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NATURAL SCIENCE. March, 



been employed to look after the buildings and their contents. There is a con- 

 siderable collection of mammals, birds, reptiles, fishes, and insects, and also a large 

 number of ethnological specimens and minerals. To the curator's duties is added 

 the charge of the lending and reference library, which is in the same building. The 

 salary is 3,600 dollars, with free passage to and from England, and a house. 



The thirteenth annual meeting of the American Society of Naturalists opened 

 at Baltimore on December 27. The first discussion was held upon "Environment 

 in its Influence upon the Successive Stages of Development and as a Cause of 

 Variation," Professor Osborn leading, and being followed by Professors Cope and 

 Hyatt. Professor Brooks read a paper on " An Intrinsic Error in the Theories of 

 Galton and Weismann." Professor Cope was elected President for 1895. The 

 retiring President, Dr. Minot, gave an address entitled " The Work of the 

 Naturalist in the World." 



The Geological Society of America held its seventh annual meeting on 

 December 27, 28, 29, at Baltimore, in the rooms of the Johns Hopkins University. 

 Professor Chamberlin presided, and delivered an address on " Recent Glacial 

 Studies in Greenland." 



Professor Edmund B. Wilson has been elected President for 1895 of the 

 American Morphological Society. At a meeting recently held in Baltimore he read 

 papers on " The ' Quadrille of the Centrosomes ' in the Echinoderm Egg; a second 

 contribution to Biological Morphology," and on the "Polarity of the Egg in 

 Toxopneustes." Professor Hyatt, at the same meeting, announced his researches 

 upon the " Parallelisms between the Ontogeny and Phylogeny of Pecten." 



The officers of the " Michigan Academy of Sciences," which was founded at 

 Ann Arbor on June 27, 1894, are :— W. J. Beal, President; J. B. Steere, Vice- 

 President ; F. C. Newcombe, Secretary; W. B. Barrows, and I. C. Russel. It has 

 been decided that the Academy shall have for its first object the study of the Natural 

 History of the State of Michigan. 



At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London, on February 6, Dr. Holding 

 exhibited a deer horn which had been gnawed by some animal. The general state- 

 ment of keepers is that deer nibble the horns themselves, especially the hinds ; but the 

 appearance of the antler shown seemed to show that the gnawing had been the work 

 of rodents. Dr. Gadow remarked that in Germany it was not unusual for portions 

 of the exterior surface of the antler to be removed by slugs. In the Journal of the 

 Bombay Natural History Society (ix., no. 2) the Assistant Conservator of Forests at 

 Nagpur, Mr. P. H. Clutterbuck, writes to say in that district Sambuhr horns are 

 gnawed by porcupines, and he has found such gnawed horns in the " run " of that 

 animal. The natives say the porcupine gnaws such articles for food, but Mr. 

 Clutterbuck thinks the purpose is more for sharpening the teeth. 



The changes in the house list of the Geological Society this year are as 

 follows: — General McMahon and Mr. Hudleston become Vice-Presidents in the 

 room of Dr. Hinde and Professor Judd ; Mr. Blanford succeeds Professor Wilt- 

 shire as Treasurer. The Geologists' Association have lost Mr. Hudleston and 

 Professor Blake as Vice-Presidents, their places being filled by Dr. Hinde and Mr. 

 T. V. Holmes. The Association rejoices in a balance of /16 on their annual 

 account. 



Mr. Bayard, the United States Ambassador, was present at the Geological 

 Society on February 15, and received the Bigsby Medal on behalf of Mr. C. D. 

 Walcott, of Washington. 



