yj2 The American Geologist. jime, 1901. 
state as munificently endowed as theirs, there are some things 
and some favoring conditions which Nature has failed to pro- 
vide, there are some drafts on Nature's apparently limitless 
bounty which must go unhonored, there are some enterprises 
looking to the development of natural resources which in the 
very condition and structure of things are absolutely hopeless. 
Let them rather reserve all of their capital and energies for the 
development of the splendid resources which do exist and not 
waste any in the useless search for geological products which 
all enlightened experience shows could not, by any known pos- 
sibility, be developed in the state. 
EDITORIAL COMMENT. 
]^IusEUM Catalogues. — Two catalogues of museums lie 
on our table, the first by Prof. Renevier, and the second from 
the Smithsonian Institution, which illustrate among other things 
the difference in the support to Science which is aft'orded in 
Switzerland and the U. S. respectively. The first is entitled 
"Xotice sur I'originc ct rinstallation dii Miiscc gcologiqnc dc 
Lausanne. {Lausanne, 1895.) Par Prof. E. Renevier. 
In spite of its title but little more than half a page is de- 
voted to the origin and installation of the collections. The re- 
maining ten pages are dedicated to a description of the col- 
lections and their classification. The collection is not a large 
one, but «ome points are of interest. 
Room I. The Urst collection is of general stratigraphy, 
three glass cases exposing the principal classic fossils from the 
earliest to the Cretacic. 
The second is the petrogenic collection of 1,500 specimens 
intended to teach the mode of formation of the rocks which 
compose the terrestrial crust on a system of Prof. Renevier's 
as follows : 
a) D e u t e g e n i c rocks of sedimentary origin by 
mechanical means. 
b) O r g a n g e n i c rocks of sedimentary origin 
through organic processes. 
c) H y d a t o g e n i c rocks, of chemical origin by means 
of water. 
