April 13, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



293 



— The seventeenth annual course of lectures to 

 mechanics at the Sheffield scientific school, New 

 Haven, Conn., just completed, embraced the follow- 

 ing subjects : The Luray caverns as seen by electric 

 light. Rev. H. C. Hovey ; The transit of Venus, Pro- 

 fessor Newton; Modern fiction, Mr. Charles Dudley 

 Warner; Photo-chemistry of the retina, Prof. E. H. 

 Chittenden; The trades-unions of the middle ages. 

 Professor Farnam ; The history of Connecticut as il- 

 lustrated in the names of its towns, Professor Frank- 

 lin B. Dexter ; Domestication of animals, Prof. W. H. 

 Brewer; Heat and work {two lectures), Prof. A. Jay 

 Du Bois ; The Veda, Prof. W. D. Whitney ; Facts illus- 

 trative of the Darwinian theory, Prof. A. E. Verrill; 

 The agency of insects in the fertilization of flowers. 

 Dr. E. H. Jenkins. 



— The Woman's education association of Boston 

 has made arrangements with Professor George L. 

 Goodale and Dr. W. P. Wilson for a course of ten 

 lectures upon the relation of plants and animals to 

 food. The course is now in progress, on Tuesdays 

 and Fridays, at 11 a.m., in the lecture-room of the 

 Boston society of natural history, having begun on 

 Tuesday, March 27. 



— The American reports that the Virginia hoard of 

 education has accepted the Griffin farm, near Peters- 

 burg, as the site for Ihe Colored normal and collegiate 

 institute, provided the city coimcil of Petersburg will 

 give five thousand dollars. The college building will 

 be erected near the sjiot where the memorable ' crater ' 

 fight occurred during the war; and the amount appro- 

 priated by the legislature for the establishment of the 

 school is one hundred thousand dollars. 



— " It is expected," says Nature, " that the French 

 government will take in hand the celebration of the 

 centenary of the discovery of balloons. The two 

 committees which had been formed by several aero- 

 nautic societies have been amalgamated, and M. Gas- 

 ton Tissandier has been appointed president. The 

 scheme of an international exhibition for balloons 

 and instruments used in aerial investigations has 

 been adopted by M. Herrisson, the minister of public 

 works, and will be carried into effect by M. Armen- 

 gaud Jeane, the well-known civil engineer." 



— A meeting of the U.S. naval institute was held at 

 Annapolis, March 28, to consider the prize essay for 

 1883. The subject was, " How may the sphere of use- 

 fulness of naval officers be extended in time of peace 

 with advantage to the country and the naval service?" 

 The prize, consisting of a gold medal, one hundred 

 dollars, and a life-membership, was awarded to Lieut. 

 C. G. Calkins, while the essays of Commander N. H. 

 Farquhar and Commander A. P. Cooke received hon- 

 orable mention. The judges of the relative merits 

 of the essays were Ex-Gov. Alexander H. Rice, Eear- 

 Admiral George H. Preble, and Judge Josiah G. 

 Abbot. 



— At the meeting of the Biological society of Wash- 



ington, March 30, Mr. Newton P. Scudder read a 

 paper on The length of the hatching-period of the 

 domestic fowl, and was followed by Dr. Thomas 

 Taylor, on Section-cutting and mounting of hard 

 woods, and A new parasite in fowls, of the nature of 

 Trichina; Prof. J. W. Chickering, jun., on Moiuit 

 Kataadn ; Prof. L. F. Ward, on Hybrid oaks of the 

 District of Columbia. During the meeting there was 

 an exhibition of specimens (limited to five minutes 

 each), illustrating accidents to animals, by Mr. F. A. 

 Lucas; the bones of the sea-cow (Khj'tina), by Mr. 

 F. W. True; another jumping-seed. Remarks on bee- 

 fly larvae and their singular habits, A burrowing 

 butterfly larva, — by Prof. C. V. Riley. 



— Rev. R. W. Logan, missionary of the American 

 board of missions at Ponape, Micronesia, states that 

 the remains of buildings, etc., represented to be found 

 at Ponape, are simply basaltic columns such as are 

 found at Staffa. There is no mark of their having 

 ever been used for buildings, and they bear neither 

 inscriptions nor other sculptures. 



— The third annual exhibition of the society of 

 American taxidermists will be held in New York, 

 opening to the public at Lyric Hall, 723 Sixth Avenue, 

 on May 1, and continuing five days. The general 

 meeting will also be held during the same week. 

 Since the Boston exhibition, the society has nearly 

 doubled its membership ; and the exhibits entered for 

 New York give promise of a very extensive and at- 

 tractive display. Inasmuch as this organization has 

 for its special aim the improvement of museum taxi- 

 dermy, in which there is certainly wide room, its 

 work is an important one, and of gi-eat interest to all 

 who visit our American museums. 



— The English national smoke-abatement institu- 

 tion is making arrangements for opening a perma- 

 nent exhibition in a central part of London. It will 

 be free to the public. A hall for the reading of papers 

 and the instruction of classes will be provided; also 

 testing-rooms for the continuation of the series of tests 

 and trials commenced in connection with the South 

 Kensington and Manchester smoke-abatement exhi- 

 bition of 1882. Particulars may be obtained at the 

 offices of the national smoke-abatement institution, 

 44 Bemer's Street, Oxford Street, London, AV. — 



— S. E. Cassino & Co. of Boston announce a re- 

 vised translation of Haeckel's letters of Indian travel, 

 by J. S. Kingsley ; The history and uses of limestones 

 and marbles, by S. M. Burnham ; A handbook of ento- 

 mology, by C. V. Eiley; and Tables for the use of 

 students and beginners in vegetable histology, by D. 

 P. Penhallow. 



— The treasurer of the Balfour memorial fund ac- 

 knowledges the following subscriptions: Dr. R. H. 

 Fitz, Harvard medical school, SIO; Professor Asa 

 Gray, Harvard, $5; Prof. H. P. Bowditch, Harvard 

 medical school, $5; medical classes, '83, '84, '8.5, Univ. 

 of Michigan, $23.25; previously acknowledged, .$423. 



