THE WEST AMERICAN SCIENTIST. 49 



DEATH OF PROFESSOR PETER LUDWIG PANUM. 



Professor Peter Ludwig Panum, a prominent physiologist, died 

 on May 6, 1885, at Copenhagen. The deceased delivered physio- 

 logical-chemical lectures in the cities of Leipsic and Wurzburg, 

 in Germany, also in Paris, and by his practical experience he re- 

 ceived in 1853 a call as Professor in the University of Kiel, Ger- 

 many. His name was well known in Europe and abroad, and 

 during his eleven years activity at that University his only 

 thoughts were devoted to the study of Physiology. Panum was 

 the founder of the Physiological labortorium at Kiel. In the year 

 1863 he received a call to the University at Copenhagen as profes- 

 sor and was a prominent member of the physiological science 

 there. His death is regretted by the scientific world in general 

 and especially by physiologists. Ph. Heinsbekger. 



International Correspondence Bureau, New York, May 26, 1885. 



THE SAN DIEGO SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



June 5, 1885. Miss Rosa Smith made some interesting remarks 

 on a hammer-headed shark (Sphyrna zygaena, M. & H.), taken off 

 Cerros Island, Lower California, in March and secured for the 

 society's museum. These sharks have lived since the Cretaceous 

 period and this species has been known to science for over 300 

 years. It is common to all warm seas. 



C. R. Orcutt presented a section of bark from the Pinus Jef- 

 frey si ? of the table-lands of Lower California. The bark had 

 been bored into at varying distances from the base of the tree to 

 the branches — doubtless the work of Colaptes auratus; and in 

 about one-third of the holes were acorns of the Quercus Emoryi, 

 very tightly fitted, the holes containing the acorns apparently 

 newly made. The remaining holes were weather-beaten; and in 

 them were equally tightly fitted bits of the granite gravel and bits 

 of wood of near the same size as the acorns. 



A paper from Science, May 29, on the Monterey pine and cy- 

 press, by Dr. Asa Gray, was read. 



C. R Orcutt was elected a life member, and H. W. Fairbanks 

 an active member, of the Society. 



John G. Capron and Joseph Surr were appointed a committee 

 to take such steps as are possible for the preservation of the few 

 remaining trees of the Soledad pine (Pinus Torreyana, Parry) 

 found within the corporate limits of the city of San Diego. 



