Wadsworth.] 
250 
[October 19, 
examination, in the American Museum, with the hand specimens 
was 914 ; with an additional collection, said not to have been stud- 
ied by Zirkel, of 434 slides of rocks purporting to be sedimen- 
tary or fragmental, that were also examined by me. It may be 
noticed that Mr. Merrill states that he was informed that the slides 
were studied separately from the hand specimens ; while I was 
given to understand that the hand specimens corresponding to the 
described sections were taken to Europe. I was further repeat- 
edly informed by Mr. King, on inquiring for missing slides and 
hand specimens, that they probably had not been returned by 
Professor Zirkel, who had retained some for further study. 
That Mr. Merrill was misinformed is to be seen from Zirkel’s 
own statement, which freely translated from the French reads 
thus : “ I went myself to America in order to see the collection 
and to chose the specimens (echantillons) to be sent to Europe.” 1 
(1. c. p. 18). 
It would seem that the arrangement, classification, and in fact 
everything except the simple microscopic descriptions came pri- 
marily from Mr. King and his assistants ; Professor Zirkel’s man- 
uscript even being changed in some cases by them before publi- 
cation. 
It does not seem to be right, in the light of the methods employed, 
for Mr. King to claim that the correctness of his work is proved 
by Zirkel’s observations (I, pp. 109, 551), and for Professor Zirkel 
to claim that the correctness of his work is likewise proved by Mr. 
King’s observations (VI, p. 132). 
Had the entire, not a selected, collection been placed in Profes- 
sor Zirkel’s hands, without his having the slighest clue to their 
field relations, or to Mr. King’s conclusions, and had he, indepen- 
dently, separated the rocks into divisions which corresponded with 
those of Mr. King, then the latter’s views would have been greatly 
!Les Roches Cristallines de la Coupe du Fortieth ParallMe au Nord Guest des Etats- 
Unis. Par le Dr. F. Zirkel. Annales de la Socidte Beige de Microscopie, 1878, IV, 17- 
109. 
See also Ueber die krystallinschen Gesteine langs des 40 Breitegrades in Nordwest- 
Amerika, F. Zirkel. Berichte liber die Verhandlungen der koniglich sachsischen Ge- 
sellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig, 1877, II, 156-243. 
