April 9, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



595 



colored, which is the term applied to mulattoes, 

 but the whites. A member of the City Coun- 

 cil of Kingston was suspected of being a promi- 

 nent Obeah man. The Obeah man is always 

 flogged when detected in such practice. The 

 object of this practice, or worship, as it is often 

 called, is to : (1) Thwart or remove the spirits 

 of the departed. (2) To bring success. (3) To 

 punish enemies. (4) To prevent theft. They 

 consist of sacrifices, charms, terrorizing and 

 hypnotizing influences. To remove duflies or 

 ghosts, a cock is sacrificed, and they hang up a 

 bottle of water. To bring success they strew 

 rice and other powders. To punish enemies 

 they sacrifice a cock, cut off feet and head and 

 plant the head with beak toward the door of 

 the enemy. To prevent theft they hang up a 

 bottle. The belief in duflies or ghosts is the 

 most .striking feature of Obeaism ; charms are 

 worked to keep the duflies in their graves and 

 to keep them out of their homes. Sacrifices 

 and practices of the most inhuman and revolt- 

 ing character are sometimes performed, and in- 

 stances of human sacrifices were known. Every 

 unexplainable act is credited to the duflies, and 

 a negro will not answer a knock at his door 

 after dark for fear it will prove a dufifie. Many 

 curious and interesting beliefs and customs were 

 related. Discussed by Professor Mason, J. H. 

 Blodgett, Drs. Frank Baker, J. H. McCormick 

 and others. 



' J. H. McCosMiCK, 



General Secretary. 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES ; BIOLOGICAL 

 SECTION, MARCH 8, 1897. 



The papers presented were: 



H. E. Crampton, ' On the Ascidian Half Em- 

 bryo.' His experimental studies on the egg of 

 Molgula manhatiensis showed that the isolated 

 blastomeres segment in a strictly ' partial ' man- 

 ner, but that a gradual passage to a ' total ' de- 

 velopment ensues. As far as the early stages 

 were concerned, Chabry, Roux and Barfurth 

 are entirely correct in arguing for a half or ' par- 

 tial ' development. But Driesch, Hertwig and 

 others are also correct in considering the end 

 result a ' total ' larva of less than the normal 

 size. The paper will be published in full. 



N. R. Harrington, ' On a Nereid from Puget 



Sound (Pacific coast), which lives commensally 

 with the Hermit crab, Eupagurus alaskensis.' A 

 variety of the western European species, N. 

 fucaia, is known to inhabit deserted whelk cells 

 with Eupagurus bernhardus, and a careful com- 

 parison of the Old and the New World forms 

 brings out resemblances in structure due to the 

 operation of the same physiological factors. 

 These are notably: (1) the degeneration of the 

 muscular and cuticular layers in the posterior 

 two-thirds of the body; (2) loss of the pigment in 

 the same ; (3) physiological factors may explain 

 why only females are found (as yet) in this com- 

 fortable and nutritive habitat. The author sur- 

 mises that the commensal form is the female 

 epitocous type of some free living nereid. 



This apparently undescribed species from the 

 Pacific diflers from N. fucata B. inquilvina of 

 Wir^n in the arrangement of the paragnathi, 

 respiratory lobes of notopodium and transverse 

 pigment stripes. 



Bashford Dean, ' A Posthumous Memoir of 

 Professor J. S. Newberry.' This paper de- 

 scribed new species and a new genus of North 

 American fossil fishes, and discussed the genera 

 Oracanthus, Dactylodus, Polyrhizodvs, Sandalodus 

 and Petalodus. 



Among the types were species of Cladodus, 

 Oracanthus, Ctenacanthus, Stethacanthus, Aster- 

 optychius, Dactylodus, Deltodus, Sandalodus, Pse- 

 phodus, Helodus and Ctenodus. Dinichthys corru- 

 gatus was taken as a type of a' new genus, 

 Stenognathus. 



At the conclusion of the papers an election 

 of sectional oflicers was held. Professor E. B. 

 Wilson was elected Chairman for the ensuing 

 year and Professor C. L. Bristol Secretary. 

 Bashfoei) Dean, 



Secretary pro tern. 



TOEEEY botanical CLUB, FEBRUARY 24, 1897. 



The first paper was by Mr. Arthur Hollick, 'A 

 fossil Arundo from Staten Island. ' The paper 

 was presented by Dr. Britton, with prefatory 

 remarks referring to this discovery. Its occur- 

 rence was in yellow sand of Staten Island, be- 

 longing to late Tertiary or early Quaternary; the 

 locality, a pit near Port Wadsworth. The pre- 

 liminary reference to Phragmites is now changed 

 by Mr. Hollick to the tropical genus Arundo. 



