424 



appartenant au pays dans lequel doit avoir lieu la prochaine session 

 du Congrès. Le nom des lauréats sera proclamé en séance solennelle; 

 il sera transmis sans délai au président de la Société des amis des sci- 

 ences naturelles. 



Enfin, il a été décidé que la langue française serait seule admise 

 pour toutes les affaires du Congrès, notamment pour la correspondance 

 et pour les travaux manuscrits ou imprimés. 



2. Linnean Society of New South Wales. 



July 27th, 1892. — 1) Observations on the poisonous constituents of 

 the Venom of the Australian Black Snake [Pseudechis porphyriacus) . By C. 

 J. Martin, M.B., B.Sc, Lond., Demonstrator of Physiology in the Uni- 

 versity of Sydney, late Demonstrator of Physiology, King's College, London. 

 (Communicated by J. J. Fletcher.) The autor gives an account of his in- 

 vestigation of the venom of the black snake with regard to the presence of 

 albumose. The poison from two black snakes was placed under absolute 

 alcohol for three months, by which means all the proteids were precipitated. 

 From the alcohol used (which was free from proteid) a volatile organic acid 

 was separated. Neither the alcoholic extract nor the acid possessed any 

 toxic properties. A portion of the coagulated proteid was soluble in 0,7 ^ 

 salt solution , and the solution so obtained was very virulent , and when in- 

 jected into the veins of a small animal caused death with the usual symptoms 

 of snake poisoning. From this solution two albumoses were separated, which 

 were shown to be the bodies to which the solution owed its poisonous po- 

 wer. — 2) On gall-making Buprestidae. By W. W. Froggatt. This paper 

 gives an account of the gall-like excrescences formed by three species of 

 Ethon, namely by E. affine^ L. and G., on the stems of Pultenaea stipularis, 

 and by E. corpulentum and E. marmoreum on the roots of Dillwynia erici- 

 folia. — 3) On the Pliocene Mollusca of New Zealand. By Professor F. W. 

 Hutton, F.G.S., Hon. Mem. L.S.N.S.W. This paper, which will appear 

 in the forthcoming Macleay Memorial Volume , gives a complete list of the 

 Mollusca hitherto met with in the Pliocene fossiliferous beds of New Zea- 

 land. Such beds have been found only in the southern and eastern parts of 

 the North Island. About 64 per cent, of the Pliocene Mollusca are also 

 found in Miocene rocks, but the Pliocene fauna is well characterised firstly 

 by the presence of the genera Trophon . Columbella , Turricula , and Mytili- 

 carda, by the absence of certain genera present in Miocene strata, and thirdly 

 by the small size of sundry species common to both formations. From the 

 recent fauna, that of the Pliocene is distinguished by the presence of from 

 23 — 37 per cent, of extinct species, and of a number of genera no represen- 

 tatives of which up to the present time are known to inhabit New Zealand 

 seas. The Pliocene fauna, therefore, seems to be the remains of an earlier 

 fauna disappearing rapidly before the conquering host of the recent fauna, 

 which had invaded New Zealand some time previously. — 4) Contributions 

 to our Knowledge of Ceratodus. Part I. The Blood Vessels. By W. Baldwin 

 Spencer, M.A., Professor of Biology in the University of Melbourne. 

 (Communicated by Professor Haswell.) — The author finds that the arte- 

 rial system of Ceratodus in certain respects shows a resemblance to that of 



