460 



8Ci:enci:. 



[Vol. IX., No. 223 



— Harvard's two hundred and fiftieth anniver- 

 sary and Columbia's one hundredth seem insignifi- 

 cant when we read that the University of Bologna 

 will next spring celebrate the eight hundredth an- 

 niversary of its supposed foundation, the exact 

 date of which is not known. 



— M. Bernard Percy, whose books on infant 

 and child psychology have been so successful, is 

 at work on another of the same character, en- 

 titled ' La petite fille.' 



— The University of Utrecht has now 37 pro- 

 fessors, — theology, 4 ; law, 7 ; medicine, 9 ; sci- 

 ence, 10 ; letters, 7, — 7 lecturers, and 5 privat- 

 docents. 541 students are attending the univer- 

 sity. 



— After a heavy shower in Washington last 

 week, the gutters and low places were covered 

 with a deposit of fine yellow powder. Professor 

 Ward pronounced it vegetable pollen , which came 

 from the pine-trees of the district. It was very 

 light, and was carried into the upper regions and 

 washed out by rain. Professor Ward said, '• It is 

 the male element of the pine-trees, which usually 

 shed their pollen at this season. It consists of 

 minute grains, like little spores, and to the naked 

 eye looks like yellow dust, but, subjected to the 

 microscope, the grains have different shapes, 

 which differ with the varieties of pine. It is com- 

 mon wherever pine-trees exist." 



— The U. S. geological survey will collect all 

 attainable information regarding the recent earth- 

 quakes in Arizona. Circular letters of inquiry 

 will be sent to residents on the area affected, as 

 usual. The disturbed area seems to be a circle of 

 some four hundred njiles radius, fully one-quarter 

 as large as the Charleston earthquake, and nearly 

 one-third of the area of the Riviera earthquake of 

 last February. 



— Dr. Sternberg left. May 3, for Rio de Janeiro, 

 t© investigate yellow-fever. He expects to return 

 in September. 



— Houghton, Mifflin & Co. have just published, 

 in the ' American commonwealths ' series. Prof. 

 Alexander Johnston's history of Connecticut. Lee 

 & Shepard have in preparation new editions of 

 ' Milch cows and dairy farming' and ' Grasses and 

 forage-plants,' by C. L. Flint of the Massachu- 

 setts state board of agriculture. Both are being 

 carefully revised, and brought down to date. 



— Sir Austen Henry Layard is now preparing 

 for the press his early adventures in Persia,Susiana, 

 and Babylonia, which wUl include an account of 

 his residence among the Bakhtiyari and other 

 wild tribes before the discovery of Nineveh. It 

 will be published by Mr. John Murray. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOB. 



*^*The attention of scientific men is called to the advantages 

 of the correspondence columns of SCIENCE /or placing promptly 

 on record brief preliminary notices of their investigations. 

 Twenty copies of the number containing his communication 

 will be furnished free to any correspondent on request. 



The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with 

 the character of the journal. 



Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 

 ivriter^s name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Osteological notes. 



In Science for April 15, Mr. F. A. Lucas takes very 

 coiirteotis notice of my observations upon the rudi- 

 mentary metacarpals of Bison bonasiis (the auroch). 

 As I remarked therein, the data were altogether too 

 fragmentary upon which to draw conclusions. Still, 

 it would seem, so far as my observations go, that the 

 American bison exhibits only one rudimentary meta- 

 carpal, and that one invariably the fifth ; while the 

 European bison, according to Owen, develops both 

 second and fifth. The skeleton in the Museum of 

 comparative zoology presents only one, the second, 

 without a trace of an articulating facet for the fifth. 



I have again carefully examined the eight disartic- 

 ulated and the two mounted skeletons of the Bison 

 americanus in this museum, and in not one do I find 

 a trace of an articulating facet for the second meta- 

 carpal. In Bos taurus the same is true, with the excep- 

 tion that occasionally, in place of the second metacar- 

 pal, there is present a very rudimentary stylet com- 

 pletely anchylosed to the cannon bone, and ap- 

 pearing as an exostosis. It could not be termed in 

 any sense a rudimentary metacarpal. 



Mr. Lucas says that an examination of four or five 

 of the skeletons of Bison americanus, with which the 

 U.S. national museum has lately provided itself, 

 shows that in every case, rudiments of the second 

 and fifth metacarpals are present, and that, as they 

 are all in situ, there can be no mistake in the matter. 



Possibly Mr. Lucas and myself differ as to what 

 constitutes a rudimentary metacarpal ; and I main- 

 tain that a distinct metacarpal, however rudimentary, 

 requires the presence of an arthrodial facet upon 

 the corresponding surface of the cannon bone. Nor 

 do I believe, that, once such facet is developed, it 

 ever disappears. 



I can find no authority, except Owen on Bison 

 bonasus, that speaks of the Bovinae as having more 

 than one rudimentary metacarpal, and that the fifth. 



If, as Mr. Lucas says, "there exists on the 

 mounted skeleton of Bison americanus in the U.S. 

 national museum a well-defined articular facet for 

 the second right metacarpal," I yield. 



At present my personal observation allows me to 

 make the following deductions : — 



1. That Bison americanus exhibits only a single 

 rudimentary metacarpal, and that invariably the 

 fifth. 



2. That Bison bonasus may exhibit one or both 

 rudimentary metacarpals ; if only one, that this may 

 be either the second or fifth. D. D. Slade. 



Cambridge, April 19. 



With Dr. Slade's permission, I will add a few lines 

 to his polite rejoinder to my note of April 15, he 

 having kindly permitted me to read it before publi- 

 cation. 



I fear I must indeed differ with Dr. Slade as to 

 what constitutes a rudimentary metacarpal, holding 

 that a bone, be it never so smajil, if constantly found 



