SCIENTIFIC NOTEvS AND NEWS 



The Pick and Hammer Club met at the Geological Survey on February 2(5. 

 President W. W. Atwood of Clark University spoke on TJie Quaternary 

 geology and the physiography of the San Juan region of Colorado. 



The interchange of publications between Germany and the United States, 

 which was suspended when this country entered the \A'orld War in 1917, has 

 been resimied by the International Exchaiige Service of the vSmithsonian 

 Institution. 



The Di\-ision of Insects of the National Museum has recently acquired 

 specimens of a minute subterranean Arthropod, belonging to the class My- 

 rientomaia. This class, which differs from insects in having no antennae, 

 was hitherto represented in the collection only by four specimens of an 

 Italian species. The new local specimens were taken by Messrs. Barber 

 and Mann, along the Potomac. It is probable that species of this group 

 are not rare, but because of their minute size and subterranean habit are 

 usually overlooked by the collector. 



The Petrologists' Club met on February 15, and discussed papers by M. I. 

 Goldman on Early stages of nietamorphism in sedimentary rocks, and D. F. 

 Hkwett on Bentonite. 



Dr. Charles H. Herty, editor of the Jottrnal of Industrial and Engineering 

 Chemistry and chairman of the committee to cooperate with the Chemical 

 Warfare Service, gave a lecture on The Reserves of the Chemical l]'arfare 

 Service at the National Museum, at 8 p.m., Monday, February 21. The 

 lecture was given under the auspices of the National Research Council, and 

 was accompanied by a popular exhibit emphasizing the importance of funda- 

 mental research in chemistry and its relation to national defense, medicine 

 and industry. This exhibit was later opened to the public at the offices of 

 the Council, 1701 Massachusetts Avenue. 



'Mr. L. W. Wallace has been appointed executive secretar)^ of the American 

 Engineering Council, the executive body of the Federated American Engineer- 

 ing Societies. 



The second annual convention of the Federal Department of the American 

 Association of Engineers was held at the New Ebbitt Hotel, February 28 to 

 :^Iarch 2. 



The Division of Insects of the United States National Museum has recently 

 received an interesting collection of subterranean and cave-inhabiting Cole- 

 optera, which contains 244 specimens, representing K)() species, all of which 

 are new to the National Collection. This accession came from two Austrian 

 entomologists who have made a specialty of those obscure and unusual beetles 

 so abundant in the caves of Europe. Last year these two gentlemen. Pro- 

 fessor Otto Scheerpeltz and Professor Emil Moczarski, addressed a letter 

 to the Entomological Society of Washington, in which they offered to sell 

 their valuable collection for food drafts. By means of a private subscription 

 taken among the various membei^s of the Society, a sufficient sum was real- 

 ized with which to purchase a number of food drafts, and at the time of mailing 

 these, Professor Scheerpeltz and Professor Moczarski were informed that the 

 vSociety would be glad to accept for the collection of our National Museum 

 specimens from their duplicates. The splendid sending mentioned above 

 is the result, and has been accessioned as a gift from these distinguished 

 \'iennese entomologists. (S. A. R.) 



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