P OP ULAR MIS CULL ANY. 



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Geographical Section, gave a review of tho 

 " Early History of the North American Con- 

 tinent." In the General Sciences, Professor 

 E. D. Cope presented in a lecture " The Evi- 

 dence for Evolution in the History of the 

 Extinct Mammalia," and Dr. T. Sterry Hunt 

 outlined "A Classification of the Natural 

 Sciences." The Committee on Indexing 

 the Literature of Chemical Elements re- 

 ported progress to the Chemical Section. 

 Among the other papers read in the various 

 sections we notice that of Professor Ilolden, 

 of Madison, Wisconsin, on the total solar 

 eclipse of May 6, 1883, and Dr. Janssen's 

 letter on the French observations of the 

 same phenomenon. Mr. G. W. Hough, of 

 Chicago, discussed some " Physical Phe- 

 nomena on the Planet Jupiter." Mr. 0. S. 

 Woleott, of Chicago,considered " Some Hith- 

 erto Undeveloped Properties of Squares." 

 Professor W. A. Rogers continued from the 

 Montreal meeting the subject of the deter- 

 mination of the relation between the impe- 

 rial yard and the metre of the archives. 

 Mr. F. E. Nipher, of St. Louis, gave an ac- 

 count of the magnetic survey of Missouri. 

 The Signal Service received attention in a 

 criticism of its operations and efficiency by 

 Gustavus Heinrichs ; in an account by Pro- 

 fessor Mendenhall, of a method for the dis- 

 tribution of weather forecasts by means of 

 emblems fixed upon railway-trains, which 

 has been tried in Ohio ; and in a plan for a 

 State signal service, by Professor Nipher. 

 Professor Macfarland, of Towanda, Penn- 

 sylvania, endeavored to show, in his paper 

 on " The New Madrid Earthquake " of 1811, 

 that the phenomenon was not an earthquake, 

 but a subsidence of land which had been 

 undermined by limestone caverns. Julius 

 Pohlman, of Buffalo, presented a new view 

 of the " Life History of Niagara River " ; 

 Professor Warren Upham read a paper on 

 " The Minnesota Valley in the Ice Age." 

 Much attention was given to topics bearing 

 on agriculture, in the address of Professor 

 Beal on that subject, and in papers by Pro- 

 fessor Richardson on the composition of 

 American wheat, of Professor Sturtevant on 

 maize and sorghum kernels and on agricul- 

 tural botany, and of Professor H. W. Wiley 

 on American butter. Professor E. S. Morse 

 gave an interesting account of the manner 

 in which he had made use of the sun's 



rays for ventilating and partly warming his 

 rooms, and presented papers on Japanese 

 games and Eastern kitchens. Among the 

 remaining papers we remark those of Elizur 

 Wright on " Life - Insurance and Self -In- 

 surance " ; of Professor J. C. Arthur on a 

 sea-weed of the Wisconsin lakes which pro- 

 duces poisonous effects at particular sea- 

 sons ; of T. R. Baker on terra-cotta lumber ; 

 of Professor Claypole on the potato- beetle 

 and the Hessian fly ; of Professor Riley on 

 an insect exterminator ; and observations 

 on caverns, and on cyclones and tornadoes. 

 We propose to publish abstracts or full re- 

 ports in future numbers of such of these 

 papers as may be of more general and pop- 

 ular interest. The next meeting of the As- 

 sociation was appointed to be held in Phila- 

 delphia. Dr. J. P. Lesley, of Philadelphia, 

 was chosen President for the year, and 

 sectional vice-presidents were appointed as 

 follows : A (Mathematics and Astronomy), 

 Professor H. T. Eddy, of Cincinnati ; B 

 (Physics), Professor John Trowbridge, of 

 Cambridge ; C (Chemistry), Professor J. W. 

 Langley, of Ann Arbor ; D (Mechanical Sci- 

 ence), Professor H. B. Thurston, of Ilobo- 

 ken ; E (Geology and Geography), Professor 

 N. H. Winchell, of Minneapolis ; F (Biolo- 

 gy), Professor E. D. Cope, of Philadelphia ; 

 G (Histology and Microscopy), Professor T. 

 G. Wormley, of Philadelphia ; H (Anthro- 

 pology), Professor E. S. Morse, of Salem ; I 

 (Economic Science and Statistics), Hon. John 

 Eaton, of Washington. Permanent Secre- 

 tary, Mr. F. W. Putnam, of Cambridge ; 

 General Secretary, Dr. Alfred Springer, of 

 Cincinnati. 



Dr. Harkness on the Nevada Foot- 

 prints. Dr. D. W. Harkness has contributed 

 a paper to the San Francisco Academy of 

 Sciences stating his reasons for maintaining, 

 against the arguments of Professor Marsh 

 and others, that the Carson (Nevada) " foot- 

 prints " were made by a man, " homo JVeva- 

 deiisis" and not by a quadruped. The rea- 

 sons are founded on the evidence given by 

 the impressions that they were not made by 

 a natural foot, but by one supplied with an 

 artificial protection. Among the points of 

 evidence adduced by Dr. Harkness is that 

 the marks of the pads or cushions, with 

 which the feet of all animals are provided, 



