May 18, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



439 



the society were in good condition, altliougli tlie 

 council felt tbe need of a special fund for the salary 

 of a person to fill the place of the late Dr. S. F. 

 Haven. Mr. Samuel S. Green of Worcester read a 

 paper of local interest in relation to the First parish 

 of that city ; Mr. Andrew M. F. Davis of San Fran- 

 cisco discussed the question of bearded men reported 

 to have been seeu by Moncatch-Ape on the Pacific 

 coast of America before 1758; Mr. F. W. Putnam of 

 Cambridge gave an account of the use of native 

 metals by the mound-builders of the Ohio valley, 

 and exhibited ornaments from the mounds made by 

 hammering native copper, silver, gold, and meteoric 

 iron; Mr. Putnam also read a paper on Iron in the 

 Ohio mounds, a critical review of the misconceptions 

 of two writers of sixty years ago; and Mr. H. W. 

 Haynes of Boston presented by title a paper on 

 Ancient soapstone-quarries. Two of these papers are 

 noticed more fully in our Weekly summary. After 

 adjournment the members were invited to lunch at 

 the residence of Mr. James F. Hunnewell in Charles- 

 town, after which a visit was made to Bunker Hill 

 by invitation of the directors of the Monument 

 association. 



— Mr. F. W. Putnam lectured on Eecent discov- 

 eries in American archeology before the Harvard 

 historical society, Cambridge, May 7, illustrating his 

 discourse with stereopticon views. 



— The eJSort to raise money to pay off the debt 

 of the Academy of sciences of Davenport, Iowa, has 

 met with good success. Not only has enough been 

 obtained for that purpose, but a start has been made 

 with an endowment fund to place the institution on 

 a firmer basis. The feeling of interest in the acade- 

 my, which was created among the business-men at a 

 meeting held April 24, continues to spread. There 

 seems to be little doubt that the continued usefulness 

 of the institution'is assured. 



— At the meeting of the American academy of 

 arts and sciences, April 11, the papers read were by 

 Professor William A. Rogers, Results of the com- 

 parisons of three independent copies of the imperial 

 yard, and of four independent copies of the metre 

 of the archives ; Dr. Otto Struve, Aberration ; Mr. 

 S. C. Chandler, On the variable star, E. Aquarii; 

 and by Prof. E. C. Pickering, on the measurements 

 made of the photographs of stellar spectra obtained 

 by the late Dr. Henry Draper. 



— At a meeting of the section of mechanics and 

 engineering of the Ohio mechanics' institute, held 

 April 24, Mr. Alfred R. Payne read a paper on Utili- 

 zation of sewage from the hills, discussing the value 

 of both the fertilizing material and the water-power. 



At the meeting of the section of chemistry and 

 physics, April 26, papers were read by Prof. F. W. 

 Clarke, on Tartrates of antimony; by Prof. H. T. 

 Eddy, on the Kinetic theory of solids, fluids, and 

 gases; and by Professor Robert B. Warder, on a 



Proposed systematic computation of data relating to 

 the speed of chemical reactions. The section re- 

 solved to undertake the computation (on some fixed 

 system of units), with such co-operation as other 

 chemists and j^hysicists may kindly afford. 



— The summer course of instruction in botany in 

 Harvard university will begin on July 6, and con- 

 tinue six weeks. The principal part of the instruc- 

 tion will be given by Professor William Trelease of 

 the University of Wisconsin, but lectures will be 

 given also by Professor Goodale. 



— At the meeting of the Biological society of Wash- 

 ington, April 27, the following communications were 

 made: Prof. C. V. Riley, Another jumping-seed, Re- 

 marks on bee-fly larvae and their singular habits, 

 A burrowing butterfly larva; Mr. H. H. Bii'ney, 

 Remarks on Samia cynthia, the Ailantus moth; Pro- 

 fessor Theodore Gill, The Stromateidae ; Dr. Frank 

 Baker, The origin of dextral preference in man. A 

 field meeting of the society took place on Saturday, 

 April 28, at Bladensburg. 



— At the meeting of the Society of arts of the 

 Massachusetts institute of technology, April 26, Mr. 

 A. E. Burton spoke on the Topographical methods of 

 the U. S. coast-survey, and Mr. W. H. Pickering on 

 the Sensitiveness of photographic plates. 



— On the 31st of March, the Weymouth and Chan- 

 nel Islands steam-packet company's steamer Aquila, 

 on her way across the channel, was suddenly struck 

 by mountainous seas, which sent her on her beam- 

 ends, and washed the decks from stem to stern. As 

 the decks became clear of water, the bulwarks were 

 found to be bi'oken in several places, one of the 

 paddle-boxes was considerably damaged, the iron 

 rail on the bridge was badlj' twisted, the pump was 

 broken, the skylights broken, and the cabins flooded. 

 Five minutes after the waves had struck the steamer, 

 she came again into smooth water. 



— In 1882 there were built and registered in the 

 United Kingdom, as British ships, 4.53 iron steamers 

 having a gross tonnage of 676,338, and 64 steel 

 steamers having a gross tonnage of 113,380. The 

 percentage of steel gross tonnage is 14, while for 1881 

 it was but 11. There were 91 iron and steel sailing- 

 ships built and registered during the same time, hav- 

 ing a gross tonnage of 126,398. 



— The second number of Ax>palachia, vol. iii., 

 has recently appeared. Prof. E. C. Pickering dis- 

 cusses the value of mountain observations for astro- 

 nomical work, and suggests the use in them of the 

 horizontal telescope, lately devised by him, before 

 which the observer may sit in a comfortable position 

 and in a warm room. Mr. Scott, vice-president of the 

 club, describes a trip to the Twin-Mountain range ; 

 and Mr. J. W. Chickering, a longer excursion to 

 Roan Mountain, in North Carolina. Mr. E. G. Cham- 

 berlain maps the Blue Hills near Boston, and gives 

 a list of distant points seen from their summit. 



