674 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVll. No. 434. 



ied by admirable figures, Deperet points out 

 that Eohippus Mai;sh from our "Wasatch (p. 

 222) is closely similar to Hyracotherium Owen 

 and to Pachynolophus Lemoine from the Sues- 

 sonian; that Protorohippus Wortman from 

 our Wind River is closely similar to Pro- 

 palw other ium Gervais and Pachynolophus 

 Pomel; that Epihippus and Eohippus Marsh 

 are simirar to Lophiotherium Gervais. It is 

 probably premature to attempt to establish 

 generic identity between these American and 

 European forms; but it is evident that the 

 time is not far distant when siich identity is 

 likely to be established, unless we take the 

 ground that the European and American 

 forms were entirely independent in their evo- 

 lution from the time of their first appearance. 



THE PALEON TO LOGICAL LITERATURE OF 1898 

 AND 1899. 



De. Max Schlosser, of Munich, again places 

 us in his debt by the continuation of his val- 

 uable resume of the literature upon fossil and 

 recent mammals.* This annual review began 

 in 1884. The present section fills nearly one 

 hundred pages of fine type, and the works 

 reviewed are divided under three heads: (1) 

 Those properly pertaining to Pleistocene an- 

 thropology and mammalian remains found 

 with man; (2) the Tertiary and Mesozoic 

 mammals; (3) the distribution and taxonomy 

 of recent mammals. In the exhaustive library 

 of the University of Munich, Dr. Schlosser 

 finds practically the literature of the world, 

 and in this review he gives a brief abstract 

 of all that was published during the years 

 1898 and 1899. It is the author's custom to 

 fairly present in abstract the works reviewed, 

 including very brief critical remarks of his 

 own. These digests are clear, and remarkably 

 free from prejudice. They are simply price- 

 less for every worker in mammalian paleon- 

 tology and anthropology, and our thanks to 

 Dr. Schlosser cannot be too heartily expressed. 



H. F. O. 



* ' Literaturbericht fur Zoologie in Beziehung 

 zur Anthropologie,' p. 115, fur das Jalir 1898, p. 

 165 fiir das Jahr 1899. 



SOME SINGULAR NICKEL-STEEL ALLOYS. 



Through the courtesy of M. Ch.-Ed. Guil- 

 laume, Directeur-adjoint du Bureau interna- 

 tional des poids et mesures, Paris, there has 

 come to hand a very interesting collection of 

 documents * relating to a curious variety of 

 nickel-steel alloys, regarding which little seems 

 to have been published on this side the Atlan- 

 tic, and the only notice of which, according 

 to the inventor, has been in the form of a 

 denial of the possibility of their existence. 



M. Guillaume has discovered, has produced 

 in quantity and has brought into use in the 

 industries, an alloy of steel or iron and nickel 

 which he denominates ' non-dilatable ' ; it re- 

 mains of substantially constant dimensions 

 with ordinarily varying temperatures. This 

 peculiarity, as he says, is allied to a general 

 anomaly attributable to alloys of this class 

 capable of forming solid solutions which are 

 in certain cases unstable. Forthcoming pub- 

 lications in the French technical and scien- 

 tific journals are expected to give later in- 

 formation regarding this curious series of 

 alloys which are expected to have important 

 applications in the arts. They are already in 

 use in horological work and the pendulum of 

 constant length may now be had. Instru- 

 ments of precision, and particularly measuring 

 apparatus for geodetic and other fine work, 

 may be thus constructed. 



These alloys are actually produced commer- 

 cially, at Imphy, by the Societe de Com- 

 mentry-Fourchambault. They are now com- 

 ing into use for many purposes in Europe, 

 and should be better knovm in this country. 

 The surveyor's tape, the measuring rod for 



* ' Recherehes sur les aeiers au nickel,' Soei6t6 

 d'Encouragement ; Paris, 1898; 'Sur les varia- 

 tions temporaires et rgsiduelles des aeiers au 

 nickel rgversibles,' Comptes rendus, 1., CXXIV., 

 1897; 'Das Leben der Matgrie,' Physikalische 

 Zeitschrift, 2, 1899; 'Les deformations passaggres 

 des solides,' Cong. Int. de physique, 1900; 'Les 

 aeiers au nickel,' ibidem, 1900 ; ' Le pendule en 

 acier au nickel,' Journal Suisse d'horlogerie, 1902; 

 ' Magnetostriction des aciers-nickel,' Journal de 

 physique, 1902 ; ' La convention du mStre et le 

 Bureau international des poids et mesures,' Bull, 

 de la Soc. d' Encottragement, 1902. 



