March 4, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



321 



<;atch and eat badgers " seems to need some sort 

 of qualification. Tlie reviewer and at least one 

 of his associates have on several occasions seen 

 ■coyotes and badgers cross each other's tracks, 

 without the slightest show of fear or aggressive- 

 ness on either side ; and persons familiar with the 

 strength, ferocity and resisting powers of the 

 badger can hardly imagine a coyote rash enough 

 to meddle with one. Of course, a hungry coyote 

 might tackle a young or enfeebled badger, but 

 in the case of adults in ordinary health and 

 spirits it is hard to believe that a coyote would 

 ever invite such a terrible contest. 



' Trail and Camp Fire ' is a storehouse of in- 

 formation for the sportsman-naturalist and a 

 worthy companion of ' American Big Game 

 Hunting' and 'Hunting in Many Lands,' its 

 predecessors in the Boone and Crockett series. 



C. H. M. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADE3I1ES. 



PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 480th meeting was held at the Cosmos 

 Club on Saturday evening, February 19th, at 8 

 p. m. The first paper was by Mr. H. A. 

 Hazen on ' The Origin and Value of Weather 

 Folk-lore.' In substance Mr. Hazen said: "A 

 weather saying or sign to be of value should be 

 based on a suflicient number of coincidences 

 between the sign and the supposed resulting 

 weather to make it a law." It was shown 

 that four-fifths at least of the current weather 

 signs and proverbs could not be regarded laws. 

 "The earliest of these signs, some think, is in 

 Job [Canst thou bind the sweet influences of 

 the Pleiades] , but this refers only to the fact 

 that, before the calendar month and year were 

 established, the rising and setting of the con- 

 stellations were taken by the ancients to mark 

 the seasons and the times of sowing and har- 

 vesting. There is no thought that the Pleiades 

 have any direct influence upon terrestrial con- 

 ditions. Hesiod (850 B. C.) gives the cuckoo 

 (rain crow) sign of rain, and it is a little re- 

 markable that this early sign has come down 

 through the ages as the best animal sign of 

 rain." 



The author spoke of pseudo weather lore ; 

 signs from the moon (universal in civilized 



nations) ; from the planets, which may be 

 brought down to the planetarians of the present 

 day ; from eclipses, clouds, halos ; from ani- 

 mals, birds, etc. 



The second paper was by Mr. W. H. Dall, 

 who spoke on the condition of Tertiary Paleon- 

 tology in the United States. The speaker re- 

 stricted himself to a consideration of the fossil 

 invertebrates of marine origin. He briefly 

 sketched the history of this branch of American 

 science, from its beginnings with Say, Morton, 

 Lea and Conrad, to the present time, showing 

 how, after the energy of the earlier Philadel- 

 phia school had spent itself, a period of com- 

 parative inaction set in, which had now given 

 way to renewed activity, which is gradually 

 placing this branch of the science on a modern 

 basis. This awakened interest is largely due 

 to the initiative of the "Wagner Free Institute 

 of Science in Philadelphia and the extension 

 of the work of the United States Geological 

 Survey to the coastal plain and phosphate 

 regions of the Southern States. 



E. D. Preston, 



Secretary. 



ZOOLOGICAL CLUB, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, 

 MEETINGS OF DECEMBER AND JANUARY. 



Maturation and Fertilization of the Egg of Areni- 

 cola Marina. In the earliest stage in which cen- 

 trosomes have been seen, there are two, at some 

 distance from each other in the cytoplasm, each 

 surrounded by a small, deeply staining area, and 

 few, very delicate radiations. The rays elon- 

 gate, a large spindle is formed, and the chromo- 

 somes, now lying free in the cytoplasm, arrange 

 themselves upon it. In approaching its defini- 

 tive position at the pheriphery of the egg, this 

 first polar spindle contracts to about one-half its 

 original length. The centrosomes at each pole 

 divide as the separation of the chromosomes be- 

 gins. The two centrosomes at the inner pole 

 form the poles of the second polar spindle. 

 They move apart, showing a central spindle, new 

 asters appear, and the spindle assumes the posi- 

 tion occupied by the first polar spindle. 



After the formation of the second polar body 

 the female pronucleus is formed, and the 'female' 

 centrosome and aster disappear. The sperm 

 apparently enters at any point, but cannot be 



