October 4, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



531 



Eben S. Wheeler, U. S. Assistant Engineer, De- 

 troit, Mich. (D). 



Henry Lord Wheeler, Assistant Professor of Chem- 

 istry, Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, 

 New Haven, Conn. (C). 



William Morton Wheeler, Professor of Zoology, 

 University of Texas, Austin, Texas (F). 



Horace White, Editor of New York Evening Post, 

 New York, N. Y. (I). 



Ray Lyiiian Wilbur, Assistant Professor of Physi- 

 ology, Stanford University, Stanford, Cal. (F, K). 



Edwin Mead Wilcox, Professor of Botany, Okla- 

 homa Agricultural College, Stillwater, Okla. (G). 



J. Whitridge Williams, Professor of Obstetrics, 

 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. (K). 



Mary Alice Willcox, Professor of Zoology, Welles- 

 ley College, Wellesley, Mass. (F). 



Walter F. Willcox, Ph.D., Professor of Econom- 

 ics, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. (I). 



Levi W. Wilkinson, Professor of Chemistry, Tulane 

 University, New Orleans, La. (C). 



H. V. P. Wilson, Professor of Biology, University 

 of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C. (F). 



Chas. D. Woods, Chemist and Director Maine Ag- 

 ricultural Experiment Station, Orono, Maine (C). 



R. S. Wood worth. Instructor of Physiology, Medical 

 School of New York University, New York, N. Y. 

 (H, K). 



Stewart W. Young, Assistant Professor of Chemistry, 

 Leland Stanford Junior University, Stanford, Cal. 

 (C). 



John Zeleny, Associate Professor of Physics, Uni- 

 versity of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn. (B). 



/ , "■ ^-' ' SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 



Diplodocus Marsh. Its Osteology, Taxonomy and 

 Prohable Habits, with a Restoration of the Skele- 

 ton. Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum,Yo\. I., 

 pp. 1-63, pi. I.-XIII. 



The Memoirs of the Carnegie Museum open 

 auspiciously with this valuable contribution by 

 Mr. J. B. Hatcher, curator of the department 

 of vertebrate paleontology and associate editor 

 of the publications of the Museum. The sub- 

 ject is the description of two remarkable skele- 

 tons of the great sauropodous dinosaur Diplo- 

 docus discovered by the Museum expeditions of 

 1899 and 1900 on Sheep Creek, Albany County, 

 Wyoming. The first specimen consists of forty- 

 one vertebrae, which form an unbroken series 

 from the second or axis vertebra to the twelfth 

 vertebra of the tail, besides extensive parts of 

 the appendicular skeleton, all in a remarkable 



state of preservation. The fourteen cervicals 

 alone measure 21 feet and the author estimates 

 a total length of 68 feet for the vertebral 

 column and skull. The second skeleton be- 

 longs to a smaller animal in which one of the 

 hind limbs is perfectly preserved, and with the 

 aid of a fore limb and of some characters taken 

 from the tail of a specimen in the American 

 Museum collection, Mr. Hatcher gives (Plate 

 XIII.) by far the most perfect restoration of a 

 Sauropod which has yet been published. The 

 neck is extraordinarily long and slender, in- 

 creasing in power and in the length of the 

 centra near the chest. The back, including 

 only eleven vertebrse with short centra is ex- 

 tremely short ; while the long and heavy tail 

 evidently balances the anterior portion of the 

 column, and the sacrum forms the center of the 

 body. The marvelously light and yet strong 

 structure of the vertebrse is well brought out 

 in the pen drawings by Mr. Weber, and the 

 author adds a number of most useful new 

 terms for the future description of these elabor- 

 ate structures. Of the animal as a whole he 

 observes : 



The restoration at once reveals the unusual propor- 

 tions of Diplodocus. The remarkable long neck and 

 tail contrast strikingly with the short body. The 

 hind limbs are longer than the fore limbs, and this 

 fact, together with the enormous elevation of the 

 spines of the sacrals and posterior dorsals, fixes the 

 sacral region as the highest in the vertebral column, 

 a determination first made by Osborn. The powerful 

 ilia, firmly united to the rigidly coossified sacrals 

 with lofty coalesced spines, together with the other 

 pelvic elements proportionately well developed, at 

 once emphasizes the paramount importance of the 

 pelvic region and fixes it as the center of power and 

 motion. 



Among the new important points brought 

 out in this Memoir are the following : First, 

 the gradual transition from the paired spines of 

 the neck to the highest single spines of the 

 back ; the clear description and definition of 

 the remarkable cavities surrounding the ver- 

 tebrse, intramural or inside of the bones as well 

 as around the centra and neural arches ; the 

 modification of the first two dorsals especially 

 for the support of the scapula ; the presence of 

 four true sacrals and of one dorso-sacral or 

 pelvic vertebra, strengthening the support of 



