57?: 



NATURE 



[October 12, 1893 



of printing. Wilh regard to publication, negotiations respecting 

 the proposed album of represenlaiive photographs were then in 

 progress. The Erratic Blocks Committee had presented a 

 report, and they were going to publish as much as they could 

 as soon as possible. The Coast Erosion Committee had not 

 sent in a report, though they had plenty of material in hand. 

 The Committee on Type Specimens in Museums was making 

 arrangements for the registration of those specimens, and 

 information was required as to where those specimens were 

 housed. 



In Section D, Mr. T.V. Holmes (secretary) read a letter from 

 Dr. Vachell stating that he had come to Nottingham in order 

 to present the Report of the Birds' Eggs Protection Com- 

 mittee that morning, September i6, and regretted he should be 

 unable to stay till the conference on the 19th. 



Mr. Slater thought it was high time something was done to 

 protect the eggs of wild birds. Influence might be brought to 

 bear upon boys. He also deprecated the wanton shooting of 

 gulls. 



The Chairman stated that the committee had been re- 

 appointed, and that the delegates would in due time receive 

 a final communication on the question. 



Mr. Holmes then read a le.tt«r from Mr. W. Cole, hon. sec. 

 Essex Field Club, on the maintenance of local museums. Mr. 

 Cole thought that if an annual sum for the maintenance of local 

 museums could be obtained from the Technical Education 

 grants in each county, there would be no great difficulty in 

 obtaining substantial sums towards buildings and fittings. The 

 fear that a museum might not be permanent often kept back 

 subscriptions. Donations, both of money and of specimens, 

 would rapidly come in when once the public felt that the 

 museum would be permanent. And in no way could a portion 

 of the Technical Education grant be better expended than in 

 placing on a satisfactory footing the local museum of the county. 

 The Chairman hoped that members of the Corresponding 

 Societies would occasionally read papers on the specimens in 

 their local museums, each writer keeping to a certain depart- 

 ment. These papers would be catalogued in the societies' list, 

 and brought before the notice of many workers in the same sub- 

 ject elsewhere. They would also be available for reference at 

 headquarters in London. 



In Section H, the Chairman commended the Ethnographical 

 Survey (the first report of which had been placed in their hands 

 at the previous meeting) to ihe attention of the delegates and 

 the societies they represented, and explained in what ways they 

 could assist the committee. Local physical, intellectual and 

 moral characteristics, folk-lore, manners, custom', dialect, and 

 ancient monuments might all be noted by various observers, 

 and the results sent to the Ethnographical Committee. Ancient 

 human remains should be carefully preserved, together with 

 any pottery and implements I'ound with them. If any difficulty 

 occurred with regard to the best mode of making any explora- 

 tion, information might always be obtained at the Anthropo- 

 logical Institute, 3, Hanover Square, London. In some cases 

 he had known pottery arid implements had been carefully pre- 

 served, and bones thrown away or buried ; in others skulls had 

 been kept by the explorer, and the large bones thrown away. 

 The Anthropological Institute was always ready to advise or to 

 send some one do« n to examine the rem.ains found. It was 

 better to leave barrows, &c., as they were, unless people were 

 prepared to examine them thoroughly and systematically. 



After .'ome remarks on a proposed excursion of the delegates, 

 a vote of thanVs to the chairman closed the proceedings. 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 



'X'HE fifth summer meeting of the Geological Society of 

 ■^ America was held at Madison, Wisconsin, on August 15 

 and 16 ; vice-presidents J. C. Chamberlain and John J. Steven- 

 son presiding, in theabsence of the president. Sir J. W. Dawson. 



The popular feature of the meeting was an illustrated lecture in 

 the Asstnvbly Chamber of the Capitol, by Prof. H. F. Keid, 

 on " The Gravels of Glacier Bay, Alaska." The stereopticon 

 views gave quite the best exhibit of this interesting glacial region 

 that has yet been presented. 



The papers presented included a description of a new species 

 of Dinichthys, a new Cladodus from the Cleveland shale, and a 

 remarkable fossil jaw from the Cleveland shale, by Prof. E. W. 

 Claypole, who is carrying on the work begun by the late Prof. 



NO. 1250, VOL. 48] 



J. S. Newberry on Devonian fossil fishes. The remains de- 

 scribed are those of new and remarkable species, one of them 

 showing a degree of specialisation quite surprising for that low 

 horizon. The author even surmised that some of the remains 

 may be amphibian. 



Prof. J. J. Stevenson, in his paper on the origin of thePennsyl- 

 vania anthracite, seemed to have actually subverted the accepted 

 dogma, that the metamorphosis into anthracite was caused by 

 disturbances of the strata. He showed that the diflference between 

 anthracite and bituminous beds is due to circumstances con- 

 nected with deposition; the former having been laid down 

 rapidly and in thiclc beds, and having been long under water ; 

 they are also earlier than the bituminous beds. 



G. Frederick Wright and A. Frederick Wright, in their re- 

 spective papers on exiramorainic drift in New Jersey, and on the 

 limits of the glaciated area of New Jersey, admitted the correct- 

 ness of Prof. Salisbury's first announcement that these weie 

 genuine glacial depo^its, though occuning beyond the limits of 

 the glaciated area. 



Edward H. Williams, Jun., in a paper on South Mountain 

 glaciation, described a similar formation in Pennsylvania, where 

 he found transported Medina sandstone and glacial striaiion. 



The programme also included papers on the study of fossil 

 plant=, by J. W. Dawson ; the Manganese series of the 

 North-Western States, by C. W. Hall and F. W. Lardeson ; 

 on the succession in the Marquette Iron district of Michigan, 

 by C. R. Van Hise ; terrestrial subsidence south-east of the 

 American Continent, by J. W. Spencer ; evidences of the 

 derivation of the kames, eskers, and moraines of the North 

 American ice-sheet, chiefly from its englacial drift, and the 

 succession of pleistocene formations in the Mississippi and Niel- 

 son River basins, by Warren Upham ; the cenozoic history of 

 Eastern Virginia and Maryland, by N. H. Darton : the 

 Arkansas coal measures in their relation to the Pacific carbon- 

 iferous province, by James P. Smith ; glaciation of the 

 White Mountains, N.H., by C. H. Hitchcock; dislocation 

 in the strata of the lead and zinc region of Wisconsin, and their 

 relation to the mineral deposits, wilh some observations upon 

 the origin of the ores, by \V. P. Blake; geology of the sand 

 hill region in the Carolinas, by J. H. Holmes ; notes of 

 geological exhibits at the World's Fair, by G. N. Williams. 



BLEEDING BREAD. 



'"piIE phenomenon known in Germany as "Blut im Erode," 

 and to ns as bleeding bread, has appeared in this country, 

 to no little dismay of the peaceful inhabitants. The subjects of 

 this visitation are not only bread and biscuit, but also boiled 

 potatoes, rice, and other farinaceous substances, on which red 

 stains appear, which resemble blotches of blood. In former 

 times, before their nature was known, these blood stains created 

 much consternation amongst the superstitious as portents of 

 calamity. The first modern naturalist who described it in 

 scientific terms was Dr. Sette, of Venice, who recorded its ap- 

 pearance in Padua, in 1819, and gave it \.\\tx\zme.o\ Zoogalactina 

 imetropha. In this instance it is stated that " a peasant of 

 Liguara, near Padua, was terrified by the sight of blood stains 

 scattered over some polenta, which had been made and shut 

 up in a cupboard on the previous evening. Next day similar 

 patches appeared on the bread, meat, and other articles of food 

 in the same cupboard. It was naturally regarded as a miracle 

 and warning from heaven, until the case had been submitted to 

 a Paduan naturalist, who easily recognised the presence of a 

 microscopic plant." 1 Subsequently Ehrenberg saw the same 

 production near Berlin, in 1848, and, as usual with him under 

 like circumstances, referred it to the animal kingdom, under the 

 name of Monas pyodigiosa ; but daring the same year it 

 occurred in the experience of Dr. Camille Montagne, who 

 saw it on cooked fowls and cauliflower, at Rouen, and it was 

 regarded as an Algoid, under the name of Palmella prodigiosa. 

 The first definite record of its occurrence in Britain appears to 

 have been in 1853, when H. O. Stephens communicated an 

 account of it to the Bristol Microscopical Soci.;ty, and submitted 

 specimens to the late Rev. M. J. Berkelev, who declared it to 

 be identical with the organisms describ .d by Ehrenberg and 

 Montagne, but which he regarded as a '.un'gus. 



The record of its appearance at Btistol is to the following 



1 Trouessart, " Microbes, &c. London, 1S39, p, 126. 



