584 
logue of Geological Literature’ and ‘ Personal 
and Scientific News.’ 
Three new ornithological journals have ap- 
peared this year. American Ornithology, edited 
by Mr. C. A. Reed, at Worcester, Mass. ; The 
Petrel, edited by Mr. J. W. Martin, at Palestine, 
Ore., and The Bittern, edited by Mr. G. M. 
Hathorn, at Cedar Rapids, Ia. On the other 
hand The Western Ornithologist has suspended 
publication. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 
At the meeting of the Academy of Science 
of St. Louis, of March 4, 1901, the following 
subjects were presented : 
The Corresponding Secretary read a commu- 
nication from Dr. Amos Sawyer, entitled ‘ Kth- 
nographic life lines left by a prehistoric race,’ 
the paper being illustrated by sketches, frag- 
mentary human remains and stones, etc., de- 
rived from a prehistoric grave examined some 
ten miles southwest of Hillsboro, Illinois, on 
the west side of Shoal Creek. In one instance 
it was stated that a grave consisting of six 
slabs of limestone contained six skeletons, their 
thighs flexed upon the abdomen, the legs upon 
the thighs, their arms placed by their sides, and 
their heads at either end of the enclosing box 
and facing east and west. From the limited 
capacity of the slab-enclosed graves, the writer 
inferred that the remains had been placed in 
them after skeletonization, as there was not 
sufficient room for the number of bodies found 
unless the muscles had been removed, and it 
was argued from this that the remains were 
those of prominent men in the nation. 
The Corresponding Secretary read a further 
communication from Dr. Sawyer, referring to a 
piece of wood found at a depth of 400 feet 
below the surface in sinking a shaft for a coal 
mine. The specimen was said to have occurred 
in a ten-foot layer of loam filled with the débris 
of a forest, and the specimen submitted, like 
others, had been flattened by pressure. 
In the discussion which followed the reading 
of these communications, Mr. Colton Russell 
said that west of St. Louis, in a number of so- 
called Indian graves which he had examined, 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 328. 
the eneasing with rough limestone slabs, men- 
tioned by Dr. Sawyer, had been observed ; and 
Dr. Trelease called attention to the fact that 
the specimen of wood exhibited, which did not 
seem to be petrified, belonged to post-glacial 
times and was perhaps comparable with certain 
pieces of wood, supposed to be cedar, but not 
yet carefully studied, which Mr. Hermann, the 
Sewer Commissioner of St. Louis, had found in 
company with bones of the early bison in the 
glacial detritus through which a storm sewer is 
being excavated at Tower Grove, St. Louis. 
A paper by Dr. T. Kodis, ‘On the action of 
the constant current upon animal tissue,’ was 
read by title. 
Professor F. E. Nipher stated that he wished 
to take this occasion to correct some misappre- 
hensions concerning the development of photo- 
graphic positives. He stated that the effect of 
development in the light was to make the nor- 
mal exposure for positives shorter than when 
they are developed in the dark-room. When 
for a given illumination of the developing room 
the exposure has been properly made, the or- 
dinary developer used for negatives may also 
be used for positives without any restrainer. 
The restrainer is only needed when the plate 
to be developed as a positive has been under- 
exposed, or the plate to be developed as a neg- 
ative has been over-exposed. In both cases it 
is an approach to the zero condition which calls 
for the restrainer. 
Professor Nipher stated that Mr. Cockayne, 
of the Heliotype Company, of Boston, had 
suggested to him the use of potassium ferro- 
cyanide in place of potassium bromide in de- 
veloping positives, and he had found it to give 
great brilliancy to the pictures. A Cramer 
‘Crown’ plate exposed in a printing-frame for 
a couple of minutes at a south window, just 
out of the direct rays of the sun, under a thin 
negative or positive, may be developed at the 
Same place. A few drops of a ten-per-cent. 
solution of the ferro-cyanide may be added, 
and even as much as one part in twelve of 
developer has yielded excellent results. The 
bath has in some cases been wholly made up of 
the ferro-cyanide solution, the other chemicals 
being added in dry form. The action of the 
ferro-cyanide is quite different from that of 
