410 



SCIENCE. 



IVoL. I., No. 14. 



— At the annual meeting of the Boston society of 

 natural history, May 2, the following oflBcers were 

 chosen: president, Samuel H. Scudder; vice-presi- 

 dents, John Cummings, F. W. Putnam; curator, Al- 

 pheus Hyatt; honorary secretary, S. L. Abbot, M.D. ; 

 secretary and librarian, Edward Burgess; treasurer, 

 Charles W. Scudder. The report of the curator. 

 Prof. A. Hyatt, gave a full account of the minera- 

 logical collection, the re-arrangement of which has 

 just been completed, and to which we sliall soon 

 refer more particularly. It was shown that it would 

 be impossible to complete the arrangement of the 

 other collections in similar manner, without addi- 

 tional income at the society's disposal. Considerable 

 work was done in the geological collection, but its 

 final arrangement will need at least a year's more 

 work. 



The trustee of the Lowell lecture fund has gener- 

 ously continued to support the Teachers" school of 

 science, in which ten lessons had been given by Prof. 

 W. H. Niles, on physical geography, and five by Dr. 

 H. P. Bowditch, on physiology. Both courses were 

 attended by large numbers of teachers. Laboratory 

 instruction was also given to one class from the Mas- 

 sachusetts institute of technology, and one from the 

 Boston university, besides two private classes; and 

 during the summer, instruction was given to four- 

 teen students in the curator's laboratory at Annis- 

 quam, Mass. In one dredging-trip specimens of 

 Octopus and other interesting forms were brought up 

 from about forty fathoms. 



The secretary reported the additions to the library 

 to amount to 2,065 volumes and pamphlets. Three 

 parts of the proceeilings and three of tbe memoirs 

 had been printed, together with anew list of members. 



Seven essays were offered in competition for the 

 Walker prize of tlif year, — 'The life-history of any 

 animal.' The committee awarded tlie fiirst prize 

 to Howard Ayers of Cambridge, for his essay on the 

 development of the tree-cricket (Oecanthus niveus) 

 and one of its parasites (Teleas). The committee 

 i-equested further time for the consideration of the 

 award of the second prize. The successful essay fills 

 a hundred and twenty-seven manuscript pages, and 

 is beautifully illustrated with thirty plates carefully 

 drawn and colored. The author has attempted to 

 establish or discuss the following points: for Oecan- 

 thus ; the origin of the ovum in a germarium, the pro- 

 cess of yolk-formation by cell-degeneration instead of 

 secretion, a primitive segmentation of the embryo 

 hefore the appearance of the permanent segments, 

 tlie existence of a pair of appendages on each of the 

 seventeen segments, the formation of the dorsal 

 vessel as originally a paired organ (as in some 

 worms), the existence of embryonic gills, the lack of 

 any sharp distinction between a cell and its nucleus 

 and between the latter and the nucleolus, the origin 

 and significance of the embryonic membranes, and 



the dorsal organ among insects; in Teleas; the 

 absence of embryonic membranes, and the occurrence 

 of an intermediate larval form between the blasto- 

 phere and the cyclops-larva of Ganin. 



— At the close of its last session. Congress made 

 provision for the co-operation of the United States in 

 the researches proposed by the electrical congress at 

 Paris in 1SS2. The secretary of state has designated 

 as commissioners, on the part of this government, 

 Professors Barker of the university of Pennsylvania, 

 Trowbridge of Harvard university, and Rowland 

 of .Johns Hopkins university. The sum of $12,1500 

 was appropriated for experiments. 



— -The newly organized Royal society of Canada 

 will hold a session in the parliament buildings at 

 Ottawa, commencing May 22. Delegates from sev- 

 eral scientific bodies in tlie United States are ex- 

 pected to be present. 



— At a meeting of the Washington anthropologi- 

 cal society, April 17, Dr. W. J. Hoffman made a com- 

 parison of Eskimo and Californian pictographs by 

 means of charts, by which he showed the relation 

 between these figures and the sign-language of the 

 North- American triVies. A wonderful familiarity with 

 the gesture-speech enables Dr. Hofi'man to read many 

 of the pictographs with perfect readiness. Mr. J. 

 Curlin, who has spent much time in diplomatic ser- 

 vice in Russia and Hungary, and has brought home 

 a rich treasure of the folk-lore of the regions in 

 which he has travelled, read a paper on Scandinavian 

 and Magyar folk-lore. Dr. Fletcher explained Zoja's 

 scheme for the nomenclature of stature, given else- 

 where in this issue. 



— By the system of railway time recently recom- 

 mended by the railway time convention in St. Louis, 

 the time of the different long railways of the coun- 

 try would only differ by whole hours. It is proposed 

 that each road shall reckon its time from one or 

 more of a set of meridians fifteen degrees, or one 

 hour, apart, so that the time of each meridian may 

 reach seven and one-half degrees, or thirty minutes, 

 on e%ch side. Tire meridians suggested for the 

 United States are the 75th, 90th, t05th, and 120th, 

 west of Greenwich. The confusion of time now so 

 common in many of our large cities would in this 

 way be avoided, the minutes and seconds, at least, 

 agreeing on the different roads. 



— The treasurer of the Balfour fund acknowledges 

 the following additional subscriptions: Prof. J. Play- 

 fair Mc&lurrich, Ontario, $5; T. Mackenzie, Univer- 

 sity college, Toronto, $1; George Acheson, Collegiate 

 institute, Toronto, .'S2: H. Plllsbury, High school, 

 Springfield, Mass., $1; Pmf. .J. IL Comslock, Cornell 

 university, $5; Prof. .1. A. Holmes, University of 

 North Carolina, .$5; Prof. H. C. Coon, Alford uni- 

 versity, $1. Previously acknowledged, .$466.25. 



— In Science, p. 338, in the article on Formation 

 of the tails of comets, read, ' Mr. Ranyard suggests.' 



