America on account of the agreement of the species of the White River beds in dentition and absence of horn, with the A. incisivum of Europe. It seems now that none of the American species have the four digits in the manus, which is characteristic of Aceratherium, but that that member is three-toed, as in Aphelops. Even in the Eocene period, the most rhinoceros-like genus, Triplopus (Cope, this Journal, 1880, p. 383), was already three-toed. The lower Miocene species show in their superior incisor teeth that their position is between the two genera named. Triplopus probably has, like Hyrachyus, incisors; the Rhinocerus occidentalis of Leidy, 3, while in Aphelops Cope, they are. In Peraceras Cope (this Journal, 1880, p. 540) superior incisors are wanting,

The series of genera will then be as follows. The table only differs from the one already given in the NATURALIST (1879, p. 771), by the interjection of the two new genera named. The collateral genera are omitted.

The characters of Canopus are as follows. Dentition; I. ; c. fi M.; M. Digits 3-3. The typical species is C. mitis (Aceratherium Cope).—E. D. Cope.

HALITHERIUM CAPGRANDI. M. Delfortrie, of Bordeaux, has been so fortunate as to obtain a nearly entire cranium of this sirenian, which was described by M. Lartet, in 1866, under the name of Rhytiodus capgrandi. A nearly entire skeleton was found in the Canton Labrède, dept. of Gironde, but was broken and scattered by the workmen. M. Delfortrie, after much labor, succeeded in obtaining the fragments of the skull. This valuable relic shows that the species was of considerable size, the skeleton is said to have been five meters in length. The skull is more elongate and narrowed forwards than in the other species of Halitherium.

A GENUS IN ANTICIPATION.-In a late number of the Revue Scientifique, M. Mortillet discusses the probable maker of the flints found in the Miocene deposits of Thenay, Cantal, and of a locality in Portugal. He rejects the proposition of Gaudry that

the artificer was the Dryopithecus, because the horizon of the flints is not exactly that in which the remains of that large ape occur. He proposes the hypothesis that the problematical being was the form which has intervened between the higher apes and Thus far M. Mortillet's positions appear to be reasonable, provided that his flints are artificial.

M. Mortillet goes further. He names the genus to which this being is to be referred, and calls it Anthropopithecus. As he has not the shadow of a definition for the genus, its proposition is in violation of all rules. Had he assumed the risk of furnishing it with characters, its adoption would have been a matter of time and discovery. Moreover, the name he uses is preoccupied. He then proceeds to name the species, of which he enumerates three. His method of distinguishing these is not zoological; they are proposed on inference as to their differential characters, which extends to size only. The dimensions are estimated by those of the flints, one species having manufactured large implements, and another small ones. It is therefore supposed that one of the species was of large size, and another one small.

We think on such a basis, we could infer several species of Homo on the North American continent, and as zoologists and palæontologists, we must decline to admit such unsubstantial visions within the Walhalla of species and genera.

IGUANODONS --Miss Agnes Crane, in a recent letter, states that the remains of the Iguanodons recently discovered in the Wealden formation at Bernissart, near Mons, on the Belgian frontier are now in process of articulation in the workshops of the Royal Museum at Brussels. M. Dupont is engaged in preparing a second and enlarged edition of his account of their discovery. Several perfect animals of various sizes were found associated with the "remains," of crocodiles, gigantic tortoises (rivaling Miocene forms), fishes and plants. The structure of the fore and hind limbs, the skuli and the tail is now well known, and proves the animal to have been very different to all previous restorations. Prof. Owen is right as regards proportions of the fore limbs and the analogies he drew from them. Prof. Cope's views in relation to the posterior extremities will receive strong confirmation, while as to the "structures known respectively as the 'horn' and the 'spur,' every one was, on the other hand, far from imagining the truth."

THE GEOLOGY AND TOPOGRAPHY OF THE CATSKILL MOUNTAINS. -Prof. Hall long since showed that the mass of the Catskill mountains (N. Y.) consists of nearly horizontal beds of Devonian rocks of the Chemung and Catskill epochs, which rest unconformably on the Silurians. Prof. Guyot has recently published some interesting results of his observations on the region. He has, for the first time, determined the topography of the Southern

Catskills, or Shendaken mountains. He finds that they include the highest points, the Slide mountain reaching 4205 feet above tide water, and the Panther 3828. The region is an almost unbroken forest in spite of its proximity to the great centers of population. As to structure, the beds show weak plications whose axes are parallel with those of the Allegheny system, but the mountain ranges were at right angles to the system, or from north-west to south-east. This anomaly is explained by the fact that they are results of erosion. The general level descends westwards.

MICROSCOPY AT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION.-There is reason to believe that the meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which is to convene at Boston, on the 25th of August, will be a memorable gathering, as well for its scientific and social character as for the numbers in attendance at its sessions. It is expected that the old sub-sections will be maintained, and new ones organized. The large number of distinguished scholars, at Boston and vicinity, can hardly fail to give to the sub-section of microscopy a special prominence and importance this year. Ample arrangements have been made for the convenience of this department. The Physical and Biological Laboratories of the Institute of Technology have been secured for its use; also rooms for the safe keeping of instruments, and for the giving of lectures, screen projections, &c. Communications. in regard to membership, or the scientific work of the meeting, should be addressed to the present chairman of the sub section, Prof. S. A. Lattimore, Rochester, N. Y.

AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MICROSCOPISTS.-This Society will meet at Detroit, August 19, according to plans previously announced. A large meeting is expected. The proceedings of last year's meeting have been issued and distributed. A supply of extra copies were published, which can be obtained at a reasonable price, by addressing the Secretary, Dr. Henry Jameson, Indianapolis, Indiana. Instead of the medal offered last year for the best specimens illustrating some common adulteration, the donor will substitute, with consent of the winner, the superb half-inch objective now made by the Bausch and Lomb Optical Co., having nearly 100 degrees aperture and capable of resolving P. angulata. This is a great improvement on the original offer.

“SCIENCE”—A new weekly scientific journal is announced under this title. It is designed to have somewhat the character of the English" Nature." Astronomy will be the most prominent feature, but it is proposed to give adequate room to microscopical news. The editor's address is P. O. Box 3838, New York.

1This depa tment is edited by Dr. R. H. WARD, Troy, N. Y.

MICROSCOPISTS' ANNUAL.-The first number (for 1879) of this little manual, has just been issued by the publishers of the American Journal of Microscopy. In addition to lists of Microscopical Societies, manufacturers, dealers, &c., it contains much miscellaneous information of interest to microscopists, in regard to weights, measures, postal regulations, magnifying powers, etc. Being unable to obtain recent information in all cases, the lists are partly based upon old data with the hope of correcting them in subsequent editions.

SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

Caleb Cooke died in Salem, Mass., June 5, 1880, aged 42 years and 4 months, of typhoid malarial, the result of disease contracted at Zanzibar. Mr. Cooke was for some time a pupil of Agassiz. In 1859 he went to Para, South America, and afterwards to Zanzibar and Madagascar, remaining for about two years on the eastern coast of Africa, sending important collections to Agassiz's.museum. The insects collected by him in Zanzibar, largely formed the materials for Gerstaecker's volume on the insects of Zanzibar. He was one of the curators of the Essex Institute, and at the time of his death the curator of Mollusca in the Peabody Academy, and was one of the most zealous of its officers from the date of its foundation. Mr. Cooke was an excellent and indefatigable collector and rendered most valuable assistance to investigations. He did much in local zoology. Though he was not a productive student of nature, he was, however, one of those useful, unselfish naturalists, with an ardent love of nature, who are careless of their own reputation, and aid in building up the fame of others. Mr. Cooke rendered important services to the U. S. Fish Commission for several seasons, when dredging in deep water was carried on in the Gulf of Maine, aboard the U. S. Coast Survey Steamer Bache; he explored Mammoth cave, and one of the most interesting of the insects inhabiting that grotto was dedicated to him, as were other insects discovered elsewhere by him. He also, in 1875, was an assistant of the Geological Survey of Indiana.

Mr. Cooke wrote but little; he contributed several notes to the NATURALIST, and in the early years of its history was a most enthusiastic and laborious assistant in the office work of this magazine. The writer of this notice mourns his loss, as the faithful friend of many years, who was unwearied in well doing, amiable, if sometimes with a grain of eccentricity, philanthropical, and unfailing in all the minor courtesies and kindnesses that render one's everyday life worth living.

The School Board of Newton, Mass., have engaged Mr. J. Walter Fewkes to deliver a course of lectures on natural history to the public schools. So far as we are aware this is the first course of lectures on zoology to teachers, as well as students,

paid for by any city out of the appropriation for the schools, and wholly directed by the school committee. This is a movement which we feel sure will eventually be adopted in other towns and cities. We have long advocated the plan of having in each town or city a skilled teacher of natural history, who should give the instruction in elementary botany, zoölogy and geology in the schools of different grades. There is, in most towns, a person with a decided taste for these studies, who, with comparatively little expense, could give at least weekly object lessons in the different schools and to different classes in the same schools. Bringing zeal and practical knowledge at first hand to his work, such a teacher would do vastly more to interest scholars than the present method of requiring each school to supply its own teacher, who has to impart knowledge in numerous dissociated studies.

Prof. Wm. Boyd Dawkins, of Owen's College, Manchester, England, has been invited to deliver a course of twelve lectures on Prehistoric Man," before the Lowell Institute, Boston, Mass., the coming autumn. Prof. Dawkins is one of the most eminent of the younger scientific men of Great Britain, and has already become a standard authority in comparative anatomy and prehistoric archæology. He is a graduate of the University of Oxford, was principal geologist in H. M. Geological Survey in 1867, professor of geology in Owen's College, 1874, president of the Manchester Geological Society; and is the author of many essays and memoirs in the Royal Geological and Anthropological Societies. He published, in 1874, a popular volume showing great research, on “Cave Hunting, or Researches on the evidences of caves respecting the early inhabitants of Europe," and the present year a second volume has appeared on " Early Man in Britain and his place in the Tertiary period," which is exciting much attention. He is forty-two years of age.

A despatch from Paris announces the death of Dr. Paul Broca, the eminent surgeon and anthropologist. He was born at Sainte-Foy-la-Grand (Gironde), in 1824. He became professor of surgical pathology in the Faculty of Medicine in Paris, and surgeon of the hospitals of Saint Antoine and La Pitie. In 1866 he was elected a member of the Imperial Academy of Medicine. Subsequently he was nominated a Chevalier of the Legion of Honor. He was a leader among modern anthropologists, and in 1878 presided over an International Congress of the followers of that branch of scientific inquiry. He was a senator of the Republic, and belonged to the Left or Radical party.

The annual meeting of the Entomological Club of the American Association for the Advancement of Science will be held at the Museum of the Boston Society of Natural History, corner of Berkeley and Boylston streets, Boston, commencing at 2 P.M., Tuesday, 24 August, 1880. There will be an informal social gathering of entomologists at the rooms of the Boston So