THE NAUTILUS. 11 



3. Hemilastena ambigua is parasitic in nature upon the am- 

 phibian, Necturus maculosus, which in the cases observed be- 

 came inoculated in the fall, the young mussels being released 

 the last of May. 



4. Anodonta imbecillis develops without parasitism and gives 

 evidence of broad limits in the range of the breeding season. 



THE BALL BANQUET. 



A banquet to Dr. William Healey Dall, commemorating the 

 completion of fifty years of service to science, was given by his 

 friends at the Cosmos Club, Washington, on the evening of 

 April 21. 



Dr. Charles D. Walcott, Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution, was to preside, but in his absence, due to the death of 

 his father-in-law, Dr. Robert S. Woodward, President of the 

 Carnegie Institution of Washington, took the part of toastmaster 

 with wit and grace. 



The Toasts : 



Dall the Alaska Pioneer Dr. Alfred H. Brooks. 



Dall the Anthropologist Prof. Wm. H. Holmes. 



Dall the Coast Pilot Mr. Isaac Winston. 



Dall the Malacologist Dr. Henry A Pilsbry. 



Dall the Paleontologist Dr. T. Way land Vaughan. 



Dall the Zoologist Dr. C. Hart Merriam. 



Dall the Nomenclatorist Dr. Ch. Wardell Stiles. 



Dall the Poet Justice Wendell P. Stafford. 



Dall the Man General A. W. Greely. 

 Dr. Dall's response. 



Letters from absent friends of Dr. Dall were read by Dr. 

 Whitman Cross, Dr. Frederick A. Lucas, Mr. W. E. Safford 

 and Mr. Paul Brockett. 



The speakers were in friendly rivalry to claim Dall for their 

 own special branches of science. Among paleontologists he is 

 acknowledged the great leader in all relating to cenozoic faunas. 

 His "Tertiary Fauna of Florida" is a classic of American 

 paleontology. For years he has been the foremost authority on 

 zoological nomenclature in America. Malacologists almost forget 

 that Dall's work on recent mollusks is only one phase of his 

 many-sided scientific activity, since that alone seems so large an 



