1877.] Proceedings of Societies. 445 
— A Lyceum of Natural History has been established at Indianapolis, 
with Prof. E. T. Cox as President, and Mr. H. E. Copeland as Recording 
Secretary. At the first meeting after organization communications were 
made by Profs. John Myers, H. E. Copeland, and D. T. Jordan. The 
latter described the habits of a grasshopper destructive to corn and cotton 
in the Gulf States, while Professors Jordan and Copeland reported the 
discovery of the food of the Menomenee, or deep-water white fish of 
Lakes Superior and Michigan, fresh-water snails (Physa and Limnea) 
having been found in the stomachs, We regret to announce that Mr. 
Copeland has, since the receipt of this notice, died. 
PROCEEDINGS OF SOCIETIES. 
PuiLosornicaL Society, Washington. — January 14, 1877. Mr. 
Gilbert, of Mr. Powell’s Survey of the Rocky Mountain Region, read a 
. paper on the Lake Bonneville basin, of which Great Salt Lake is the 
residue. Outlets to the north had been supposed on theoretical grounds 
to exist by several geologists, but he believed no one had published any 
actual identification of an outlet up to the present time. Such an 
outlet had been examined by him during the past summer, being a nar- 
row cut through a mountain pass, of which the lower portion was 
formed through part of a bed of limestone while the upper portion of 
the banks were of gravel, inclined about 30°. The bed of the old chan- 
nel now formed a continuous marsh. The old beaches which had been 
traced for many miles differed in level between the northern and south- 
ern limits as much as five hundred feet, the distance being about three 
hundred miles. The southern beaches were higher than those at Salt 
Lake and the northern ones lower, if observations by the aneroid ba- 
rometer could be relied on. The speaker thought that this indicated a 
sinking of the land toward the north since the Glacial epoch, and taken 
in connection with the changes of outlet at Lake Winnipeg and else- 
where, he considered that it might be inferred De, a general sinking of 
all northern land had taken place since that ae 
February 10, 1877. Dr. Billings kae i some details of the meth- 
ods employed in investigating the questions of the production of living 
Organisms de novo, in suitable fluids from which external germs were ex- 
cluded, and the “ germ theory” of disease. He described a simple and 
apparently effectual method for protecting the fluid in a wine glass, for 
instance, by covering the glass with a watch-glass of a little larger di- 
ameter, with the convex side upward, the downward curvature of the 
edges of the watch-glass preventing the lateral introduction of currents 
of air and germs between the glasses, while the actual access of air was 
hot interfered with. It is of course necessary to destroy anything which 
might adhere to the glasses before using, by exposing them toa miy 
high FETON 
