112 
clusion being that the reptilian tripartite origin 
of the mammalian condyle is more probable 
than the amphibian dicondylic origin. T. W. 
Galloway presents some ‘Studies on the Cause 
of the Accelerating Effect of Heat upon Growth’ 
giving the results of experiments upon the larvee 
of various amphibians and showing that all the 
early developmental processes were acceler- 
ated. ©. B. Davenport discusses ‘The Varia- 
tion of the Statoblasts of Pectinatella magnifica’ 
and J. B. Johnston describes ‘ A Sealing Stone 
Jar for Zoological Laboratories’ which seems 
very useful and is sealed with a heavy paraffin 
oil. The title page and index of the completed 
thirty-fourth volume are included in this num- 
ber. 
On January lst appeared the first part of 
‘Geologisches Centralblatt, Revue Géologique, 
Geological Review,’ edited by Dr. K. Keilhack, 
Bingerstrasse, 59, Wilmersdorf, Berlin, and 
published by Gebriider Borntraeger, Leipzig, at 
an annual subscription of 80 Marks. The 
American agent is G. E. Stechert. The review 
is to appear on the 1st and 15th of each month, 
and is intended to give short, uncritical notifi- 
cations of the latest publications in geology and 
allied sciences. The abstracts are written in 
German, French or English, according to the 
language in which the original papers have ap- 
peared. Since the contributors are to be com- 
patriots of the respective authors, this renders 
their task easy ; but the converse method would 
be of more advantage to scientific workers, and 
unless the German printers are more careful 
than they have been in the first number, even 
the English will be unintelligible to readers in 
this country. There can be no doubt as to the 
‘uncritical’ nature of the notices ; but this may 
be carried too far. It is to be hoped that 
authors, by contributing their own abstracts, 
will forestall some of the mangling to which 
they are otherwise liable. 
I? is interesting to note that in the numerous 
surveys of the nineteenth century, now being 
published, science usually occupies about half 
the space. This is in curious contrast to the 
slight attention paid by the newspapers to con- 
temporary science and the carelessness with 
which scientific news is usually complied. 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 316. 
Several of the daily papers have published very 
good historical surveys of the progress of science 
during the century ; thus the New York Even- 
ing Post of January 12th, contains articles on 
astronomy by Professor Newcomb, on physics 
by Professor Lodge, on electricity by Professor 
Trowbridge, on medicine by Dr. Billings and 
other interesting articles. The New York Sun 
is also publishing a history of the nineteenth 
century in thirteen articles of which nine are on 
the science as follows: ‘Evolution’ (Dec. 23), 
by Alfred Russel Wallace ; ‘Chemistry’ (Dec. 
30), by Professor W. Ramsay ; ‘ Archeology’ 
(Jan. 6), by Professor Flinders-Petrie ‘ Astron- 
omy’ (Jan. 13), by Sir Norman Lockyer; 
‘Philosophy’ (Jan. 20), by Dr. Edward Caird ; 
‘Medicine’ (Jan. 27), by Professor William Qs- 
ler; ‘Surgery’ (Feb. 3), by Professor W. W. 
Keen; ‘Electricity’ (Feb. 10), by Professor 
Elihu Thomson ; ‘ Physics’ (Feb. 17), by Presi- 
dent F. C. Mendenhall. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
ZOOLOGICAL CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
CHICAGO. 
At the meeting of November 14th, Mr. G. A. 
Allen reviewed a recent paper by Duneker on 
variation in Palzmonetes, and Miss Minnie 
Enteman recounted her observations on the 
behavior of Polistes. Some of the more impor- 
tant points of the latter paper may be mentioned 
here: 
Polistes, our common paper wasp, constructs 
for a nest a single flat plate of hexagonal cells 
without an external covering. This renders 
observation of its habits and instincts very easy. 
Among the facts gathered concerning the ac- 
tivities characteristic of the larval, pupal and 
imaginal life, the most interesting relate to 
those of the newly excluded worker : 
1. Fear is very generally exhibited, the 
young worker retreating precipitately when a 
strange object is presented toit. This gradually 
diminishes with the repeated appearance of the 
awe-inspiring object. If the bit presented is 
edible the worker will, after five or six trials, 
come up, touch it with the antenne and 
exhibit 
2. The feeding instinct. This consists in 
crushing the food in the mandibles, and ex- 
