THE NAUTILUS. 59 
to modify the regulations so that such specimens may be entered in 
the mails as “samples of merchandise ;” but that a sufficient num- 
ber of countries had voted against the proposition to defeat it. 
Those countries voting negatively were Austria, Bolivia, British 
India, Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Guatemala, Hungary, 
Japan, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Tunis, Uraguay 
and Venezuela. 
The Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia has appointed, 
through its President, a Committee (Chairman, Mr. P. P. Calvert) 
to address the various scientific bodies with which it is in communi- 
cation in those countries, and to request them to memorialize their 
respective Governments in favor of the proposed modification. The 
letter rate for postage in the Postal Union is ten times that required 
for samples of merchandise, so that the former is virtually prohib- 
itive. 
In view of the fact that the subject is one which concerns all 
Zoologists, the NauTiLus would urge its readers to use such influ- 
ence as they may be able in favor of the proposed change. Foreign 
Conchologists living in the countries named above, will, it is hoped, 
exert their influence toward the modification desired. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
Mr. E. W. Roper of Revere, Mass., returning from Chicago, 
visited the Conchological fraternity of Washington and Phila- 
delphia recently. 
Dr. B. SHarp of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila- 
delphia has departed on a scientific mission to the Sandwich Islands. 
He expects to return in December. 
A VALUABLE MONOGRAPH upon the “ Pleistocene History of 
Northeastern Iowa,” by W. J. M’Gee appears in the Eleventh 
Annual Report of the U.S. Geological Survey, just issued. 
The senior Editor of the Nauriuus is engaged upon a guide of 
the Heliciform land snails. All of the genera and subgenera will 
be thoroughly defined, both as to shells and anatomy ; a number of 
species of every subdivision will be figured, the anatomy will be 
figured, and the species of each groyp will be enumerated. An 
