NOTES. 



863 



NOTES. 



The American Association, at its recent 

 Buffalo meeting, chose Professor S. P. Lang- 

 ley as its president for the year. The vice- 

 presidents or presidents of sections elected 

 are: Mathematics and Astronomy, William 

 Ferrell ; Physies, William A. Anthony ; 

 Chemistry, Albert B. Prescott ; Mechanical 

 Science and Engineering, Eckley B. Coxe ; 

 Geology and Geography, G. K. Gilbert ; Bi- 

 ology, W. G. Farlow ; Anthropology, D. G. 

 Brinton; Economic Science and Statistics, 

 Henry E. Alford. Permanent secretary, F. 

 W. Putnam ; general secretary, W. H. Pet- 

 tee ; assistant general secretary. J. C. Ar- 

 thur; treasurer, William Lilly. The place 

 for the next meeting was not decided upon. 



The " Botanical Gazette " says : " ' The 

 Popular Science Monthly' for June con- 

 tains a portrait and biographical sketch of 

 the late Dr. George Engelmann. The au- 

 thor is anonymous, but can hardly have 

 been a botanist, or he would not be so ig- 

 norant of the true authorship of the classic 

 ' Plantae Fendlerianae ' as to say, 'In 1849 

 Dr. Engelmann published in the " Memo- 

 randa [sic] of the American Academy of 

 Arts and Sciences " the " Plantae Fendleri- 

 ame." ' He infelicitously adds, regarding 

 Fendler : ' Fendler and he [Engelmann] had 

 become acquainted on a governmental ex- 

 pedition to the Rocky Mountains, to which 

 the former was attached as engineer. . . . 

 He traveled in the Rocky Mountains, Cali- 

 fornia, Mexico, Central America, and Bra- 

 zil.' Fendler did not become acquainted j 

 with Engelmann in this way ; he was never : 

 attached officially to any governmental ex- 

 pedition ; he was not an engineer ; and he 

 traveled neither in the Rocky Mountains, 

 nor California, nor Mexico, nor Central 

 America, nor Brazil ! " 



Our sketch of Dr. Engelmann was pre- 

 pared from documents furnished us by his 

 friends in St. Louis. The statements to 

 which the " Gazette " objects are given 

 precisely as they appeared in one of the 

 papers. As the " Gazette " has recently 

 published Fendler's autobiography, it is 

 probably in a position to be better in- 

 formed, respecting the events of his life, 

 than is the biographer of another man who 

 only had occasion to refer to them incident- 

 ally. We are glad to be set right on the 

 facts. 



Professor L. E. Hicks, in one of the 

 papers which he read at the American As- 

 sociation on the geology of Nebraska, spoke 

 of the strong artesian flow of water con- 

 tained in all the borings of the eastern part 

 of the State. This is because the region is a 

 vast synclinal trough or basin, of which the 

 western rim is three thousand feet higher 

 than the eastern. 



Professor Asa Gray sent two commu- 

 nications of a technical character to the 

 American Association, and with them a let- 

 ter to the Botanical Club, respecting his 

 nomenclature of violets. He makes out 

 thirty-three wild North American species of 

 these plants, of which only eight are repre- 

 sented in the Old World. He acknowledges 

 himself to be in doubt whether our pansy 

 violet is indigenous to this country. 



Mr. Joseph Jastrow read a paper be- 

 fore the American Association on centena- 

 rianism, in which he made an elaborate cal- 

 culation of the proportion of cases in which 

 claims to this distinction should be elimi- 

 nated for want of trustworthy evidence, or 

 as based on exaggeration. Removing these, 

 he concluded that there were about fifty cen- 

 tenarians in the United States. Some of his 

 conclusions were disputed ; but he is said to 

 have, in the di'scussions that followed, shown 

 himself to be well fortified. 



The statistical reports of the American 

 Association show that it has doubled its 

 membership within the last twenty years. 

 Two hundred and fifty -two papers were 

 read at the recent Buffalo meeting, against 

 one hundred and seventy in 1876, and sixty- 

 seven in 1866. 



"Theism" is the somewhat awkward 

 and confusing name given to a class of dis- 

 eases that arise from the wrong use of tea. 

 The predominance of nervous symptoms is 

 a characteristic of the condition ; and it may 

 be observed in a general excitation of the 

 nervous function, or in special weakness of 

 the brain. Perversion of the sense of hear- 

 ing is a not uncommon form of the symp- 

 toms. The weakness that often overtakes 

 women may sometimes be traced to excess- 

 ive indulgence in their favorite drink. Taken 

 in strict moderation, and prepared with 

 proper care, tea is a valuable stimulant ; 

 but there is hardly a morbid symptom that 

 it is not capable, when used in excess, of 

 producing. 



The American Association designated 

 Dr. Pohlman, of Buffalo, who had served 

 as its local secretary, as its representative 

 at the meeting of German Naturalists and 

 Physicians. This will be its first formal 

 representation before that body. 



According to M. Mantegazza, 64 per 

 cent of the Italians have chestnut, 22 per 

 cent black, 1 1 per cent blue, and 3 per cent 

 gray, eyes ; VI per cent of them have chest- 

 nut, 26 per cent black, and 3 per cent blonde 

 hair. More than three fourths of the people 

 have abundant hair. Southern Italy excels 

 Northern Italy in this respect. In Tuscany 

 the poor heads of hair preponderate (58 

 against 42 per cent), and baldness is most 

 common there. The color of the beards 



