New-York tribune., 1903-01-18

operator who stands in front of the instrument
following the lapse of time recorded by the ma
chine BY studying the average time that
eiapses between the exposure and apprehension
Of the color the experimenter is able to narro"
down the range to few c"lors, all OF Whlch
OF course must be distinguished with the great
est rapidity 10y the subject. a final decision on
this important railroad problem has yet to be
made, but experiments are being steadhE car
rieG on by Dr. Churchill TO this end
over in Peabody Museum is being carried on
the second branch Of Yale scientific work which
the Carnegie Institute has become interested IN
the studies cf the Marsh collection Of Verte-
brate North American fossils which are being
conducted by Dr J. 1. Workman, one of the
best known paleOntologists in this country The
recent valuable addition to the Peabody collection
Of the fossil monkey Of Wyoming, the complete
structure Of which gave for the first time a pos
sfble hypothesis for the ancestry Of the South
American monkey has already been announced
in The Tribune. That discovery was only one in
a long line of important finds in American verte-
brate fossils that has been going on ever since
Professor O. c Marsh picked up his first speci-
mems in 1870 During Professor Marsh's life
thousands upon thousands Of fossils and parts
Of fossils were collected by him, either person.
ally or through hired assistants. and brought to
the Yale Museum, where they now lie hardly
touched and piled in unopened crates from hoor
70 ceiling in The basement of the Peabody Mu-
scum Dr. Workman, who took up the Work OF
Classifying these fossils some time ago, is now
wei under way with the work. He has com
pleted the periodical description OF the carnivora
in the E0cene mammal collection IN the Ainerl-
can Journal Of Science"
The work of restoring the skeletons Of these
great reptiles and mammals Of over a million
years ago is still progressing under the hands
Of q clrJs of workers il Peabody Museum II IS
o1e oe the most difficult kinds Of scientific en-
p-0y11e1t. Great fossil bones, skulls and other
parts q extinct forms of American animal life
have 10 be extricated from their bed Of rock
with The utmost pains and then mounted O"-
ir- 70 The incomplete records attalnable the en-
tire skeleton Of any one animal has not been
preserved though in most important cases the
whole fossil remains are in the museum Up to
now only two or three Of these extinct creatures
have been restored. The gigantic dinosaur,
know as the Cleosau-us annectens. a huge rep
tile rr=asurirg % feet long by 13 feet high, ana
which fed on the foliage Of small trees is now
mounted OF the second floor Of the museum ana
Is the second largest Of the KIND known 10
scieutists The prehistoric dromocyon, or large
dog-v.olr IS now mounted The hind quarters
OF The immense brontosaur Of Eocene times III
Wyoming are also mounted, the creature pelhs
a gigantic reptile, probably 90 feet long ana ~
feet high Work is now going forward on sew
eral gigantic lizards. The great part Of the I'M
rnensely valuable collection, however. is not yet
touched upon by the assistants in the museum
The great mass Of the Yale fossil COLLECTION OF
coUrse comes directly from the late Professor
Narsh whose remarkable labors in excaVatlng
the rock beds Of Wyoming gave to science the
single greatest fossil collection on record. Pro-
fessor Marsh had considerable private fortune
which he gave unreservedy to the prosecutor
Of these investigations for nearly a quarter OF
Century He was the first American paleontolo-