Miscellaneous Intelligence. 257 



secondary sutures. The concentration of the thoracic region is 

 referred to the reactions from the wings and legs. In a form 

 such as Pulex, in which the wings are reduced to mere scales and 

 the legs developed for leaping, the thorax loses its complex 

 modifications, and the rings become distinct and closely resem- 

 ble the abdominal segments. c. e. b. 



IY. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. Fifth International Congress of Geologists. — The commit- 

 tee of organization, of which J. S. Newberry is chairman, and 

 H. S. Williams and' S. F. Emmons, secretaries, have recently issued 

 a circular which makes the following announcements : 



The Bureau of the International Congress of Geologists has 

 decided that its Fifth Session shall be held at Washington, and 

 the date of the session has been fixed for the last Wednesday 

 (26th) of August, 1891. 



The annual meeting of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science and the summer meeting of the Geological 

 Society of America will be held in the same city during the pre- 

 ceding week. 



Requests for inscription as members of the Congress should be 

 addressed to the secretary's office, 1330 F street, Washington, 

 D. C. The fee for membership has been fixed at two and a half 

 dollars ($2.50). The receipt of the treasurer entitles the sub- 

 scriber to a member's card, as well as to the Compte Rendu and 

 other ordinary publications of the Congress. 



2. Alabama Industrial and Scientific /Society. — This Society 

 was recently organized at the University of Alabama with 

 70 members. Its objects are the promotion of the industries of 

 the State, and the furtherance of the scientific investigation of the 

 problems arising in civil and mining engineering, geology, smelt- 

 ing, and the manufacture of coke. The president for 1891 is 

 C. C. Cadle. The society will meet three or four times a year at 

 different places in the State, for the reading and discussion of 

 papers, which will afterwards be published. A meeting was held 

 in Birmingham, January 28th, 1891. 



3. Transactions of the Meriden Scientific Association, vol. iv, 

 1889-1890, 89 pp. — This volume contains a sketch by Rev. J. I. 

 Pettee, of the life and work of the Connecticut geologist, J. G. 

 Percival, with a portrait ; also articles on sewage by G. L. Cooper; 

 on the topographical survey of Connecticut, on geological features 

 of Meriden, on Cycadinocarpus Chapinii, a fossil plant from the 

 Durham shales, by Rev. J. H. Chapin ; on the pre-Columbian 

 discovery of America by the Northmen, by C. H. S. Davis. 



4. A Move for Better Roads. Essays on road-making and 

 maintenance and road laws, for which prizes or honorable mention 

 were awarded through the University of Pennsylvania, by a com- 

 mittee of citizens of Philadelphia, with a synopsis of other con- 

 tributions and a review by the secretary, Lewis M. Haupt ; also 



