THE BATTALION
Wednesday, January 17, 1973
Page 4 College Station, Texas
A&M Receives
Valuable
Fossil Slides
The A&M Anthropology/Paly-
nology Laboratory has been given
the complete collection of copro-
litic reference materials owned
(by the late Dr. Eric O. Callen of
McGill University in Canada.
Dr. Vaughn M. Bryant Jr. of
the Sociology and Anthropology
Department said the Callen collec
tion includes several thousand
microscope slides, an assortment
of prehistoric human coprolites
ranging in age from 1,000 to 125,-
000 years and related reference
material.
Bryant said the Callen collec
tion is the “finest of its type in
North America and probably in
the world.”
The coprolitic field involves
analysis of fossil excrement sam
ples of feces, noted the TAMU
professor who has been conduct
ing such research for the past
five years.
“In recent years the recovery
and analysis of fossil human feces
from archeological sites has been
encouraged by archeologists be
cause of the wealth of data cop
rolites can provide,” Dr. Bryant
noted.
“When properly and thoroughly
analyzed,” he continued, “human
coprolites can yield important data
about health, economy and diet of
prehistoric man, as well as pro
vide information concerning pat
terns of site occupancy and the
conditions of the paleoenviron-
ment.”
Dr. Callen, who died in 1970,
compiled the collection over a 15-
year period while on the faculty
of McDonald College, part of
McGill University.
In addition to being the world’s
leading authoority in the field of
coprolitic research, Dr. Callen was
widely known as a plant path
ologist.
His widow and McDonald Col
lege jointly gave the collection to
TAMU because of Dr. Bryant’s
specialization in coprolitic re
search.
“It was Dr. Callen’s wish that
this collection of his work be kept
together for research and refer
ence purposes,” Bryant pointed
out. “We have complied with his
wish and will offer the use of the
collection free of charge to any
serious student or researcher.”
Dr. Bryant said a doctoral stu
dent at Carleton University in
Ottawa has already inquired
about coming to TAMU this sum
mer to use the collection in con
junction with his studies.
American POWs
May Remain
A Few Months
NEW YORK (^—Provisions of
the Vietnam draft peace agree
ment, reported by South Vietnam
ese sources, would require Hanoi
to release some American prison
ers the day after signing and the
rest “within the first few months,”
CBS News said Tuesday.
An earlier agreement draft by
Dr. Henry A. Kissinger and North
Vietnam’s Le Due Tho in October
is said to have required the re
patriation of all prisoners of war
within 60 days after signing.
The new draft “doesn’t give a
specific time limit, perhaps be
cause some of the prisoners are
in camps spread around North
Vietnam, which simply may take
them a while to get them to Ha
noi so that they can be evacuat
ed,” CBS newsman Don Webster
said from Saigon.
“At any rate, the draft agree
ment is quite clear that the pris
oners will be coming home,” he
said.
CBS pointed out that the in
formation it has on the agree
ment “has not been confirmed,
it has not been elaborated by
any official source.”
The network said its bureau in
Saigon gained access to portions
of the draft and that its informa
tion “came from usually reliable
sources inside South Vietnam’s
presidential palace.”
Webster said the draft possi
bly will be released “within the
next week or so, if in fact ‘peace
is at hand.’ ” But he indicated
that the South Vietnamese still
hope for changes in some parts
of the document.
Improve Your Children’s
Reading Skills At The
Reading Improvement
Center
846-3812
.
* /
*
bargain
BARGAIN M BARGAIN
.niiiwinniHllmlHIlliiiHinHiiimw...
SKAGGS
ALBERTSONS
DRUGS 8 FOODS
UNIVERSITY AT COLLEGE
l