279 



specimen. — Mr. P e die y also exliibited a living specimen of Moloch horri- 

 dus from West Australia. 



4. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. 



Anthropological Section. April 10. Chas. Morris, Recorder. 

 Prof. Witmer made a communication on the relations of modern Psycho- 

 logy to Anthropology. Numerous examples were adduced to illustrate the 

 connection between psychic and physical action, modern psychology beginn- 

 ing with a study of sensation rather than movement. The law of Fechner 

 and Weber that if stimuli increase in arithmetical proportion sensation will 

 increase in geometrical proportion was .although repudiated by physiologists 

 generally, held by the speaker as furnishing an index of discrimination and 

 indicating methods by which we can distinguish and measure individual re- 

 sponsiveness to various stimuli. Various devices for registering and measur- 

 ing psychical responsiveness were described. — The subjects of psycho- 

 neural tests , temperaments and the effects of stimuli on unconscious move- 

 ment were discussed by Messrs. Kavanaugh, Mills, Allen, Witmer 

 and Reisman. 



April 21 , 1896. — Mr. A. E. Bfown stated that he had recently had 

 an opportunity of examining in the British Museum a cast of the fragment 

 of skull of Pithecanthropus erectus discovered by Mr. Dubois. An exami- 

 nation of the cast supports the opinions advanced by Cope and Allen be- 

 fore the xlcademy that the remains as described and figured by Dubois 

 present no characters separating the species from Homo Neanderthalensis. 

 The Java skull is possibly a little flatter than the Neanderthal specimen but 

 this is purely individual and is compensated for by a bump over the coronal 

 suture. It is also a little more inflated postero -laterally, the supraorbital 

 ridges being perhaps not quite so thick although they project as much if not 

 more. The Java skull is about five-sixths or seven-eighths the length of the 

 other, the cubical capacity being somewhat less. — The phylogeny of man 

 and the apes was considered by Messrs. Rothermel, Brown and Chap- 

 man. 



5. Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft. 



Vom 28. — 30. Mai hat im Zoologischen und vergleichend-ana- 

 tomischen Institut zu Bonn unter dem Vorsitz des Herrn Prof. 

 Bütschli (Heidelberg) und unter Betheiligung von 41 ordentliclien 

 Mitgliedern und 13 Gästen die sechste Jahresversammlung stattgefun- 

 den. Am 27. Abends 6 Uhr war der Vorstand in der »Kaiserhalle« zxi 

 einer kurzen Sitzung zusammengetreten, und später fanden sich da- 

 selbst die zahlreichen Anwesenden zu gegenseitiger l^egrüßung und 

 zwanglosem Verkehr ein. Die erste Sitzung, am 28., wurde durch 

 eine Ansprache des Vorsitzenden eingeleitet, in welcher derselbe «Be- 

 trachtungen über Hypothesen und Beobachtung« anstellte. Der Cu- 

 rator der Universität Bonn, Se. Exe. der wirkliche Geheime llath 

 Dr. v. Rottenburg, begrüßte in seinem und des gleichfalls erschie- 

 nenen Hectors, Herrn Prof. Ritter, Namen die Gesellschaft, und 

 auch Herr Prof. Ludwig (Bonn) hieß dieselbe herzlich willkommen. 



