56 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IX. No. 218. 



perspiration, a more rapid pulse, enlargement 

 of the liver, antemia, and perhaps a rise of body 

 temperature. Hygiene, as is shown by statistics, 

 is effective in reducing the death rate, and thus 

 in making life possible for white men in the 

 tropics. While a strong person may, with prop- 

 er care, live nearly anywhere in the tropics, 

 he does not become independent of the tropical 

 climate. Accordingly, authorities agree, with 

 only a very few exceptions, that true acclimati- 

 zation of the white man in the tropics is impos- 

 sible. 



J. M. BOUTWELL, 



Recording Secretary. 



ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, OF PHILA- 

 DELPHIA. 



January 21^, 1899. Mr. Wither Stone 

 made a communication on the Academy's 

 collection of birds and its history. He quoted 

 from Sclater to the effect that in 1852 the 

 collection was the largest in existence. The 

 work of American ornithologists from Alex- 

 ander Wilson to those of our own time, most 

 of whom had been more or less intimately 

 associated with the Academy, was commented 

 on and two of Wilson's types were exhibited. 

 They were the only ones known to the speaker 

 to be in existence, all the othei-s having appar- 

 ently been lost on the breaking up of Peale's 

 Museum, of which they formed part. After 

 commenting on the growth of the collection, 

 Mr. Stone spoke of the modes of preservation 

 and exhibition, dwelling on the advantage of 

 keeping the bulk of the specimens as flattened 

 skins in air-tight drawers. Fine specimens of 

 recent taxidermic work were exhibited and con- 

 trasted with the 'stuffed' birds of half a cen- 

 tury ago. The communication formed a most 

 interesting contribution to the history of the 

 Academy and will make part of the first number 

 of the Proceedings for 1899. 



A paper entitled ' Contributions to the Life- 

 History of Plants, No. XIH.,' by Thomas 

 Meehan, was presented for publication. 



January 31. Professor Henry A. Pilsbry 

 called attention to a small collection of shells 

 from New Mexico and Arizona, received from 

 Mr. Ashmun, whose zeal as a collector had In- 

 creased the number of species of the region 



from about a dozen to over one hundred. The 

 snails are almost entirely confined to the moun- 

 tains and they exhibit the characters of forms 

 from archipelagoes, only one species of a genus 

 being found on one mountain range. Six spe- 

 cies of Pupa were from six distinct localities. 



Dr. p. p. Calvert commented on the influ- 

 ence of the heat of the room in hastening the 

 development of dragon-flies from nymphte. 



A paper entitled ' A List of Fishes collected 

 at Port Antonio, Jamaica,' by Henry M. Fowler, 

 was presented for publication. 



February 7. Messrs. George and William 

 S. Vaux, Jr., made a communication on the 

 Illecellewaet and Asulkan Glaciers of British 

 Columbia. After Mr. George Vaux, Jr., had 

 exhibited a large number of beautiful lantern 

 views of the region, illustrating the distribution 

 of peaks, glaciers and ranges, Mr. William S. 

 Vaux, Jr., read a paper, which was afterwards 

 presented for publication, describing in detail 

 their investigations undertaken to determine 

 the rate of recession of the two glaciers specially 

 under consideration. The paper was also satis- 

 factorily illustrated. 



A paper entitled ' A New American Land- 

 Shell,' by Edward G. Vanatta, was presented 

 for publication. 



February IJ,. Dr. P. P. Calvert called at- 

 tention to the new catalogue of the dragon - 

 flies of New Jersey, the section of the general 

 catalogue of insects of that State confided to 

 him by Professor J. B. Smith. The number of 

 species of these insects has increased since the 

 issue of the first catalogue in 1890 from 39 to 

 85. Middle-southern New Jersey has been 

 touched but slightly and there is no doubt that 

 other species will be added to the list. 



Edw. J. Nolan, 

 Recording Secretary. 



NOTES ON PHYSICS. 

 the measurement of inductance. 

 Of the various electrical measurements which 

 serve in the electrical testing laboratory, the 

 measurement of the inductance (the exact elec- 

 trical analogue of the moment of inertia of a 

 rotating wheel) of a coil of wire is perhaps the 

 most unsatisfactory. Mr. H. Martienssen 

 {Wiedemann's Annalen, 1899, No. 1) has im- 



