1879. ] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 537 
— The Massachusetts Board of Health have undertaken to 
make an investigation into the laws of the hereditary transmis- 
sion of disease, and have issued a circular with a blank, which 
has been prepared for the collection of statistics, upon which can . 
be based an investigation of the laws governing the inheritance 
of pathological conditions, abnormal characteristics of all kinds, 
and any family characteristics or peculiarities sufficiently marked 
to have been made the subject of observation. Those who may 
be interested in helping in the matter should apply to Prof. Al- 
pheus Hyatt, Boston Society of Natural History, Boston, Mass., 
for the circular and blank, and return them when answered to the 
same address, 
— The Summer School of the Johns Hopkins University will 
be located, the present summer, near the mouth of Chesapeake 
b Prof. Baird, of the Fish Commission, has given it the use 
of a steamer for dredging purposes, and the students will board 
on barges anchored in the bay. We have received, from time to 
time, Directions for Laboratory Work of the Teachers’ Class in 
Elementary Zoology at the University. They are prepared by 
Prof. W. K. Brooks, on the general plan of Huxley and Martin’s 
Biology, and seem to serve the purpose of giving the student a 
thorough, well-grounded knowledge of structural zodlogy, and 
we doubt if any other college would show more care and thor- 
oughness in teaching. A few copies are for sale at the Univer- 
sity 
— The great work of G. W. Tryon, Jr., on the Mollusca, has 
reached the third part of the Cephalopoda. 
——— 0m 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
New York Acapemy oF Sciences, May 19.—Papers were read 
by Dr. R. P. Stevens on the corrugation of peat-marsh by pres- 
rete and by S. W. Ford on the composition of the primordial 
una. 
MIDDLESEX ScrentiFic FIELD CLuB, MALDEN, Mass., June 4.— 
Frank S. Collins read a paper on the best methods of gathering- 
and preserving seaweeds. L. L. Dame mentioned the occurrence 
of Clematis (Atragene) verticillaris in Medford. This plant has _ 
not before been recorded from Middlesex county. Miss Martha _ 
Silvester made some remarks on the genus Viola. A paper oo 
the importance of visiting the large museums was presented by 
