852 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in the Proceedings of the National Museum, 

 Washington. 



The Bulletin from the Laboratories of 

 Natural History of the State University of 

 Iowa, Nos. 3 and 4, contains six papers — viz., 

 Some New Species of Palaeozoic Fossils, by 

 S. Calvin ; The Saprophytic Fungi of East- 

 ern Iowa, and Common Species of Edible 

 Fungi, by T. H. McBride ; The Loess and its 

 Fossils, and A New Species of Fresh- Water 

 Mollusk, by B. Shimer ; and the Pselaphidae 

 of North America, by Dr. E. Brendel and 

 H. F. Wickham. Published by authority of 

 the Regents, at Iowa City. 



Among the latest papers left by Prof. 

 Leo Lesquereuz is one On Some Fossil Re- 

 mains considered as Peculiar Kinds of Plants, 

 which appears as one of the publications of 

 the United States National Museum. It re- 

 lates to some fossils, one of which, from the 

 Upper Helderberg limestone, Sandusky, Ohio, 

 is like a long, flexuous, tubular stem imbed- 

 ded in a large piece of compact gray lime- 

 stone. The others, from the Erie shale near 

 Cleveland, are cylindrical fragments traced 

 in relief upon gray, hard, yellowish, sandy 

 shale, or else short, oval, utricular bodies, 

 rounded at one end, bilobate at the other, 

 found on large flattened pebbles or lenticular 

 masses of argillaceous iron ore, locally dis- 

 tributed in the shale. The author named 

 the fossils Halymenites Herzeri, Cylindrites 

 striatus, and Physophycus bilobatus — all new 

 species. 



Prof. A. H. Mackay publishes, as a re- 

 print from the Transactions of the Royal 

 Society of Canada, a paper on the Fresh- 

 Water Sponges of Canada and Newfoundland. 

 It is intended to be only a synopsis, just 

 sufficient to indicate the extent to which the 

 Spongillidse of the Dominion have been ob- 

 served, and to facilitate further investiga- 

 tion. After the introductory general ob- 

 servations on the Spongillidae, ten species are 

 described, of which Heteromegenia pictoven- 

 sis, of different lakes in Nova Scotia and 

 Newfoundland, is declared to be the firmest 

 and most beautiful of all the fresh-water 

 sponges in Canada. 



The Catalogue of Minerals for Sale by 

 George L. English <fc Co., Philadelphia (Wil- 

 liam Niven, New York), fifteenth edition, 

 June, 1890, is a hand-book and bulletin in 

 mineralogy as well as a dealers' list. Be- 



sides the ordinary catalogue matter, it con- 

 tains forty pages of accounts, with illus- 

 trated descriptions, of new minerals. The 

 catalogue matter itself is of scientific value, 

 for it includes a complete classified list of all 

 the species described in Dana's System and 

 in the appendixes and the more recent ac- 

 counts in the American Journal of Science. 

 The pleasant information is given that the 

 present elaborate catalogue is the result of 

 a very great increase in the demand for min- 

 eral specimens. 



A new theory of TJie Origin of Polar 31o- 

 tion is put forward by M. Myerovitch, who 

 attempts to prove that the motion arises 

 from the repulsive power of molecules. The 

 author has published the introduction of his 

 contemplated book on the subject in advance 

 of the book itself, for the information of 

 critics. Rosenberg Brothers, 266 West 

 Twelfth Street, Chicago, 111. 



Zoe, a monthly Biological Journal (Zoe 

 Publishing Company, San Francisco), is filled 

 with contributions of natural-history notes 

 incident and pertinent to the West and the 

 Pacific slope. In a recent number, Mr. Behr's 

 paper on the Economy of Nature as Exem- 

 plified by Parasites gives illustrations of the 

 danger of reckless interference with the 

 natural order of affairs. President Jordan 

 accounts for some apparent anomalies in the 

 Distribution of Fishes in the Yellowstone 

 Park. Mr. T. S: Brandegee has some obser- 

 vations on the alternate defoliation and new 

 leafing of Fouquieria several times in the 

 season, according to changes in the moisture 

 conditions — a fact that is not unknown with 

 some species on the Atlantic slope. Mr. H. 

 R. Taylor describes some curious incidents 

 of individuality in the nesting habits of the 

 golden eagle. 



Among the eight papers in the fifth and 

 sixth numbers of Studies in the Biological 

 Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University, 

 Yol. IY, H. Newell Martin and W. K. 

 Brooks, editors, we notice as of more ob- 

 vious general interest those of Prof. Martin 

 and Julius Friedenwald on the Effect of 

 Light on the Production of Carbon Dioxide 

 by Frogs ; of J. C. Hemmeter on -the Effects 

 of Certain Members of the Ethylic Alcohol 

 Series on the Isolated Mammalian Heart ; of 

 Prof. Martin and E. C. Applcgarth on the 



