356 NATURAL SCIENCE [November 



sules, £20; Comparative Histology of Cerebral Cortex, £10 ; Fertilisation of Phaeo- 

 phyceae, £20 ; Assimilation in Plants, £20 ; Zoological and Botanical Publica- 

 tion, £5. A total amount of £1495 which appears to be the record amount for 

 one year. 



The fiftieth anniversary of the American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science was eminently successful ; 903 members attended. Dr Alpheus S. Pack- 

 ard read a paper on " A Half-Century of Evolution, with Special Eeference to 

 the Effects of Geological Changes on Animal Life," a full report of which appears 

 in Science for Sept. 2. 



The Report of the Second Triennial Conference of the Irish Field Club 

 Union, which took place July 7 to 13, is published in the Irish Nahiralist for 

 September. The report is fully illustrated by Mr R. Welch's beautiful photo- 

 graphs, and contains a general account, reports on Arachnida, Hymenoptera, 

 Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Mollusca, Botany, and -Geology, by special- 

 ists in the various groups. 



The Natural History Society of New Brunswick increased by thirty-seven 

 members last year, and this according to the Thirty-Sixth Annual Report is a 

 satisfactory state of things. We should like to see the list still higher, for the 

 Society publishes useful and valuable information concerning the province, and 

 maintains a Museum on which it spent 88 dollars in 1897 out of an income of 

 471. From the Bulletin of the Society we learn that the Fredericton Natural 

 History Society, which was founded in 1895, held nine meetings in the winter 

 1897-8, and through its efforts the schools of the city of Fredericton have been 

 supplied with sets of common minerals for class use, while the High School is 

 being fitted out with a set of minerals of New Brunswick, a very excellent edu- 

 cational effort. We also learn from the same source that Kings County Natural 

 History Society, which was founded in 1897, holds regular meetings the first 

 Saturday in each month, has fifty-two names on its roll, and is divided into five 

 sections — geology and mineralogy, botany, zoology, ornithology, and entomology 

 — much after the style of our own Croydon Microscopical Club and others, and 

 each section is in charge of a committee of three. 



From the Annual Report of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society 

 for 1897 we note that the income for the year was 1473 dollars, of which 654 

 were used for the publication of No. 30 of the Journal, while no less than 600 

 remain as balance. The membership has increased. No. 31 of the Journal is in 

 the printer's hands, and the new map of the Malay Peninsula by Mr van Cuylen- 

 burg has been sent to Mr Edward Stanford for publication, and he hopes to have 

 it ready in February. 



The British Mycological Society held in September a successful long excursion 

 in Dublin. The Irish Naturalist will publish a full report. 



The Societe de Speleologie founded in 1895 has fully carried out its pro- 

 gramme, la Feuille des jeunes Naturalistes points out that the Society has sub- 

 sidised Mr Siderides' work in Pelojwnesus, that of the Cevenot Club in Les 

 Causses, and the work of Vire, Chevrot, Bidot, Kiiss, Guerillot, and others in the 

 Jura, as well as some operations undertaken by Mr Voisin, to render accessible 

 the Grotte de Baume-les-Messieurs in the Jura. The Society has published 

 eleven Bulletins with a total of 496 pages, and ten Me'moires, all fully illustrated, 

 which form a valuable scientific record. There are now 220 members ; the sub- 

 scription is only fifteen francs, and the Society is housed at 7 Rue des Grands- 

 Augustins, Paris. 



The Department of Agriculture of the Cape of Good Hope has issued as " G. 

 53— '98" the " Report of the Marine Biologist for the year 1897" by Mr J. D. 

 F. Gilchrist. In the report for 1896 and in the present report reliable informa- 



