608 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. 3T8. 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

 PUBLIC LECTURE. 



On February 26 a public lecture was pre- 

 sented under the auspices of the Section of 

 Biology, by Professor Bashford Dean, of Col- 

 umbia University, entitled ' Journeyings of a 

 Naturalist through Japan and the Philip- 

 pines.' 



Professor Dean referred to the zoological 

 relations of the Japanese archipelago with the 

 adjacent continent on the one hand, and with 

 the island series on the other — i. e., (1) the 

 Aleutian, (2) through the Bonin Islands with 

 the region of New Guinea, and (3) through 

 the Liu Chiu Islands with Formosa and the 

 Philippines. The importance of the line of 

 Blakiston separating the Hokkaido from the 

 southern islands was emphasized. 



Especial attention was called to the favor- 

 able facilities for zoological work which are 

 offered in the region of Misaki, near the 

 mouth of the Bay of Tokyo, and to the work 

 of the Marine Laboratory of the Imperial 

 University in this region. Dr. Dean had an 

 opportunity of examining the centers of ani- 

 mal artificialization, an art in which the Jap- 

 anese have been so eminently successful. Es- 

 pecially praiseworthy is the method of oyster- 

 culture practiced in the Inland Sea near 

 Hiroshima; hardly less interesting were the 

 establishments in which varieties of gold fish 

 are propagated; and even more striking were 

 those for the cultivation of the breed of Tosa 

 fowls, in favorable specimens of which the tail 

 feathers attain the great length of fifteen 

 feet. Success in the maintenance of this 

 breed appears to be due to the selection of 

 those fowls in which moulting occurs irreg- 

 ularly, and the effort is made to entirely sup- 

 press the moult in that region of the fowl 

 where long feathers are to be produced. In 

 referring to a journey in the Philippines, Pro- 

 fessor Dean described many interesting ex- 

 periences, particularly those at Maujuyod, 

 where living specimens of Nautilus were ob- 

 tained. 



Henry E. Ceampton, 



Secretary. 



THE ACADEMY OP SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 



At the meeting of the Academy of Science 

 of St. Louis on the evening of February 17, 

 Dr. Gellert Alleman, of Washington Univer- 

 sity, delivered an address on 'The Chemical 

 Constitution and the Manufacture of Port- 

 land Cements.' The growth of the cement 

 industry was treated, the various steps of 

 development being shown by lantern slides 

 illustrating past and present types of machin- 

 ery employed in its manufacture. Several 

 slides were shown giving tabulated results of 

 a number of analyses of difierent commercial 

 Portland cements. 



Mr. Charles Espenschied read a letter from 

 Mr. SeymoiTr Carter, of Hastings, Minnesota, 

 in which was described a method of Professor 

 Anderson, of Columbia University, by which 

 it was stated that cereals could be directly 

 transformed to food-stufis. The process con- 

 sists of enclosing the cereal to be treated in a 

 hermetically sealed vessel and subjecting it to 

 a temperature of about 450° F. for a certain 

 time, and immediately thereafter opening the 

 vessel, when it is found that the grains expand 

 to six or eight times their normal size. The 

 inventor states that the process does not alter 

 the composition of the cereal. Samples of sev- 

 eral cereals treated in this manner were shown. 



Two persons were elected to active member- 

 ship. 



William Trelease, 

 Recording Secretary. 



the toheey botanical club. 



At the meeting of the Club on January 29, 

 the first paper was by Dr. Britton, entitled, 

 ' Notes on the Crassulacese,' and is to appear in 

 print, being a part of a contribution toward 

 the projected 'Systematic Botany of North 

 America.' Remarks followed by Dr. C. 0. 

 Curtis, Dr. Rydberg, Dr. Small, Dr. Mac- 

 Dougal and Mrs. Britton. The distribution 

 of the CrassulaceEe was connnented on. Dr. 

 Britton speaking of the isolated colonies of 

 high mountain species, which seem to have 

 been continuously highly interbred, so pro- 

 ducing highly specialized species. 



The second paper, by Mr. F. S. Earle, en- 

 titled, 'New Genera of Fungi,' founded on rep- 



