276 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Five thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight 

 associations are represented, in the reports 

 of which five thousand five hundred and 

 ninety- eight were local and two hundred 

 aDd forty national. The total dues paid in 

 on installment shares in force, plus the profits 

 on the same, amount to $450,66*7,594. " A 

 business represented by this great sum, con- 

 ducted quietly, with little or no advertising, 

 and, as stated, without the experienced 

 banker in charge, shows that the American 

 people, in their own ways, are quite compe- 

 tent to take care of their savings." Only 

 thirty-five of the associations now in exist- 

 ence showed a net loss at the end of their 

 last fiscal year, and this loss amounted to 

 only $23,332. When an association dis- 

 bands, no loss can occur, because its whole 

 business consists of loans, mostly to their 

 own shareholders. A disbanded association, 

 therefore, simply returns to its members 

 their own property. Full particulars are 

 given of the associations by States and by 

 individual associations. 



A History of Higher Education in Iowa 

 has been prepared by Prof. Leonard F. Par- 

 ker, of Iowa College, as Circular of Informa- 

 tion No. 1 7 of the United States Bureau of 

 Education. There is much in the educational 

 history of Iowa, as Commissioner Harris 

 well says, which is instructive to all students 

 and observers of educational progress, since 

 within the limits of that State a noteworthy 

 zeal has prevailed from the time of the ear- 

 liest settlements in founding institutions of 

 learning and in providing instruction for all 

 classes of people. The narrative tells the 

 story of the first schools in Iowa previous to 

 1838, Education during the Territorial Pe- 

 riod, Early Education in the State, the Free- 

 School System, Provisions for the Education 

 of Teachers, the State Agricultural College, 

 the State University, Private Secondary 

 Schools, Denominational Colleges, Institu- 

 tions no longer existing, the Higher Educa- 

 tion of Women in Iowa, and Educational 

 Auxiliaries. 



In the Report on the Crustacea of the Order 

 Stomatopoda (No. XXXII of the Scientific 

 Results of Explorations by the United States 

 Fish Commission Steamer Albatross) Dr. 

 Robert P. Bigelow makes a classification of 

 the Squilla family from a study of the speci- 

 mens in the National Museum, the Fish Com- 



mission, and a private collection made by him 

 in the Bimini Islands (Bahamas). These, he 

 finds, represent thirty- four species distributed 

 through five genera, of which fourteen are 

 new. The collection of larvae was large, but 

 unfortunately contained nothing like a com- 

 plete series of stages of any one species. The 

 changes of form between two stages are so 

 great that almost no larva in the collection 

 could be referred with certainly to its adult 

 form. 



In his paper on The Systematic Position 

 of the Sijjhonaptera Prof. Alpheus S. Pack- 

 ard bases his opinions upon the work of 

 Landois, Kraepelin, and Wagner, besides some 

 work of his own. He believes that the fleas 

 should be referred to an independent order, 

 and not classed with the flies. He calls at- 

 tention to the presence of a temporary larval 

 structure in the dog flea (Pulex canis) that 

 is, so far, unique among insects. This is an 

 egg-shell burster. It is a thin vertical plate 

 like the edge of a knife, situated on the me- 

 dian line, and so placed that the larva, by 

 rubbing its head back and forth, would pro- 

 duce a slight split in the shell and cause it 

 to burst asunder. In the larva just before 

 hatching the plate is no more hard than the 

 rest of the head ; later it entirely disappears. 

 While he places them nearer to the Diptera 

 than to any other order, he calls attention to 

 our very imperfect knowledge of their em- 

 bryology, and states that the present assign- 

 ment may be temporary. 



From Volume XIII of the Transactions 

 of the New York Academy of Sciences it ap- 

 pears that in the year ending in February, 

 1894, eighty-one papers had been presented 

 before the academy. The departments of 

 science most largely represented in these pa- 

 pers were zoology, astronomy, geology, and 

 paleontology, in the order named. This vol- 

 ume contains the report of the committee on 

 the Audubon monument, with the speech of 

 Prof. Thomas Eggleston presenting the mon- 

 ument to the corporation of Trinity Church, 

 that of Dr. Morgan Dix accepting it, and the 

 address of Daniel G. Elliot on the life and 

 services of Audubon. Among the more ex- 

 tended papers of the volume are Observa- 

 tions on the Geology and Botany of Martha's 

 Vineyard, by Arthur Hollick ; The Ore De- 

 posits at Franklin Furnace and Ogdensburg, 

 N. J., by J. F. Kemp; The Intrusive Rocks 



