September 9, 1898. ] 



SCIENCE. 



335 



At the Leland Stanford, Jr., University Mr. 

 F. Atheling has been appointed assistant in 

 mathematics and Mr. F. B. Baum assistant in 

 electrical engineering. 



The corporation of Brown University will 

 hold its annual meeting on September 8th. 

 A successor to President Andrews will probably 

 not be selected, but a committee will be ap- 

 pointed to consider the question. The report 

 now goes that the Rev. Edward Judson, pastor 

 of a Baptist church in New York city, is likely 

 to be selected. The President of Brown Uni- 

 versity must be a Baptist. 



Me. J. A. Johnston has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of physics and mechanics at the Eoyal 

 Agricultural College at Cirencester. 



Des. Lenk and Fleischmann, associate pro- 

 fessors of mineralogy and zoology, respectively, 

 at Erlangen, have been promoted to full profes- 

 sorships. Dr. Heim has been appointed pro- 

 fessor of botany in the Agricultural College at 

 Vienna. 



DISCUSSION AND COBEESPONDENCE. 

 BASIL VALENTINE. 



To THE Editoe of SCIENCE : The very inter- 

 •esting article by Mr. C. S. Pierce in your issue 

 of August 12th reminds me that several years 

 ago I bought, in Brentford, England, a Latin 

 ■edition of the ' Triumph- Wagen des Antimonii,' 

 published in 1646. As Mr. Pierce makes no 

 mention of this edition, it may possibly be 

 worth while to call attention to it. The title- 

 page reads as follows : 



"CURRUS TRIUMPH ALIS ANTIMONII: 

 Featris Basilii Valentini Monachi Benedic- 

 tini. Opus Antiquioria Medicinse & Philosophise 

 Mermeticx sfudiosis dicatum. E Germanico in 

 Latinum Versum opera, studio & sumptibus 

 Petri Joannis Fabri Doctoris Medici Mon- 

 :speliensis. Et notis perpeluis ad Marginem ap- 

 positis ah eodem illustratum. ToLOS^. Apud 

 Peteum Bosc, M. DC. XL VI." 



Dr. Faber dedicates the book to the ' illus- 

 trissimo ac reverendissimo D.D. Carolo de 

 Mont-chal, Archiepiscopo Tolosano Regis Chris- 

 tianissimi Consiliano Meritissimo.' He also 

 •contributes an introduction. "The book was the 



property of one Samuel Whitlock, who has 

 made numerous marginal notes. 



" The existence of this edition, while proving 

 nothing, appears to show that about forty years 

 after the original publication no doubt was en- 

 tertained as to the authorship of the work." 



T. D. A. COCKEEELL. 



Mesilla Paek, New Mexico, August 16th. 



SCIENTIFIC LITEBA TUBE. 

 Fossil Plants for Students of Botany and Geology. 

 By A. C. Sew.\ed, M.A., F.G.S. With Il- 

 lustrations. Vol. I. Cambridge. 1898. Pp. 

 xviii+452. Cambridge Natural Science 

 Manuals. Biological Series. 

 There has been for many years an increasing 

 demand for a work on fossil plants that shall be 

 at once comprehensive, scientific, and suflQ- 

 ciently popular for the lay student. Balfour's 

 ' Introduction to the Study of Paleeontological 

 Botany,' Edinburgh, 1872, was too elementary, 

 and was restricted to British material. Saporta's 

 ' Monde des plantes avant I'apparition de 

 I'homme,' Paris, 1879, comes nearer to the 

 ideal, but it is now old and out of date in view 

 of the rapid advance of the science. ' L'evolu- 

 tionduregne vegetal,' by Saporta and Marion, 

 in three small volumes, 1881-1885, is much 

 more special and somewhat popular and an ex- 

 ceedingly suggestive work. Count Solms-Lau- 

 bach's ' Einleitung in die Palaophytologie,' 

 Leipzig, 1887, is the work of a specialist, and 

 proceeding professedly from the botanical stand- 

 point does not claim to cover the whole field, 

 and is really a series of special investigations, 

 largely confined to internal structure, and ar- 

 ranged in no systematic order (e. g. , the ' Cyca- 

 deae ' are treated before the ferns, and the Cala- 

 marise before the Lepidophytes). The English 

 translation of this work, published four years 

 after the German edition, contained no revision, 

 although there had been great advance during 

 this interval in solving the problems discussed.* 

 Sir William Dawson's ' Geological History of 

 Plants,' New York, International Scientific 

 Series, 1888, is little more than the geological 

 history of the Devonian of Canada, although a 

 pleasant book. The second part of Zittel's 

 *Se6 Science, Vol. XVIII., No. 464, New York, 

 December 25, 1891, pp. 360-361. 



