Gem Minerals in Museums 247
collection
of Mr. Clarence S. Bement, of Philadelphia, which has for years stood
foremost among American cabinets, and vies (especially in the matter of
American minerals) with the great collections of the world. In this
connection it is interesting and appropriate to record the generous
gift of Mrs. Matilda W. Bruce of New York City, who created the Bruce
Fund; this is an endowment, of the sum of ten thousand dollars, of the
Department of Mineralogy of the American Museum of Natural History,
which yields an annual income of $660, which is applied to the purchase
of specimens. The development of minerals is the slowest growth in the
scheme of creation, but it is a satisfaction to know that in the
American Museum of Natural History, as in other " live " kindred
institutions, the collection of minerals develops and improves
rapidly, as is well known to those who have solicitously kept pace with
it year by year. For the student who would go deeper than to the extent
of a mere faney, there exist associations most helpful and
interesting, of which the student can be the beneficiary and a member
at very slight cost; such as the New York Mineralogical Club and the
Philadelphia Min-eralogical Club, which hold educative meet-
