mei tt Nee. 
FRIDAY, MARCH 7, 1884. 
COMMENT AND CRITICISM. 
In the rapid progress which animal morphol- 
ogy has been making in this country during 
the past few years, we doubt whether the verte- 
brates have had their due share of attention. 
With the exception of Cornell, we believe that 
the larger laboratories are turning their stu- 
dents principally to investigation among the 
invertebrates, among this class, Cambridge 
and Baltimore. We do not for a moment un- 
der-estimate the immense value of this work, or 
the high standard it has attained; but are we 
not slighting the rare opportunities the United 
States afford for vertebrate research, and al- 
lowing it to be done by foreigners? To illus- 
trate by a few examples out of many. In 
embryology the alligator and the urodele am- 
phibia present the most important field of work. 
As regards the former, Professor Kitchen Par- 
ker of London has just completed a monograph 
upon the development of the skull, principally 
based upon American material. As regards 
the latter, is it not surprising, that, with an 
abundance of living specimens at ready com- 
mand, the best work upon the angiology of 
the group is coming from Boas in Denmark ; 
and upon the anatomy and embryology, from 
Wiedersheim and others in German laborato- 
ries; while here we have only to show a few 
current researches upon the neurology? Our 
large avian fauna invites the kind of systematic 
anatomical work which the late W. A. Forbes, 
and his predecessor as prosector, A. H. Garrod, 
undertook in the London zodlogical gardens. 
But there is another quarter where the harvest 
is still greater and the laborers fewer; that is, 
vertebrate paleontology. We can count upon 
the fingers of one hand the investigators in this 
magnificent field ; yet there is enough work for 
several lifetimes in the fossils already exhumed, 
without mention of those which lie waiting the 
collecting-sack of the explorer. 
No. 57.— 1884. 
However just ‘‘ Professor Rowland’s vigor- 
ous denunciation of American science text- 
books’’ may be in respect to the sciences with 
which he is conversant, it need not be forgot- 
ten that in at least three departments of natu- 
ral history this country has been seasonably 
provided, by its most competent hands, with 
text-books, which, for their purpose and scope, 
have not been surpassed in any other part of 
the world. It is aremarkable fact that two of 
them, Dana’s Mineralogy and his Geology, are 
from the same hand. 
THE suggestions regarding the preservation 
of our few important aboriginal monuments, 
made by the curator of the Peabody museum 
to its trustees at their recent annual mecting, 
is one that should excite general interest and at- 
tention. These monuments are fast disappear- 
ing under the plough and harrow, and many are 
further endangered by the growth of popula- 
tion in their neighborhood. As arule, the land 
about them could be purchased of their pres- 
ent owners for comparatively small sums; and 
trusty keepers could be installed at no expense 
beyond the free lease of the reserves, with lib- 
erty to till such outlying portions as could do 
no harm to the monuments. 
It would be eminently proper for the states 
in which these monuments exist to take effi- 
cient action for the preservation of the most 
important ; but, if the states are likely to delay 
in the movement, the townships or local socie- 
ties should at once secure the works from fur- 
ther destruction. These failing in immediate 
action, why cannot an association be formed for 
the purchase and care of ancient monuments ; 
the association to, hold them, until, by legisla- 
tive action, each state shall take those within 
its borders under perpetual care? or perhaps 
it would prove the speediest and most satis- 
factory method of all, if persons specially in- 
terested in the preservation of certain of them 
