1880. | Scientific News. 469 
— Mr. Julius Bien announces that he will publish a new Geo- 
logical Map of the United States, by Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, pro- 
vided a sufficient number of subscribers can be obtained to cover 
the expense. The base is the United States Centennial Map, re- 
vised and completed by order of Congress. It is 8x13 feet, and 
will be furnished with the geological colors, mounted on rollers, 
at $50, or in 16 sheets at $45 per copy. Explanatory text will 
accompany the map. 
— The death of the distinguished geologist and mineralogist, 
Professor Karl von Seebach, is announced as having taken place 
on the zīst ult., at Gottingen, in the university of which town he 
held a chair. He was born at Weimar, in 1829, and has therefore 
died in the prime of life. The author of numerous works on 
geology and mineralogy, it is chiefly by his investigations into 
the causes of volcanoes and earthquakes that Seebach will be re- 
membered. 
— In the Comptes Rendus for February oth, M. Pasteur de- 
scribes the virulent maladies of fowls. He states that the cholera 
of fowls may be prevented from becoming fatal by inoculation. 
M. Pasteur suggests that we should seek the destruction of phyl- 
loxera by inoculation of the vine with some microscopic fungus, 
and he invites the attention of naturalists and others interested in 
the cultivation of the vine to the subject.— English Mechanic. 
— The Chicago Fie/d is publishing a series of articles by Mr. W. 
H. Ballou, on the bibliography of American naturalists ; it begins 
with a list of the writings of Prof. A. S. Packard, Jr., and Dr. 
Elliott Coues, and will include similar bibliographical lists of 
other naturalists. Should it result in a bibliographical manual of 
American zoologists, the undertaking will prove of very consid- 
erable advantage to students. 
— A good deal of new light has been lately thrown on the na- 
ture of the Indian poison, curare. The plants which yield it all 
belong to the genus Strychnos. M. Planchon distinguishes four 
regions as centres of preparation of curare, for each of which a 
principal plant may be indicated. These are English Guiana, the 
region of the Upper Amazon, the region of the Rio Negro, and 
Upper French Guiana. 
— The season of summer schools of Science has come. The 
Chesapeake Zoölogical Laboratory, directed by Prof. W. K. Brooks, 
under the auspices of the Johns Hopkins University, began its 
third session, at Beaufort, N. C., April 22d, and will remain open 
until September rst, The laboratory will accommodate six per- 
Sons, and will be equipped with boats, nets, dredges, aquaria, 
microscopes, &c, Application for admission may be made to 
Prof. W. K, Brooks, Beaufort, N.C. 
— The fifth session of the Summer School of Biology of the 
