39^ (Personal and Scientific News. 
of the extent to which these instruments have lately been in- 
troduced for the study of some branches of geology and con- 
sequently being in doubt if the lathe in question could be re- 
garded as a scientific instrument entitled to free entry for college 
use. As the final decision may be of interest to others it is here 
reprinted. The lathe was manufactured by the firm of Cotton 
& Johnson, Gerard St., Soho, London, W., and the total value 
including all charges of freight and entry was about $120. 
Lapidary's Machine. — The Treasury Department has granted the ap- 
plication of Messrs. Davis, Turner, and Co., for the free entry of a lapid- 
ary's machine recently imported at New York for the use of Buchtel 
College, Akron, Ohio. It was shown that machinery of the kind long 
used by lapidaries is now indispensable in the study of geology and lith- 
ology for use in the preparation of sections for examination under micro- 
scope. The department therefore decides that such machines can be 
admitted free under the provision of the free list for "philosophical and 
scientific apparatus specially imported in good faith for use of any in- 
stitution established for educational purposes." — U. S. Government 
Advertiser., March., 75, 1888. 
Dr. Alleyne Nicholson maintains in the Geological Mag- 
azine for March, in reply to Mr. James Thomson, the con- 
stant occurrence of mural pores in all favositoid corals, and that 
failure to find them must be caused by peculiar mineralization, 
unfortunate slicing or, to use a mild euphuism, "want of knowl- 
edge." 
Dr. Lyddeker notes the occurrence of fossil bones in the 
upper Eocene of England undistinguishable thus far from those 
of Iguana and proving therefore the former existence of this 
now exclusively American genus in Europe. 
Discussing further a number of specimens in the British 
Museum we find that several which have hitherto passed under 
different names all belong to Placosaurus., and moreover that 
this genus was closely allied to the Anguidie though possessing 
well developed limbs. It therefore apparently furnishes a 
creature of snake-like aspect and affinity with the legs of a lizard, 
and may be a direct ancestor of our present boas and pythons in 
which all the limbs aie rudimentary and scarcely visible outside; 
a structure which is matched on a small scale by the little blind- 
worm of English copses, Anguis frag ills. 
Dr. Lyddeker advocates the retention of the term Paloeo- 
^///^(^ to denote a family of large marine (?) serpents whose 
remains are found in the London and Bracklesham Tertiary 
clays, and which are generally regarded as also nearly allied to 
the existing pythons. 
Prof. E. W. Claypole, one of the editors of this mag- 
azine, will sail for England on June 7th, by the SS. "State of 
Georgia," of the State line. His family will accompany him 
and they will remain in Europe till September. 
