1879. | Scientific News. 725 
used were not at present satisfactory to the Post-office Department. 
For the purpose of absolute safety a double security was required, 
and the wooden box must be itself enclosed in a metal case. A 
secretary, Rev. A. B. Hervey, of Taunton, Mass.; assistant sec- 
retary and treasurer, Joseph McKay, 24 Liberty street, Troy, 
N. Y.; managers, R. H. Ward, M.D., Troy, N. Y., and C. M. 
Vorce, Cleveland, O. 
being chairman of the meeting. The new club was well repre- 
sented at the Buffalo meeting of the American Society of Micro- 
scopists. It is proposed to hold weekly meetings for study and 
work, beginning October Ist, at a private office. 
West CHESTER PHILOSOPHICAL Society.—This society is taking 
a place among the most active and successful microscopical socie- 
ties. At the September meeting an excellent note on the fertili- 
zation of plants, with special relation to the question of insect 
fertilization, was read by Dr. J. R. McClurg, chairman of the 
Microscopical Section. In opposition to the theory of Darwin, 
ubbock and others, that the sweets (and colors?) of flowers 
exist expressly for insects, in order to attract their visits and thus 
secure cross-fertilization, he states with much prominence, if not 
formal approval, the theory of Rev. Geo. Henslow, that the sweets 
existed before insects used them, though they have been subse- 
intercourse were dwelt upon with equal vigor and effect. 
10% 
SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 
— Some interesting suggestions as to the evolution of the Ver- 
tebrata appear in Prof. Parker's Hunterian Lectures, recently 
reported in Mature. He recognizes “ how thoroughly interme- 
= diate between the true reptiles and birds, the extinct birds of the 
~ chalk and the odlite were.” As regards the mammals he says : 
