May 8, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



715 



they do further south. In crossing the Appa- 

 lachian valley this uplift protected the basin of 

 New River against the encroachment of the At- 

 lantic streams, which otherwise would, doubt- 

 less, have captured its headwaters. In this re- 

 gion also some of the tilted portion of the older 

 peneplain is probably preserved in an interme- 

 diate level which some observers have classed 

 is a distinct peneplain. 



It seems probable that in other regions local 

 uplifts have occurred during the continuance of 

 periods of extensive baseleveling, and if so 

 similar forms have probably been produced. 



W. F. MOESELL. 



U. S. Geological Sukvey. 



ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADEL- 

 PHIA, APRIL 21. 



Me. Lewis "Woolman described the imbedded 

 trees in the cedar swamps of Cape May Co. , N. 

 J. , from which cedar shingles are manufactured. 

 The lumber men distinguish two kinds of logs : 

 those from ' windfalls ' or trees overturned 

 with their roots and ' breakdowns ' or those 

 broken oflf by the wind or other agency. The 

 wood of the former is always well preserved, 

 while that of the ' breakdowns ' is not gener- 

 ally in as good condition. From a sound trunk 

 32 feet long 4,000 cedar shingles have been cut. 

 The tree contained upwards of 800 rings of 

 growth, and the wood when cut emitted a dis- 

 tinct odor. 



Mr. A. E. Brown stated that he had recently 

 had an opportunity of examining in the British 

 Museum a cast of the portion of a skull of Pithe- 

 canthropus erectus discovered by Dr. Dubois. 

 An examination of the cast supports the opinion 

 advanced by Cope and Allen before the Acad- 

 emy that the remains as described and figured 

 by Dubois present no characters separating the 

 species from Homo Neanderthalensis. The Java 

 skull is possibly a little flatter than the Nean- 

 derthal specimen, but this is purely individual 

 and is compensated for by a bump over the 

 coronal suture. It is also a little more inflated 

 postero-laterally, the supra-orbital ridges being 

 perhaps not quite so thick, although they project 

 as much, if not more. The Java skull is about 

 five-sixths or seven-eighths the length of the 

 other, the cubical capacity being somewhat less. 



The phylogeny of man and the apes was con- 

 sidered by Messrs. Rothermell, Brown and 

 Chapman. 



Anthropological Section, April 10. Charles 

 Morris, Recorder. Prof. Witmer made a com- 

 munication on the relations of modern psychol- 

 ogy to anthropology. Numerous examples 

 were adduced to illustrate the connection be- 

 tween psychic and physical action, modern 

 psychology beginning with a study of sensa- 

 tion rather than movement. The law of Fech- 

 ner and Weber, that if stimuli increase in 

 arithmetical proportion, sensation will increase 

 in geometrical proportion, was, although repu- 

 diated by physiologists generally, held by the 

 speaker as furnishing an index of discrimination 

 and indicating methods by which we can dis- 

 tinguish and measure individual responsiveness 

 to various stimuli. Devices for registering and 

 measuring psychical responsiveness were de- 

 scribed. 



The subjects of psycho-neural tests, tempera- 

 ments and the effects of stimuli on unconscious 

 movement were discussed by Messrs. Kava- 

 naugh. Mills, Allen, Witmer and Reisman. 



Botanical Section, April 13. Dr. Charles 

 Schaeffer, Recorder. Mr. Lippincott presented 

 a specimen of Qrindelia squamosa, a Western 

 plant, collected at Swedesboro', N. J. He also 

 read a paper on the propagation of orchids. 



A paper on the varieties of bacteria, their 

 cultivation and their life history was read by 

 Dr. Rabinowitsch. 



Dr. Ida Keller exhibited the effect of chlorine 

 in changing the blue color of a Cinneraria to 

 pink due to the formation of hydro-chloric 

 acid in the petals. The experiment was made 

 in connection with a consideration of the acid 

 or alkaline contents of vegetable cells. 

 Edw. J. Nolan, 

 Recording Secretary. 



geological conference op harvard UNI- 

 VERSITY, APRIL 7, 1896. 



Ice Phenomena in Green Bay, Lake Michigan. 



By E. P. Carey. 



The Great Lakes oflTer an interesting field for 

 the study of ice action under the influence of 

 the wind, especially at the head of Lake Su- 

 perior in the vicinity of Duluth, and in Green 



