December i6, 1892.] 



SCIENCE. 



341 



arouse public sentiment sufficiently to bring about valuEible results. 

 The Boston Herald has started a fund to enable the Commis- 

 sioners to prosecute this work. The Commissioners are all mem- 

 bers of the Appalachian Mountain Club: Hon. Joseph B. Walker 

 of Concord, Hon. G. Byron Chandler of Manchester, and Rev. 

 J. B. Harrison of Franklin Falls. The Council of the Club has 

 appropriated $25, and individual members have already sub- 

 scribed to the Herald fund. The Council has appointed a com- 

 mittee, consisting of Rosewell B. Lawrence, 53 State Street, room 

 518, and Walter R. Davis, 121 Devonshire Street, Boston, to re- 

 ceive contributions from members, the contributions to be used 

 at the discretion of the Council as an addition to the Herald 

 fund, or to be expended by the Council itself in connection with 

 the matter of the preservation of the forests. 



— At the thirty-sixth annual meeting of the Association of 

 Officers of Colleges in New England, held at Williams College, 

 Nov. 3-5, 1892, it was voted that the following memorandum be 

 furnished to all educational journals for publication, but with the 

 declaration that this action of the association does not commit 

 any college faculty to the recommendations made in the memo- 

 randum : The Association of Officers of Colleges in New England, 

 impressed with the real unity of interest and the need of mutual 

 sympathy and help throughout the different grades of public ed- 

 ucation, invites the attention of the public to the foUowmg 

 changes which, without insisting upon details, it recommends for 

 gradual adoption in the proiiramme of New England grammar 

 schools. Art. 1. The introduction of elementary natural history 

 into the earlier years of the programme as a substantial subject, 

 to be taught by demonstrations and practical exercises rather 

 than from books. 3. The introduction of elementary physics into 

 the later years of the programme as a substantial subject, to be 

 taught by the experimental or laboratory method, and to include 

 exact weighing and measuring by the pupils themselves. 3. The 

 introduction of elementary algebra at an age not later than twelve 

 jears. 4. The introduction of elementary plane geometry at an 

 age not later than thirteen years. 5. The offering of opportunity 

 to study French, or German, or Latin, or any two of these lan- 

 guages from and after the age of ten years. 6. The increa.'e of 

 attention in all class-room exercises in every study to the correct 

 and facile use of the English language. In order to make room 

 in the programme for these new subjects, the associatioi. recom- 

 mends that the time allotted to arithmetic, geography, and 

 English grammar be reduced to whatever extent may be neces- 

 sary. The association makes these recommendations in the in- 

 terest of the public school system as a whole; but most of them 

 are offered more particularly in the interest of those children 

 whose education is not to be continued beyond the grammar 

 school. 



— An interesting experiment in naturalization, namely, the 

 transfer of living lobster's {Homanis vulgaris) from England to 

 New Zealand, has just been ci'owned with success. The fitting-up 

 -of steamers with refrigerating chambers for the carriage of frozen 

 meat from New Zealand to the Mother Country, has enabled ex- 

 periments to be carried out, with every prospect of success, which 

 were formerly considered almost impossible of fulfilment. Some 

 years ago humble-bees were by this means successfully caiTied to 

 the island colony, where they have increased amazingly, and from 

 whence they have since been carried to Australia and Tasmania. 

 Shipments of salmon ova are likewise now made almost without 

 loss. The latest experiment, the candying out of live lobsters, has 

 also been successfully accomplished. This result is due to Mr. 

 Purvis, chief engineer of the steamship "Ionic," who has taken 

 great interest ttaoughout in this work. An attempt was made 

 last year by the same gentleman, at the instance of the Otago 

 Acclimatization Society, who were aided in their efforts by Mr. 

 John Ewing of London and Dr. Cunningham of the Plymouth 

 Biological Station. The attempt, however, failed almost at the 

 outset. Tanks were constnicted on board the steamer, and stocked 

 with lobsters, but within a few days after starting all the crus- 

 taceans died. The construction of the tanks was probably faulty. 

 On the last outward trip of the steamer, Mr. Ewing obtained a 



dozen tine specimens of lobsters, and handed them over to Mr. 

 Purvis, who safely conveyed nine of them to their destination. 

 These animals, four males and five females, were liberated on a 

 rook-built mole at the entrance to Otago Harbor, where they are 

 likely to thrive, and from whence they will no doubt spread 

 widely. The coast-line, both north and south, is rocky, and is 

 eminently suited for crustaceans. At present it is tenanted by a 

 large crayfish (Palinurus), and it will be an interesting problem 

 to see how the introduced animal will thrive. The crayfish is 

 strongly armed defensively with a strong carapace and stout spiny 

 prominences on its front, and on the anterior limbs. It is ex- 

 tremely common on the coast. But there are no crustaceans with 

 the formidable chelss of the lobster, and it will most probably be 

 able to more than hold its own. This first shipment is certain to 

 be followed by others, and it is almost safe to predict that in a 

 few years frozen lobsters will form one of the articles of export 

 from New Zealand. 



— The fifth annual meeting of the Geological Society of Amer- 

 ica will, by invitation of the Logan Club of the Canadian Geologi- 

 cal Survey, and the Royal Society of Canada, be held in Ottawa, 

 in the House of Commons building. The society will be called 

 to order at 10 o'clock a.m., Wednesday, Dec. 39. An address of 

 welcome will be given by his Excellency, the Governor-General 

 of Canada, with a response by the president. The headquarters 

 will be at the Russell House. 



— The eleventh annual meeting of the American Society of 

 Anatomists will be held on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 

 Dec. 37, 28, and 29; the Sosiety of Morphologists will meet on 

 Tuesday and Wednesday morning, Dec. 27 and 28; and the Soci- 

 ety of Physiologists will meet on Wednesday, Dec. 38; all at 

 Princeton, N.J. The papers, so far as announced, are: C. Hart 

 Merriam, The Death-Valley Expedition; Reports upon Marine 

 Biological Laboratories; John A. Rider, University of Pennsyl- 

 vania, The Sea Isle Laboratory ; E. A. Andrews, Johns Hopkins 

 University, A Marine Station in Jamaica; D. Bashford Dean, 

 Columbia College, The Marine Laboratories of Europe; C. O. 

 Whitman, University of Chicago, The Outlook for a Marine Ob- 

 servatory at Woods Holl; Endowment of the American Table at 

 Naples, C. W. Stiles; Botanical Explorations in Florida, W. P. 

 Wilson; The Summer Work of the U. S. Fish Commission 

 Schooner "Grampus," William Libbey, Jr. ; Expeditions of the 

 American Museum of Natural History into New Mexico, Wyom- 

 ing, and Dakota, J. L. Wortman; Annual Discussion, What were 

 the Former Areas and Relations of the American Continent, as 

 Determined by Faunal and Floral Distribution? Introduction and 

 Evidences from Past and Present Distribution of Mammals, W. 

 B. Scott; Evidence fromPast and Present Distribution of Reptiles, 

 George Baur; Evidence from Distribution of Birds, J. A. Allen; 

 Evidence from Distribution of Plants, N. L. Britton. 



— An International Meteorological Congress, to form one of the 

 many scientific gatherings in Chicago next year while the World's 

 Fair is in progress, is in contemplation; and an Advisory Council 

 of the World's Congress Auxiliary, to arrange for the same, has 

 been appointed. It includes the heads of the national weather 

 bureaus, American and foreign, the chiefs of the State services 

 in this country, and a few other men who have been conspicuously 

 identified with weather science. Very appropriately, Professor 

 Mark W. Harrington, chief of the Weather Bureau, has been 

 designated as chairman of this council. The congress will sit 

 during the week beginning Aug. 31, 1893; and the following 

 classification of topics for discussion has been made: (a) Instru- 

 ments and methods of observation; (b) theoretical meteorology, 

 including cyclones and secondary storms ; (c) climatology ; (d) ag- 

 ricultural and hygienic meteoi-ology; (e) marine meteorology; (/) 

 government weather service, including weather telegraphy, pre- 

 dictions, verifications, special thunder-storm and other service; 

 (g) terrestrial magnetism and atmospheric electricity, including 

 magnetic storms, cosmic-magnetic fields, magnetic and electric 

 instruments, lightning and aurora; (7i) geologic climate, including 

 the glacial age, quaternary changes in climate, and the testimony 

 of flora and fauna ; and (t) meteorologic literature. 



