1887] : Recent Literature. . 645 
vation must conform, while the new encourages originality by 
allowing the utmost latitude in expressing the results of obser- 
vation; the old system tends to retard the development of geo- 
logic science, and to restrict its practical application by explicitly 
postulating its completeness, while the new promotes geology 
and extends its useful applications by providing the means of 
expressing discoveries in new as well as in old lines of investi- 
gations.” 
This letter, so far as we understand it, postulates both the ob- 
jections we have mentioned above, and which we have shown to 
be groundless. 
The Congress of Berlin did not think it advisable to change 
the system of coloration which had been, in its main features, in 
use for half a century, and the American Committee has accepted 
its decision. In this the committee has adopted the views of 
utility generally entertained in Europe. The committee, at its 
lbany meeting, however, expressly insisted on the necessity of 
incorporating into the general system all new and additional 
details to be derived from the explorations conducted in non- 
European countries, thus providing for the contingency referred 
to by Major Powell in the letter above quoted. 
A great deal of labor devolves on the Congress and its com- 
_mittees. Their only reward is the belief that their work is a 
w 
useful one, and the confidence that, if well done, it will endure, 
so far as it goes, as a permanent standard of estimation for the 
entire world, and for all time. 
RECENT LITERATURE. 
ings of the American Society of Microscopists.'— ` 
Proceedings of the American Society of Microscopists, Ninth Annual Meeting, 
N. Y., August 10, 11, 12, and 13, 1886. Buffalo, N. Y., 1886, - 
? 
