412 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 
sion of the demonstrations followed, and was participated in by 
Messrs. Langley, Gore, Abbe, Watkins, Radelfinger, and 
Marvin. 
Mr. C. F. Marvin exhibited and described briefly The new 
Baldwin computing machine made in the United States. Re¬ 
marks on the principles of such machines and the results of prac¬ 
tical experience with them -were made by Messrs. Strother, 
Harris, Paul, and Wead. [Not published.] 
Mr. G. R. Stetson then read a paper on The genetic problem 
of typography. He sketched the claims made for Coster, Fust, 
Guttenberg, and Schoeffer, emphasizing the great difficulty of 
finding sufficient evidence to establish priority with certainty. 
He concluded with a brief description of the Plantin Museum of 
Typography at Antwerp. [Not published.] 
566th Meeting. March 28, 1903. 
President Gore in the chair. 
Twenty-one persons present. 
Mr. F. A. Lucas spoke, by invitation, on Recent progress in 
Palaeontology. He pointed out the great progress made by 
American students, owing especially to the great deposits of 
fossils in our Western States. The series showing the develop¬ 
ment of the horse has been of great interest as illustrating the 
strength of the doctrine of evolution: a specimen of the Mesohip- 
pus has just been found in the Florida phosphate-beds. True 
monkeys have been found in the Eocene, and these were probably 
the ancestors of the existing South American forms. Modern 
Pinnipeds and Carnivores are believed to be derived from primi¬ 
tive marsupials through the Creodonts. The lines of descent of 
many reptiles converged in the Trias, but the connecting forms 
have not been discovered, and the degree of differentiation of 
Eocene mammals and Triassic reptiles pointed to a very early 
origin of these groups. No progress has been made for thirty 
years as to the origin of birds. 
Mr. Dale, in discussing the paper, spoke particularly of the 
phosphate-beds of Florida. 
