756 Scientific News. [ December, ` 
Geological Commission under Prof. Ch. Fred. Hartt, writes that he 
(Derby), H. H. Smith, and Senhor Freitas have discovered one thou- 
sand feet of Devonian beds below the Ereré beds discovered in 1870 by 
Smith and himself. Of this, several hundred feet are Oriskany sandstone, 
rich in fossils of Devonian aspect, including North American character- 
istic species. Carboniferous beds occur in ‘the same region, and they now 
have a complete section from the base of the Devonian to recent forma- 
tions, in the lower Amazonian valley. 
— At the meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, held in Phil- 
adelphia, October 17-19, 1876, the following gentlemen were elected 
members: G. F. Barker, J. A. Allen, W. M. Gabb, E. S. Morse, and 
John Newton. The following papers on natural science were read : 
The Results of an Investigation upon the Transformations of Planorbis 
multiformis, by Alpheus Hyatt; On the Geological Structure and Topo- 
graphical Aspects of the Catskill Mountains, by James Hall; On the 
Physical Structure and Altitudes of the Southern Groups of the Cats- 
kill Mountains, by Arnold Guyot. 
— The forty-sixth annual session of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science was opened September 6th at Glasgow, by the 
address of the president, Professor Andrews. Prof. J. Young delivered 
the opening address before the geological section, Alfred R. Wallace 
that in the section of biology, Prof. Alfred Newton that in the depart- 
ment of zodlogy and botany of the section of biology, and Capt. F. J. 
Evans that in the section of geography. Section A, mathematical and 
physical science, was presided over by Sir William Thompson, who 
made some flattering allusions to the present condition of American 
physical science. : 
—The French Association for the Advancement of Science held its 
meeting in August, under the presidency of M. Dumas. 
—On September 12th the geographical congress convened. by the 
King of Belgium met at Brussels, under the presidency of his majesty. 
— As regards Bathybius, which is now again attracting notice, more 
however in clerical than in scientific circles, it may be said that while 
Professors Wyville Thompson and Huxley have been inclined to doubt 
whether this is an organism, Dr. Bessels, of the Polaris expedition, dis- 
covered in Smith’s Sound a form almost exactly like Bathybius, which, 
however, he judged to be still simpler than Bathybius and accordingly 
named Protobathybius. A description and a figure of it are given from 
drawings and notes furnished by the author in Packard’s Life Histories 
of Animals. Even if Bathybius should prove to be inorganic, we have 
Protobathybius Robesonii left, and several allied forms of simple Monera, — 
such as Protameba protogenes, and others, which are simple drop-like — 
masses of protoplasm, even without a nucleus. All these animals or 
plants, it matters not which, but most probably the former, are placed by 
Haeckel in his Monera, a division of organisms adopted by Huxley ina 
recent paper. ; 
