Makc-h 1, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



241 



striu'ted account of tlic award made by the 

 Paris Committeo, the preparation of which 

 must have cost the writer no small eflbrt. 

 So skilfully, however, are the words selected 

 and the phrases arranged that, to one un- 

 familiar with the facts, the note appears to 

 be a simple and straiglit forward statement 

 that in declaring the award the Committee 

 announced that it had found two memoirs 

 of equal value and that it was decided to 

 award a prize of 5000 francs to each, the 

 collection of the additional money being the 

 cause of the delay in the publication of 

 tlie decision of the Committee. In the ac- 

 count of the affair in a recent number of 

 Science it was pretty clearly stated that the 

 memoir prepared by an American, Dr. Web- 

 ster, of Clark University, had been adjudged 

 by the Committee to be worthy of first place. 



In order that every reader may be able 

 to decide this matter for himself, the follow- 

 ing (juotations from the report of the Com- 

 mittee are submitted : Memoir 3 was that 

 to be the work of Messrs. Oliver Lodge and 

 R. T. Glazebrook, and No. 4 M'as that of 

 Dr. Webster. 



" Le n° 3 est consacre a la verification de 

 la formule douant la period des decharges 

 oscillantes d'un condensateur. C'est un 

 travail considerable, accompagn6 de plusi- 

 eui-s pliotographies et dans lequel I'auteur 

 a cherch(',au moyen de calculs appro fondis, 

 a 6valuer toutes les corrections inlu'rentes 

 k I'emploi de sa methode. 



'' La vei-ification n'e.st qu'approachee ; le 

 prhicipe de la methode pourrait donner lieu 

 si quelques criticiues, le circuit de la de- 

 charge se fermant pei-iodiquement par une 

 6tincelle qui introduit des perturbations im- 

 possibles a prevoir. 



" Le memoir n° 4 port sur le meme sujet, 

 ('•tudie par une methode nouvelle dans ses 

 details, qui a permis a Tauteur d"atteindre 

 et de mesurer des periodes de (luehjues ccnt- 

 milliemes de seconde. L'influence des 

 principales causes d'erreur parait tres at- 



t<''nuee, bien qu'il reste encore quelques 

 doutes sur rinttnence de la capacite inher- 

 ente a la bobine de self-induction. La for- 

 mule a 6t^ verifiee a 1 pour 100 pri%. Le 

 temps a fait defaut a I'auteur pour comple- 

 ter ses recherches en variant les conditions 

 de ses experiences."' 



And then the following award from the 

 ' proces-verl)al ' of the Commission : 



" La Commission estime que le m6moire 

 n° 4 est digne de recevoir le prix etabli par 

 le Professeur Elihu Thomson ; elle espere 

 que ce temoignage encouragera I'auteur a 

 continuer ses belle recherches. 



" ' Toutefois elle regrette de ne pas avoir 

 a sa disposition deux prix d't'gale valeur 

 qu'elle serait heureuse d'attribuer aux me- 

 moires n° 3 et n° 4.' " 



A literal translation of the above, as a 

 fair statement of its meaning is, perhaps, 

 too much to look for in the columns of 

 ' Nature,' but it is a pleasure to assure 

 Messrs. Lodge and Glazebrook, whose names 

 are ' household words ' in every corner of 

 this country, that their reputation is not 

 such as to need bolstering by any oblique 

 methods. M. 



SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE. 

 3Io)iogiaj)hie Revision of the Pocket Gophers, 



Family Geomyidu- (e.febmve of the Specie.^ of 



Thomomys). By Dr. C. Hart Merriam. 



North American Fauna, No. 8. AA'ash- 



ington, Government Printing Office. 



189.5. 8vo, pp. 258, pll. 18, with 4 maps 



and 71 cuts in text. 



In this memoir Dr. Merriam has pro- 

 duced an admirable piece of monographic 

 work, setting a standard that may well be 

 aimed at bj' other workers in the treatment 

 of similar groups. The family fJeomyidie, 

 or the Pocket Gophei-s, has lutherto been 

 regarded as consisting of the two genera 

 Geomy.i and Thomomy-'', only the first of 

 which is here treated. It is a distinctively 

 North American group, ranging from the 



