720 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 177. 



lows: 1. J. A. Mathews, 'The Action of 

 Nitrils upon Aromatic Acids.' 2. E.H.Hodg- 

 son, ' The Determination of Sulphur in As- 

 phalts.' 3. S. A. Tucker, 'A Few Remarks on 

 the Persulphates.' 4. W. D. Engle, 'The Ac- 

 tion of Metallic Thio-Cynates upon Organic 

 Chlorhydrins. ' 5. A. G. Betts, 'Alcoholic 

 Ethers of Nitro, Amido and Oxy Benzyl Al- 

 cohol.' 



Mr. Hodgson had determined the sulphur in 

 a variety of asphalts by several well-known 

 methods, one of which was modified by the use 

 of sodium peroxide. He found the following 

 amounts of sulphur and differences by the sev- 

 eral methods : 



Nitric acid. Sodiumi Defla- 

 (Carius). Peroxide, gration. 



Trinidad Lake. 4.33 3.77 3.80 



" crude 4.10 3.33 3.2 



" refined 4.46 4.07 3.6 



Cuban crude 3.61 3.10 2.8 



Alcatraz crude 5.45 3.98 4.2 



California crude 7.51 6.26 6.5 



In order to have time to inspect the labora- 

 tories it was moved and seconded that the last 

 three papers should be postponed to the next 

 meeting, and after passing a vote of thanks to 

 Dr. Chandler and the authorities of the Uni- 

 versity a tour of the chemical department 

 laboratories was made. 



DuKAND Woodman, 



Secretary. 



ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OP PHILA- 

 DELPHIA, MAY 10. 



Professor H. A. Pilsbey spoke of certain 

 embryonic or nepionic characters of Bulimu- 

 lidae having a bearing on the classification of 

 the group. In the case of some of the young 

 shells a fine grating on the upper whorls comes 

 to a stop where the shell is hatched ; in others 

 there is no sculpturing, while in others there 

 are zigzag or equidistant ridges with fine 

 strige between. These characters can be cor- 

 related with peculiarities of the soft anatomy, 

 but not with those of the adult shell. The 

 geographical distribution of the groups thus 

 defined was given, and illustrative specimens of 

 embryonal apices were shown under the micro- 

 scope. 



Professor Pilsbry also made a communica- 

 tion on the results of recent work on the mol- 

 lusca of Lake Tanganyika and deinonstrated 

 the relationship of the halolimic genera to 

 marine forms. 



Mr. Joseph Willcox exhibited a fine series of 

 Cyprxa exanthema and C. cervus to sustain his 

 opinion that these species grade into each other 

 and that cervus can scarcely be considered even 

 a variety of the other. He believed the man- 

 tle filaments of Cyprsea have a direct influence 

 on the formation of spots on the shell, perhaps 

 secreting the light color to which they were 

 due. 



Professor E. G. Conklin read a paper on the 

 environmental and ^xual dimorphism of Crep- 

 idula. The conclusion was reached that it is a 

 case of protandric hermaphroditism and of 

 marked sexual dimorphism. The communica- 

 tion was presented for publication and will ap- 

 pear in the Proceedings with illustrations. 



Papers on certain aboriginal mounds of the 

 South Carolina coast, the Savannah River, and 

 the Altamaha River, by Clarence B. Moore were 

 also presented for publication and will form 

 part of the next number of the Journal. 



Edward J. Nolan, 

 Recording Secretary. 



NEW BOOKS. 



Outlines of the Earth's History. N. S. Shalee. 

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Brown Men and Women. Edward Reeves. 

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The Story of Photography. Alfred T. Story. 

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Electro-Physiology. W. Biedeemann ; trans- 

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Organic Chemistry. John Wade. London, 

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$1.75. 



