6 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 211. 



The Educational Review for January, which 

 is tlie first number of the seventeenth volume, 

 opens with an article by Dr. W. T. Harris on 

 the future of the normal school, reviewing ' the 

 five stages ' in education. Dr. Harris quotes 

 for edification the anecdotes of Newton and the 

 apple and Cuvier reconstructing an extinct ani- 

 mal from a single bone. Professor Thurston con- 

 tributes the paper on professional and academic 

 schools read by him at the Association of Col- 

 leges and Preparatory Schools of the Middle 

 States and Maryland, and Dr. E. L. Thorndike 

 points out the sentimentality of nature study, 

 which interferes with the teaching of science. 



The Macmillan Company announces the pub- 

 lication, in February, under the editorship of 

 Mr. Frank BI. Chapman, of the first number of 

 a popular bi monthly magazine, addressed to 

 observers rather than to collectors of birds. 

 The contributors will include John Burroughs, 

 Dr. Henry Van Dyke, Bradford Torrey, Olive 

 Thorne Miller, Mabel Osgood Wright, Annie 

 Trumbull Slosson, Florence A. Merriam, J. A. 

 Allen, William Brewster, Henry Nehrling, Ern- 

 est Seton'Thompson, Otto Widmann and numer- 

 ous other writers. 



A Yearbook of Neurology and Psychiatry 

 is announced by S. Karger, Berlin, edited by 

 Drs. Flatau and Jacobsohn, under the direction 

 of Professor Mendel. The work is prepared 

 with the cooperation of a large number of lead- 

 ing German neurologists, and will perform a 

 useful function, owing to the wide dispersion in 

 many journals of publications on the subjects 

 included. It will give not only a bibliography 

 of some thirty-five hundred titles of the litera- 

 ture of 1897, but also short reviews of their 

 contents. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILA- 

 DELPHIA. 



October 4. Mr. Louis Woolman, reporting on 

 a specimen of the earth said to be eaten in the 

 South, received through Mr. Wilfred H. 

 Harned from Davidson county, N. C, stated 

 that the substance is not diatomaceous. It had 

 been found, on examination by Mr. S. H. 

 Hamilton, to be composed of twenty per cent. 



silica and eighty per cent, of kaolin, with a trace 

 of alum. 



Mr. Edw. Goldsmith spoke of the igneous 

 origin of the rocks on the Massachusetts coast. 

 He suggested that they are of the same age as 

 the Pennsylvania traps and may, therefore, 

 furnish evidence of the existence of craters. 



October 11. Mr. Philip P. Calvert, in con- 

 nection with the meeting of the Entomological 

 Section, presented a statement on recent study 

 of neuroptera, reviewing the work of the last 

 three years, or since 1895, when a synopsis of 

 the natural history of the dragon-flies was given 

 before the International Congress of Zoology by 

 Dr. De Selys Longchamp, whose work on these 

 insects extends over a period of sixty-seven 

 years. He has described at least one-half of 

 the two thousand recognized species. The im- 

 portant papers published since the date given 

 were reviewed and their scope commented on. 



Mr. Charles S. Welles described a vast 

 swarm of the larvse of Daremma Catalpss ob- 

 served during the summer at Media. The de- 

 velopment and distribution of the insect were 

 described and illustrated by specimens. 



Dr. Henry Skinner further commented on 

 the life-history of the species. 



Mr. Wither Stone spoke of the distribution 

 and relationship oi Neotoma pennsylvanica and its 

 separation from the fossil Neotoma magister, de- 

 scribed by Baird from the caves of Pennsylvania. 



October IS. Dr. Edw. J. Nolan presented to 

 the Academy five volumes prepared as a me- 

 morial of the late Dr. Joseph Leidy. They con- 

 sist of a collection of biographical notices, 

 portraits, autograph letters, manuscripts, ori- 

 ginal drawings of botanical and zoological sub- 

 jects and notes, the latter having been con- 

 tributed for the most part by Mrs. Leidy. After 

 describing the contents of the volumes, Dr. 

 Nolan commented on the attainments and per- 

 sonal character of the distinguished naturalist 

 out of loving regard for whom they had been 

 prepared. 



Mr. John A. Shulze called attention to 

 specimens of Isthmia nervosa from Hudson's 

 Strait. The species was formerly supposed to 

 be confined to the western coast. Its georaph- 

 ical distribution was further considered by Mr. 

 Lewis Woolman and BIr. Frank J. Keeley. 



