742 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VIII. No. 204. 



SLAVIC ANTIQUITIES. 



Professok De. Lubor Niedeele, of the 

 University of Prague, is widely and credit- 

 ably known as one of the leading Slavic 

 anthropologists ; and it is quite appropriate, 

 therefore, that he should appear as editor of 

 a journal devoted to the collection of works 

 and essays on Slavic archaeology ( Vestnik 

 Slovanskych Starozitnosti) , the first number of 

 which has i-ecently been issued. Its articles 

 are printed either in Czech, Eussian, Ger- 

 man, French, English or Latin, as a learned 

 Slav is quite indifferent to such a trifle as 

 languages. They offer careful reviews and 

 synopses of the contributions to this branch 

 from all the avenues of scientific literature. 

 The journal is so useful that it will surely 

 be well patronized by the Slavonic antiqua- 

 ries. 



ANCIENT LABOR UNIONS. 



A POWERFUL social force, which the ethnol- 

 ogist' is apt to overlook, is that of the com- 

 mercial and labor unions which we call 

 'gilds.' An excellent illustration of their 

 influence in early society is presented in an 

 article by Professor E. W. Hopkins in the 

 Yale Revieio (May and A.ugust, 1898). He 

 studies them as they have existed in India 

 for nearly 3,000 years. In the Laws of 

 Manu the rules of the gilds are reckoned on 

 a par with those of castes and families. 

 Five hundred years later they had reached 

 such a degree of supremacj' that the precept 

 is laid down : " The king must approve of 

 whatever the gilds do, whether it is cruel 

 or kind !" The most rabid labor unionist 

 of our time could not wish for more. 



D. G. Brinton. 



XJnivebsity of Pennsylvania. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



bulletin op the U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY 



DESCRIPTIVE OF THE EDUCATIONAL 



SERIES OF ROCK SPECIMENS. 



Perceiving that the field parties of the 

 United States Geological Survey had, in the 



course of their regular work, exceptional op- 

 portunities for.makiDg such a collection, it was 

 determined by the Director of the Survey away 

 back in 1882 to have these parties collect dupli- 

 cate type specimens of rocks, with a view to 

 the making up of suites for the use of the edu- 

 cational iustitutious of the country for teach- 

 ing purposes. Under the immediate direction 

 of Mr. J. S. Diller, who has had the assistance, 

 from time to time, of other geologists and pe- 

 trographers, the work of collecting was begun 

 and carried to completion and the material was 

 segregated, numbered and described. The 

 suites, numbering two hundred and fifty and 

 comprising about one hundred and sixty speci- 

 mens each, were about a year ago distributed to 

 the universities, colleges and other institutions 

 of learning which had made application there- 

 for. 



An important feature of the undertaking, 

 however, was still unfinished when the suites 

 were sent out, viz., a hand-book for the use of 

 the student. This has just been printed. It 

 comprises 400 pages of text and 65 illustrations. 

 It is devoted in the main to descriptions, writ- 

 ten by sixteen dififerent specialists connected 

 with the Survey, of the rocks comprising the 

 collection, although it also contains chapters on 

 rocks in general and their study, including ob- 

 servations on structural features, methods of 

 phj'sical analysis, the principal rock-making 

 minerals and rock classification. The work, 

 which will be a valuable accessory to a valuable 

 rock collection, is published as Bulletin 150 of 

 the Geological Survey series, under the title, 

 ' The Educational Series of Rock Specimens, 

 collected and distributed by the United States 

 Geological Survey, by Joseph Silas Diller.' 

 The cost of the bulletin is 25 cents, and it may 

 be obtained by applying to the Director of the 

 U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. 

 W. F. M. 



THE GERMAN DEEP-SEA EXPEDITION. 



Professor Chun, the leader of the German 

 Deep-Sea Expedition, has sent to Sir John Mur- 

 ray some account of the progress of the work 

 since the expedition left in August last on the 

 steamship Valdivia, and this forms the basis of 

 an article in the London Times. It will be re- 



