334 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 87. 



When the public funds are to be expended in 

 scientific investigation, the public has a right 

 to demand that the work be put into the hands 

 of those who are not only industrious experi- 

 menters, but who are able and willing to test 

 critically the results of their own experiments, 

 and present to the ' public only results which 

 have endured such testing. 



When the president of the geographical sec- 

 tion of the British association declared that 

 the Portuguese ' lost colony,' as described by 

 Mr. Haliburton, ' was something quite new to 

 geographers,' he doubtless failed to recall that 

 in 1881 Bettencourt (Descobrimentos . . . 

 do Portugueses, pp. 132-135) printed the 

 grant to Fagundes of March 13, 1521, which 

 is also contained in Do Canto's Memoria his- 

 torica, p. 90. The whole subject of the dis- 

 coveries of Fagundes is taken up hx those 

 authors, and also b}' Henry Harrisse in his 

 Cabots, pp. 275-277 (Paris, 1882), and in 

 his Corte-Real, p. 144 and 171 (Paris, 1883). 

 General Lefro} T also failed to remember that 

 Ernesto do Canto, the learned antiquary of S. 

 Miguel, one of the Azores — to whom Harrisse 

 acknowledges his indebtedness — discovered 

 among the manuscripts of the Torre do Tombo 

 a carta of the 4th May, 1567, relating to the 

 second lost Portuguese colony mentioned b}- 

 Mr. Haliburton. This document is in Do 

 Canto's Memoria historica entitled Os Corte- 

 Reaes, p. 161 (S. Miguel, 1883) ; and also in 

 the appendix to Harrisse's Corte-Real, p. 235, 

 where it is stated that it was communicated by 

 Mr. Do Canto. These three books, and others 

 which we have no space to mention at this 

 time, contain documents going to show that 

 those expeditions actually sailed, and also con- 

 tain the commissions and confirmations granted 

 the Corte-Reals, their contemporaries and suc- 

 cessors, at various times. 



serve them. The chief difficulty in such an 

 attempt would doubtless be the discourage- 

 ment of waiting through a considerable time 

 without shocks to observe ; but this time is not 

 so long as many would suppose, as ma}^ be 

 seen by looking over Rock wood's earthquake 

 lists. The only systematic work now under- 

 taken consists in the collection of accidental 

 records by Professor Rockwood and some few 

 other students of the question, and the report- 

 ing of ordinary non-instrumental observations 

 from the signal-service stations. This small 

 beginning could be greatly improved if the 

 U. S. geological surve} T could lend a hand by 

 providing simple seismometers for a moderate 

 number of stations ; and would be still further 

 advanced if observers and students of this 

 branch of physical geography would resolve 

 themselves into an earthquake-club, unembar- 

 rassed by formal regulations, chiefly with the 

 object of becoming known to one another, and 

 thus insuring the proper collection and colla- 

 tion of their observations. We should be glad 

 to have correspondence on this subject. 



The occurrence of two light but wide-spread 

 earthquakes within two months in our usual- 

 ly quiet eastern states awakens attention to 

 the absence of any organized attempt to ob- 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 



*** Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. 

 The writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 



Classification of the Mollusca. 



Ix the instructive comments on the ' classification 

 of the Mollusca' by Messrs. Dall and Lankester, 

 apropos of Professor Kay Lankester' s article ' Mol- 

 lusca' in the ' Encyclopaedia Britannlca,' several 

 points are raised concerning which I should be pleased 

 to be better informed. 



In the original review by Mr. Dall (Science, hi. 

 730), it is remarked that ' no single instance of a cal- 

 cified jaw among recent Mollusca occurs; ' and in his 

 reply that gentleman adds, that he " should be grate- 

 ful to Professor Lankester for the name of any recent 

 mollusk having a shelly or even partially 'calcified' 

 jaw" (Science, iv. 143). I have long been under the 

 impression that the Nautilidae furnished such an in- 

 stance. Woodward expressed the belief of malacolo- 

 gists in his statement, that, "in the recent Nautilus, 

 the mandibles are horny, but calcified to a consider- 

 able extent ; " and Professor Lankester (op. cit. p. 667) 

 says that in the cephalopods ('Siphonopoda') "the 

 jaws have the form of a pair of powerful beaks, either 

 horny or calcified (Nautilus)." Is there any reason to 

 doubt or dispute the correctness of such and similar 

 statements? 



In my 'Arrangement of the families of mollusks' 

 (1871), I admitted as orders of Acephala (otherwise 

 Conchifera. orLipocephala) the Dimyaria, Heteromy- 

 aria, and Monomyaria, but under mental protest. I 



