478 Scientific Intelligence. 



been repeated by H. H. Potter and 0. W. Richarson at the 

 Research Laboratory of King's College, London, and they cannot 

 confirm Brush's result. The gravitational acceleration of bis- 

 muth was found to be same as that for brass to at least one part 

 in 50,000.— Phys. Rev. 19, 188, 1922. f. e. b. 



8. The Teaching of General Science; by W. L. Eikenberry, 

 pp. xiii, 169, Chicago, 1922 (University of Chicago Press). — 

 The publishers have projected a number of volumes entitled the 

 Nature Study Series under the editorship of Elliot R. Down- 

 ing of which the present work is the first to appear. It is a work 

 upon the theory of teaching, i. e. the aims, the principles of 

 organization, and methods of instruction in high and secondary 

 schools. Under the term general science are gathered such 

 branches as Astronomy, Agriculture, Physiology, Biology, Com- 

 mercial Geography, Chemistry, Meteorology, Physiography, and 

 Physics. As might be expected from a work on pedagogy the 

 author is apologetic rather than dogmatic toward the student, 

 as though the study of science needed to be justified. Taken 

 from this angle the reader will find in the book a forceful state- 

 ment as to the economic-vocational values of usable facts and their 

 bearing on science-education, conduct-controls, tastes, ideals, and 

 sociological aims. f. e. b. 



II. Geology and Mineralogy. 



1. Hesperopithecus, the first anthropoid primate found in 

 America. — It is thus fittingly that Professor Henry F. Osborn 

 announces in Science for May 5 what may prove to be one of the 

 most remarkable discoveries in the history of vertebrate paleon- 

 tology. The type is a single water- worn tooth found by Mr. Har- 

 old Cook, consulting geologist, of Agate, Neb., in the upper or 

 Hipparion phase of the Snake Creek beds of western Nebraska. 

 These beds are conceded to be of Pliocene age, and the opinion is 

 expressed that the tooth is certainly a contemporary fossil. 



In the judgment of Professor Osborn and Doctor W. D. Mat- 

 thew, to whom the specimen was referred, it represents the second 

 or third upper molar of a new genus and species of anthropoid. 

 Doctors W. K. Gregory and Milo Hellman are perhaps more 

 specific in their statement, when they say : ' ' On the whole we 

 think its nearest resemblances are with 'Pithecanthropus' and 

 with men rather than with apes." Since 1908 there has been in 

 the American Museum collection another tooth from this same 

 horizon. It was so water-worn and from so aged an animal 

 that it has lain thus far undescribed, but comparison with the 

 new form seems to show genetic if not specific affinity. 



The horizon is that of the Thousand Creek (Nevada) and Rat- 

 tlesnake (Oregon), of which the fauna contains not only Plio- 



