

 tical in all respects with another series recently 

 removed from the carapace of a large tortoise 

 from the same formation in Kansas, the Loup 

 Fork. The tortoise is provisionally placed in 

 the genus Xerobates, and is specifically probably 

 identical with Testudo undata Cope. The error 

 was not an extraordinary one on tlie part of 

 Cope, since the dermal ossicles are peculiar for 

 a tortoise. Its rectification, however, is im- 

 portant, since this reference was, I believe, the 

 only one of the edentates to the Miocene of 

 North America. 



S. W. WiLLISTON. 



University of Kansas, July 16, 1898. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



It was stated in a recent issue of Science 

 that Mr. George A. Fowler had rebuilt the 

 engineering building of the University of Kan- 

 sas, which was struck by lightning and de- 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 La fatigue intellectuelle. Par A. Binet et V. 

 Henri. Paris, Schleicher Freres. 1898. Pp. 

 386. (Bibliotheque de Pedagogic et de Psy- 

 chologic.) 



