400 Scientific Intelligence. 



cates that in upper Miocene and lower Pliocene times the climate 

 and relief of the Mohave region were comparable to those of 

 to-day but the aridity was probably somewhat less, 



The paper is a distinct contribution to Tertiary history and 

 mammalian paleontology. j. p. b. 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Thirteenth Annual Report of the President, Henry S. 

 Pritchett, and the Treasurer, Robert A. Franks, of the Car- 

 negie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. Pp. vi, 

 162, New York City (576 Fifth Avenue).— The annual report of 

 the Carnegie Foundation, distributed some little time since, is 

 particularly interesting because it gives a full statement of the 

 new contributory plan of pensions which has been finally adopted 

 and is known as the "Teachers Insurance and Annuity Asso- 

 ciation of America." The progress of pension work, particu- 

 larly in this country, is also discussed in detail, and the plan 

 recently adopted by one of the largest corporations in the coun- 

 try, is severely criticized. It is interesting to note that: "the 

 permanent endowments of the Carnegie Foundation of sixteen 

 and a quarter million dollars have been approximately doubled 

 by the setting aside of one million dollars of accumulated surplus 

 and the receipt of eleven million dollars in new funds to be used 

 in terminating the old pension system of the Foundation, and 

 two million dollars for the inauguration of a new plan. The 

 Foundation has distributed six and a half million dollars for 

 pensions for professors and their widows under the old plan, and 

 has provided for the distribution of sixty million dollars for the 

 retirement of the six thousand teachers who were in the asso- 

 ciated institutions in 1915." 



Bulletin No. 13 of the Foundation (pp. xiv, 271), is entitled 

 Justice and the Poor, and has been prepared by Mr. Reginald 

 Heber Smith. It gives a large amount of information as to 

 existing conditions with statistics of local aid work and definite 

 proposals for reform. It is hardly necessary to add that perhaps 

 no other matter now before the public mind is more important 

 than this subject of doing justice to those of very limited means. 



The official circular sets forth concisely the particulars as to 

 injustice done and remedies proposed. It ascribes the existing 

 denial of justice to the poor to the great underlying social and 

 economic changes of the last half century, to which our judicial 

 system failed to adapt itself. 



The defects in our judicial system which prevent the poor 

 from obtaining evenhanded justice are: First, the delay arising 

 from antiquated court organization and overcomplex procedure. 

 Second, the expenses that the state itself levies in the form of 

 court costs and fees. The third inherent difficulty is the expense 

 of lawyers' services. For the orderly presentation of cases in 



