822 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 309. 



Chemistry, C. D. "Woods, of the University 

 of Maine, chairman ; College Work, J. H. 

 Raymond, of the University of West Vir- 

 ginia, chairman ; B. O. Ayles worth, of Col- 

 orado Agricultural College, secretary ; En- 

 tomology, M. V. Slingerland, of Cornell 

 University, chairman ; H. A. Morgan, of 

 Louisiana University, secretary ; Mechanic 

 Arts, H. W. Tyler, Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology, chairman ; F. P. Anderson, 

 of Kentucky Agricultural and Mechanical 

 College, secretary ; Horticulture and Bot- 

 any, L. R. Jones, of the University of Ver- 

 mont, chairman ; W. J. Green, of Ohio 

 Experiment Station, secretary. 



A. C. Teue. 



RECENT WORK ON MOLLUSKS. 



The land shell fauna of the Hawaiian 

 Islands has been discussed by E. R. Sykes, 

 ■with intercalations on anatomy by Lieuten- 

 ant-Colonel Godwin- Austen.* Mr. Sykes 

 has worked upon museum material, espe- 

 cially that collected by Perkins and the rich 

 stores of the British Museum and the Bos- 

 ton Society of Natural History. He finds 

 the number of species much exaggerated, 

 as every one familiar with the group was 

 well aware. The fauna is considered to be 

 Polynesian and to show hardly any trace of 

 Asiatic or American influence. Oahu is 

 the center of distribution and the most 

 populous in Achatinellidse. The list given 

 is a useful one, but the monographic study 

 of the Achatinellas from an evolutionary 

 standpoint remains to be written. 



A. S. Jensen, of Copenhagen, initiates 

 what promises to be a series of ' Studier 

 over Nordiske Mollusker, ' by an investiga- 

 tion of the forms and distribution of the 

 boreal Myas.f The paper is illustrated by 

 some excellent figures. 



* Fauna Hawaiiemis, II., pp. 271-419, pi. 11, 12. 

 1900. 4to. 



f Vidensk. Meddel. nat. Foren i Kjolenhavn, pp. 

 133-158. 1900. 



F. C. Baker* discusses the gross anatomy 

 of Limncea emarginata Say, var. Mighehi. 

 There are six plates, two illustrating what 

 the author believes to be the range of varia- 

 tion in the form of the shell, the others, 

 which are rather diagrammatic, illustrating 

 the anatomy. If carefully done, papers of 

 this kind will have a permanent value. 



M. Maurice Cossmann continues his phe- 

 nomenal activity in the field of Tertiary 

 moUusks, by a paper which is to be followed 

 by others on the ' Mollusques fioceniques 

 de la Loire Inferieure.'f An interesting 

 series of forms is figured, and it is curious 

 to see how many of them recall parallel 

 species from our own Claibornian horizon. 



Mr. W. J. Fox in a recent number (306 

 p. 718) of this Journal refers to a shell 

 named by Osbeck in his ' Reise nach ost 

 Indien und China,' 1765, Cunnus chi- 

 nensis. The objectionable generic name 

 was doubtless derived from Linnseus, who 

 used it in the manuscript of the Mu- 

 seum Ludovicse Ulricte for the shell now 

 known as Venus dione. It was not pub- 

 lished by Linnseus, who substituted Venug 

 in the tenth edition of the Systema Na- 

 turse and afterward in the Museum Cata- 

 logue referred to. A very interesting ac- 

 count of the gradual evolution of the early 

 Linnsean generic names, and of the binomial 

 system itself, will be found in a paper by 

 the late Professor Sven Loven ' On the 

 species of Echinoidea described by Linnseus,' 

 in the K. Svensk. vet. Ahad. Handl., Bd. 13, 

 IV., No. 5, 1887, pp. 3-60. Luckily Os- 

 beck' s application of the name referred to 

 seems unidentifiable. 



The great Baikal Lake of Eastern Siberia 

 has long been regarded as having had con- 

 nection with the sea at some previous 

 epoch, and various opinions have been held 



* Bulletin Chicago Acad. Sci., II., No. 3, pp. 191- 

 212. June, 1900. 



t Bull. Soc. Sci. Nat. Nantes, I., pp. 307-336, pi. 

 XXII.-XXVI. 1900. 



