Decembek 25, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



945 



year 279, in the second year 158 and in 

 the third year 147. There will be no regular 

 class graduated this year, it being the first 

 in which the four years course has taken 

 effect. The temporary decrease due to the 

 lengthening of the course has this year been 

 made up, and next year with the four classes 

 the attendence will be very large. 



The Cornell University Eegister for 1896-7 

 has already been issued ; it shows a registration 

 of 1763 compared with 1684 at the same time 

 last year, this being the largest registration 

 hitherto recorded. The faculty also shows an in- 

 crease, the total number of instructors now be- 

 ing 175. The Library records a gain of 12,890 

 books and 1200 pamphlets since last year. 



At Cambridge University Dr. L. E. Shore, 

 of St John's College, has been appointed a 

 university lecturer, and Mr. Eichholz, of Em- 

 manuel College, an additional demonstrator in 

 physiology. 



Miss Knight, M. B. Lond., has been ap- 

 pointed professor of anatomy and pathology to 

 the Lhudiana Medical School, North West 

 Provinces, India. 



The eighth University Extension Summer 

 Meeting will be held at Oxford, July 31-August 

 25, 1897. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



THE JUBA IN THE UNITED STATES. 



'The Jurassic formation on the Atlantic Coast' 

 (Science, Dec. 1, pp. 805-816) is the most im- 

 portant paper on practical geology and classifi- 

 cation published yet by Prof. O. C. Marsh. The 

 conclusions arrived at are excellent, and the 

 proofs given, although necessarily summary, are 

 sufficient to warrant the exactness of the classi- 

 fication of the Potomac formation as belonging 

 to the Upper Jura. 



A few remarks on the history as well as on 

 the geologic chronology may be acceptable, for, 

 without detracting anything from the merit and 

 great value of the memoir of Prof. Marsh, some 

 points can be rendered more clear and easily 

 understood, at the same time more exact. 



We read : ' ' Until a comparatively modern 

 date, this supposed absence of Jurassic deposits 

 was thought to be true, also, for the rest of this 



country. I well remember the parting advice 

 given me by an eminent professor of geology, 

 with whom I studied in Germany (Ferdinand 

 Eomer), ' The first thing you should do on your 

 return to America is: look for the Jurassic for- 

 mation. I am sure it is there ; full of fossils.' " . 

 (Science, p. 805.) The choice of Ferdinand 

 Eomer as an adviser on the Jurassic formation 

 in America is unfortunate, for Prof. F. Eomer, 

 during his stay in Texas, remained several 

 months at Fredericburg, which lay on the Jur- 

 assic formation ; besides he explored, in some 

 detail, the valley of the Trinity Eiver, where 

 the Jura exists also, and not only did he not 

 recognize the Jurassic formation in Texas, but 

 by a wrong determination of a Gryphoa, which 

 he identified with the Gr-yphea Pitcher-i, he helped 

 greatly the confusion created a few years later 

 by a paleontologist who denied the existence 

 of the Jurassic deposits of New Mexico, near 

 the Texas line, made in 1853, by the geolo- 

 gist of the Pacific Eailroad exploration by the 

 thirty-fifth parallel of latitude, commanded by 

 Lieutenant A. W. Whipple. As Prof. Marsh 

 says, ' ' Ferdinand Eomer added much to our 

 knowledge of the geology and paleontology of 

 this country," for he published the first essay of 

 a geological map of Texas in 1849, and three 

 volumes of paleontology on Texas and Tennes- 

 see in 1852, 1860 and 1889 ; but at the same 

 time it is important to notice that he did not 

 recognize in Texas the Permian, the Trias nor 

 the Jura ; and as to the Cretaceous he failed to 

 recognize the Lower Cretaceous, or Neocomian, 

 going so far in his erroneous determination of 

 age of strata as to place the Lower Creta- 

 ceous above the Upper Cretaceous, or Chalk. It 

 is impossible to say that Eomer was a good 

 practical geologist when in the field in an un- 

 explored country ; but as a paleontologist he 

 was more successful, although he made con- 

 spicuous errors, and displayed a want of knowl- 

 edge in ignoring the Primordial fauna of Texas, 

 which he referred to the second fauna. 



The figure 1 — ' Geological Horizons of Verte- 

 brate Fossils ' (Science, p. 806), is rather in- 

 complete in some important points ; for in- 

 stance, the Cretaceous beginning with the 

 ' Dakota group, ' which truly is only the lower 

 division of the Upper Cretaceous, or true Chalk, 



