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-