Miscellaneous Intelligence. 527 



lent work attracted the attention of all connected with the Gray 

 Herbarium. His untimely death is sincerely deplored by the 

 botanical department of the University. G. l. g. 



6. Discoliths in clay beds ; by Arthur M. Edwards, M.D. 

 (Communicated.) — Last winter the railroad officials were con- 

 structing a branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad across the 

 meadows in Newark, N. J., to the north before crossing the 

 Passaic River. " They have been making the embankments of the 

 sandy parts of the Amboy clays from near Woodbridge, N". J. 

 I have examined the clay which came in the sand, which itself 

 was light cream colored, almost white. There were five colored 

 clays from white to dark gray. In the lighter colored kinds I 

 find Discoliths and perhaps Cyatholiths. This is of importance 

 for it makes the clay marine and also confirms the Cretaceous 

 character of the deposit. The Coccoliths (which include Disco- 

 liths and Cyatholiths) exist now at the bottom of the ocean and 

 occur in the chalk of the Cretaceous. They existed in the clays 

 of Perth Amboy, N. J., and perhaps they will be found elsewhere. 



III. Miscellaneous Scientific Intelligence. 



1. National Academy of Sciences. — The following is a list of 

 papers presented at the meeting held at Washington, April 18 

 to 20. 



E. D. Cope: On the systematic relations of the Ophidia. 



H. L. Abbott : Biographical memoir of General Montgomery C. Meigs. 



M. C. Lea : On the nature of certain solutions, and on a new means of investi- 

 gating them. 



A. Hyatt: The relations of allied branches of biological research to the study 

 of the development of the individual, and the evolution of groups. The Endo- 

 siphonoidea (Endoceras, etc.), considered as a new order of Cephalopods. A new 

 type of Fossil Cephalopod. Results of recent researches upon Fossil Cephalo- 

 pods of the Carboniferous. 



E. W. Hilgabd: Biographical memoir of Julius Erasmus Hilgard. 



A. S. Packabd: Monograph of the Bombycine Moths of America, north of 

 Mexico Part I. — Notodontidae. 



G. W. Hill: Intermediary orbits. 



Richmond Mayo-Smith: The relations between the statistics of immigration 

 and the census returns of the foreign-born population of the United States. 

 Statistical data for the study of the assimilation of races and nationalities in the 

 United States. 



T. C. Mendenhall: Telegraphic gravity determinations. Fundamental stand- 

 ards of length and mass. 



H. S. Carhart: Comparison of latitude determinations at Waikiki. A one- 

 volt standard cell. 



R. H. Chittenden: Peptonization in gastric digestion. 



Alexander Graham Bell : Helen Kellar. 



S. P. Langley : On a potentiality of internal work in the wind. On a holo- 

 graph of the infra-red solar spectrum. 



Theo. Gill: The classification of the gastropodous mollusks. 



The Draper medal was presented to Professor H. C. Vogel. 



2. American Philosophical Society. — The American Philo- 

 sophical Society celebrated its 150th anniversary at Philadelphia 

 during the week beginning Monday, May 22d. A reception, with 



