1881.] Scientific News. 85 
qualed for beauty. He wasa good geologist, and contributed 
articles to various journals, including the AMERICAN NATURALIST. 
For two years previous to his death he was engaged in explora- 
tions, for Prof. Cope, in the Permian region of Texas. He dis- 
covered numerous remarkable extinct vertebrates, which have 
formed the subject of various papers. These number thirty-two 
species, and they have thrown great light on the nature of verte- 
brate life at that early period. Mr. Boll was a most amiable man, 
and his death is a serious loss to science. 
— The report of the committee on science teaching in schools, 
read by Dr. Youmans before the American Association, arraigns 
the unscientific methods by which science is usually mistaught in 
schools. He justly claims that science, as a means of training 
the faculties i the various ways to which they are severally 
_adapted, is not taught in the public schools. It is not made the 
tunity not only exist among children, but they are the prime data 
of all efficient mental cultivation. In the graded schools, just in 
proportion to the perfection of the mechanical arrangements, indi- 
viduality disappears; and with individuality goes originality. © 
Science, if rightly pursued, is the most valuable school of self- 
instruction. From the beginning men of science have been self- 
dependent and self-reliant, because self-taught. 
— Mr. Alfred R. Wallace has published, says the Academy, a 
new work entitled “Island Life,” which deals with the problems 
presented by insular faunas and floras by the aid of the most 
recent geological and physical researches. A special feature in 
— The third annual book of the Michigan Sportsmen’s Asso- 
ciation contains some excellent reading matter. The report on 
nomenclature, barring some inaccuracies, is an excellent one, and 
most timely, as is Mr. Fred. Mather’s and Mr. J. G. Portman’s 
papers on fish propagation and protection, Such associations 
and publications as these, will tend greatly to increase the inter- 
est of the public in economic zodlogy and all that pertains to it. 
— The conch fisheries of the Bahamas, according to the Scien- 
tific American, are of considerable importance, many tons being 
exported to Italy, France and Germany from Nassau ; in Italy 
they are cut into sleeve buttons and brooches, and in France and 
Germany they are used in porcelain manufactories. $50,000 
worth of conch pearls are annually exported from Nassau. 
