Editorial Comment. 185 
Greifswald the petrographical side is more especially cultivated, on the 
other hand the universities of Munich, Berlin, Strassburg, Breslau, 
Bonn, Gottingen, Halle and Tubingen* partly because of their rich col- 
lections and partly on account of their excellently organized and well 
equipped special Institutes, offer the best advantages for pahvontologi- 
cal training. In the smaller universities, where the number of geologi- 
cal students is naturally limited, laboratory accommodations may In- 
reduced to one or two rooms, and in some cases the students' working- 
collections are also placed here. In the larger institutions students in 
the elementary and in advanced courses work apart from one another, 
and the amount of space occupied is necessarily much larger. The in- 
strumental outfit consists mostly of microscopes, various kinds of saws, 
grinding and polishing machines, and other necessaries for the construc- 
tion of microscopic sections. 
If one will compare the advantages offered by German universities 
for the special pursuit of geology and palaeontology with those existing 
in similar foreign institutions, the conclusion cannot be avoided that 
our institutions are by no means behind the others in point of excel- 
lence, but, on the contrary, that they and their methods may well serve 
as models for other countries to pattern after. 
EDITORIAL COMMENT. 
"The Mineral Industry." 
The Scientific Publishing Company lias recently issued its 
second volume under the above title. Aside from its title, 
which is a misnomer, the work is very creditable and valuable. 
Such a title would lead a geologist to look for the statistics 
and methods of dealers in minerals, such as Geo. L. English or 
A. E. Eoote, who have been known for many years as leading 
mineralogists and who have sent their consignments to nearly 
every college in America. But their names are nowhere to be 
found in the volume, at least they arc not in the index. It 
has to be explained that this volume is not devoted to miner- 
als, but to the mining of such minerals as arc of economic 
value, and to the methods of getting them into the markets, 
either in a raw state, as ores, or in a refined state suitable for 
the hand of the manufacturer. 
In the early years of a new country the energies of tin sel 
tier are devoted necessarily to the quickest and easiest means 
of winning a comfortable subsistence, and that makes him a 
tiller of the soil. He becomes a manufacturer and a trader 
later, and last of all he becomes a miner. The United States 
