to its aid a number of able scientific men, and is publishing the result 

 of their work in suitable style. The papers of Hay on the Vertebral 

 Column of Amia, and the skeleton of Protostega, are important con- 

 tributions to knowledge. We hope soon to give an abstract of the 

 illustrated paper of Holmes on the Yucatan ruins. It seems that the 

 Museum is not to be merely a show place, but is to be a center of 

 original research, worthy of the great city in which it is sitnated. 



Perhaps a year ago we objected in rather caustic terms to the pro- 

 posed publication by the Filson Club of Louisville, Kentucky of the 

 life and bibliography of Rafinesque. We are at the time under the 

 impression that the club was a scientific body, and we were then of the 

 opinion, as we are now, that such a society might easily find better use 

 for its money than the publication of such a work. The fact is, how- 

 ever, that the object of the society is the preservation of historic records, 

 and not of the results of scientific research. Hence the publication in 

 question was precisely within its scope, and Prof. Call, the author, 

 conferred a benefit on us all in writing the book. The history is a very 

 curious one, and will interest even the non-scientific reader. Manu- 

 scripts in the possession of the U. S. National Museum show that Rafine- 

 sque had a skillful pencil, and that the figures which accompany his 

 printed works do him injustice. 



President Cleveland deserves well of his fellow countrvmen for 

 various reasons, but he deserves least, of his scientific constituency. 

 His latest appointment, that of the U. S. Commissioner of Fish and 

 Fisheries, was made in spite of different recommendations of the scien- 

 tific men of the country, and for reasons which are to this class quite 

 inscrutable. The new appointee was, as we are informed, retired 

 from the navy on account of rheumatism. He has no scientific knowl- 

 edge or experience of the habits of fishes or the conduct of fisheries, 

 and would seem to be physically incapacitated from learning. Doubt- 

 less the President has told him as the old lady told her daughter who 

 asked her if she might go in to swim ; father may I the fishes save 

 from thoughtless cruel slaughter? yes, yes my son, save every one, but 



