April 19, 1895.] 



SCIENCE. 



447 



Electric Currents'; Professor E. Ray Lan- 

 kester, four lectures on ' Tliirty Yeai-s' Pro- 

 gress in Biological Science ' ; Professor De- 

 war, four lectures on • The Liquefaction of 

 Gases'; Dr. William Huggins, three lec- 

 tures on ' The Instruments and Methods of 

 Spectroscopic Astronomy." 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIEXCIS OF PHILA- 



DELPUIA. 



At the meeting on March 26th Dr. ISI. 

 V. Ball called attention to the microscopic 

 preparation of the germ characteristic of 

 erysipelas, the botanical name of which is 

 Streptococcus pyorjenes. The culture of the 

 organism had been used with most gi-atify- 

 ing success in the treatment of cancer, the 

 cure of some cases having been reported, 

 while others had been manifestlj' benefited. 

 A subcutaneous injection of the culture 

 raises the temperature to 104° in 20 min- 

 utes. This palliative effect of the poison 

 of erj-sipelas had long been known, the im- 

 provement of cancer cases accidentallj' 

 affected having been noticed j-ears ago in 

 hospitals. 



Dr. S. G. Dixon spoke of the morpho- 

 logical resemblance between Actinomyces, or 

 the ray fungus, and ^Eyevita Candida, a white 

 fungus, found growing on damp decaying 

 wood. The former is believed to produce 

 in cattle and man the disease known as 

 lump jaw, or Actinomyces. Should the two 

 fungi prove to be identical, the hitherto un- 

 known cause of lump jaw in cattle would 

 not oulj' be explaint>d, but cattle breeders 

 would be enabled to prevent, to a gi-eat ex- 

 tent, the much dreaded disease. 



Mr. Henry C. Pilsbrj' exhibited fine 

 specimens of the genus Cerion, and ciilled 

 special attention to the variations of the 

 teeth or plates on the collumella, some of 

 which extended far into the shell, while in 

 other individuals thej- are quite superficial, 

 the external chai-acters, however, remaining 



tlie same. He believed the use of these 

 folds was to enable the mollusk to keep a 

 more firm grasp of the shell, and thus move 

 it about more freely, as it hangs from twigs 

 and leaves. 



Tlie geographical distribution of the spe- 

 cies is peculiar. They inhabit Cuba, Hayti, 

 the Bahamas and Florida Kej-s and reap- 

 pear in Curacoa, off the northern coast of 

 South America, but are completely absent 

 from Jamaica and the Caribbean chain. 

 There is, therefoi-e, a wide gap between the 

 northern and southern areas inhabited by 

 the genus Cerion, altliough the islands in 

 this space are apparently favorable to the 

 existence of snails. A suite of specimens 

 illustrating species of Cerion was exhibited. 

 Edw. J. ^O'L&.'S, Recording Secretary. 



>EW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



At the meeting of the Section of Astron- 

 omy and Physics of the New York Academy 

 of Sciences on April 1st Professor R. S. 

 Woodward was elected chairman and 

 William Hallock secretary for the following 

 year. 



President Rees gave a verj^ interesting 

 resume of the work done in astronomy 

 during 1S94. This paper may appear in 

 Science a little later. 



President Rees then showed some of Pro- 

 fessor Barnard's wonderful photographs of 

 the Milky-Way, pointing out the evidences 

 of the peculiar geometrical clustering of the 

 stars in certain parts, as well as the ' dark 

 lanes ' and ' star streams ' discovered by 

 Barnard. He also showed photographs of 

 several comets, especially Brooks', which 

 went through such interesting changes. 

 The photographs brought out most beauti- 

 fullj- the unusual structure of the tail, and 

 the sudden changes in shape, especially 

 when it seemed to have encountered a 

 resisting medium and apparently broke 

 the tail near its middle. 



The pictures were discussed and admired 



