56 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. I., 'So. 2. 



the benefits of the lessons to all towns near Boston. 

 The school now has agents Interested in the proper 

 distribution and use of its tickets, not only in Boston, 

 but also in the larger number of the suburban towns 

 which cluster around that municipality. 



The following statistics of this winter's courses will 

 speak for themselves with regard to the probable 

 benefits of this extension of its efforts over a wider 

 field : — 



o ,, t Applications Tickets 



"""■''=''''■ received. sent. 



Physical geography 988 1,098 



Physiology 8.34 945 



1,822 2,04.3 



Distribution of Tickets. Pbys. geog. Pliysiol. 



Boston 364 .302 



Neighboring towns (4.5) .... 589 512 



Complimentary, school authorities 

 and private persons 145 131 



1,098 945 



Grade of teachers: Superintendents, 10; sTib-mas- 

 ters, 24; principals, 157; assistants, 847. The average 

 attendance so far upon the first course has been from 

 six to seven hundred. 



The school has also had another branch in active 

 operation, in which the courses are paid for by the 

 teachers themselves. The curator, assisted by Mr. 

 Van Vleck, has had two classes in zoology occupying 

 four winters, and numbering in all fifty-nine teach- 

 ers ; Mr. B. H. Van Vleck, a class in physiology num- 

 bering fifteen teachers; and Mr. W. O. Crosby, a 

 special class in geology. These classes have demon- 

 strated a demand for the kind of knowledge offered, 

 so earnest that a good proportion of the teachers 

 have been willing to surrender their holidays to lab- 

 oratory work, and also to pay tor the privilege. A 

 number more would have attended but for the ob- 

 stacle of the fee necessarily charged for tuition. 

 These classes, now that the reality of this demand 

 has been shown, should be placed on a more lib- 

 eral basis, and one more consistent with the usual 

 policy of the society with regard to the needs of our 

 public schools. Owing to a combination of causes 

 which it would be useless to detail, these laboratory 

 courses formerly given every Saturday throughout 

 the winter have been discontinued during this season. 

 It is intended to resume them as soon as practicable. 



Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia, Penn, 



Instruction in mineralogy and lithology. — At the 

 close of Prof. Heilprin's lectures. Prof. H. Carvill 

 Lewis will deliver a course of instruction in miner- 

 alogy and lithology, a large portion of which will 

 consist of a series of field-lectures upon the miner- 

 alogy and lithology of Philadelphia and vicinity. In 

 addition to lectures at the academy, and alternating 

 with them, there will be about ten short excursions 

 .to interesting localities in the neighborhood of the 

 city, where the strata and their enclosed minerals 

 will be studied in place, and practical methods given 

 for recognizing both rocks and minerals and their 

 relation to the geology of the region. The specimens 

 collected in the field will be more carefully examined 

 and studied with laboratory practice at the academy 

 at the lecture following each excursion. 



The introductory lecture will be delivered on Tues- 

 day, April 17, 1883, in the lecture-room of the acad- 

 emy, at 4.15 P.M. ; and the lectures will continue at 

 the same hour on successive Tuesdays and Fridays. 

 The field-lectures, commencing early in May and 



continuing until July, will take place on Fridays 

 (weather permitting), and will occupy the greater 

 part of the day. 



Among the localities visited will be the quarries of 

 hornblendic gneiss at Germantowu and Frankford, 

 the soapstone quarries on the Schuylkill, the lime- 

 stone and marble quarries, and the iron-mines of the 

 Montgomery County Valley, the lead, zinc, and cop- 

 per mines near Phcenixville, the mineral localities of 

 Delaware County, etc. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



— The description of the fossil remains of the re- 

 markable flying reptile, Khamphorhynchus phyllurus 

 Marsh, which was given in the American journal 

 of science in April, 1882, has been supplemented by 

 the liberal distribution of casts of the original by 

 Prof. O. C. Marsh. These are faithful representa- 

 tions in all the more important characteristics prom- 

 inent enough to make their re-appearance upon a 

 plaster casting. The wings and caudal paddle are 

 the most important features, and render this fossil 

 unique of its kind. The wings are particularly well 

 rendered, and perfectly distinct in outline and details. 

 The steering-paddle at the end of the long, attenu- 

 ated tail, and the tail itself, is distinct in outline, but 

 deficient in details ; the bones of the hands are also 

 in the same state, all these parts being very small. 



Professor Marsh, in distributing these and other 

 casts of his rare and remarkable fossils, has added 

 very greatly to the usefulness of his own work and 

 the diffusion of knowledge, besides setting a shining 

 example of scientific liberality. He has, we know, 

 in several instances, and we presume in all cases, 

 demanded no exchange of any kind. Many institu- 

 tions now have the means of placing before visitors 

 and students the actual condition of the fossil remains 

 of one of the most remarkable of the extinct Juras- 

 sic reptiles. This is so nearly perfect that it shows 

 there is no exaggeration in the restoration accompa- 

 nying Professor Marsh's descriptions, which repre- 

 sents this pterodactyle flying through the air with 

 its wings expanded. 



-^^The following persons were elected officers of 

 the biological society of Washington, on Jan. 5: 

 President, Prof. C. A. White; Vice-Presidents, Prof. 

 C. V. Riley, Prof. Lester G. Ward, Mr. William H. 

 Dall, Prof. Theodore Gill ; Secretaries, Mr. G. Brown 

 Goode, Mr. Richard Eathbun; Treasurer, Dr. Tarle- 

 ton H. Bean; Members of Council, Dr. George Vas- 

 ey. Dr. D. Webster Prentiss, Prof. Otis T. Mason, 

 Mr. Frederick W. True, Dr. Elliott Coues. 



— At the meeting of the Albany institute held Jan. 

 16, officers of the institute at large and of its three 

 departments were chosen for the ensuing year. The 

 following, by virtue of their offices, constitute the 

 executive committee provided for by a recently adopt- 

 ed by-law : President, Orlando Meads, LL.D. ; Treas- 

 urer, JohnTempleton; Recording secretary and libra- 



