1 882.] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 621 



— Mr. E. W. Nelson has returned from a sojourn of four and 

 a half years in Northern Alaska. Besides his meteorological 

 work, in connection with the U. S. Signal Service, he has brought 

 to Washington an extensive and complete series of specimens, 

 among which are about nine thousand implements and carvings, 

 illustrating the mode of life of the Esquimaux and their handi- 

 work. His notes of their customs, his vocabularies, and his col- 

 lection of photographs, are very interesting and important. He 

 has also secured a large collection of the birds and fishes of 

 Alaska. 



— Among the new fellows elected at the last meeting of the 

 Royal Microscopical Society, says the English Mechanic, was Mr. 

 W. A. Thorns, baker of Alyth, who for the past ten years has 

 been engaged in tracing the origin of leaven, which he concludes 

 is identical with the fibrin of gluten and the granular contents of 

 embryo-membranes. Mr. Thorns has also devoted a great deal 

 of time to an investigation of the potato disease, and the salmon 

 fungus. 



— Charles M. Wheatley, who was well known for his import- 

 ant discoveries of a Mesozoic Saurian bone-bed near Phomixville, 

 and of a Quaternarv cave in eastern Pennsylvania, containing 

 bones of the Megalonvx, tapir, peccarv, etc., died May 6th. Mr. 

 William S.Vaux died in Philadelphia May 5th, leaving a bequest 

 of $10,000 to the Academy of Natural Sciences. 



— Among the papers read at the recent meeting of the Ameri- 

 can Forestrv Association, held at Cincinnati, was one paper on 

 forest tree culture in California, and another on the growth of 

 certain California forest trees and the meteorological influences 

 suggested thereby, by R. E. C. Stearns. 



— The next meeting of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science will be held at Montreal, beginning Aug. 

 23, under the presidency of Principal J. W. Dawson. A number 

 of British and other foreign scientists will be present, and the 

 meeting will undoubtedly be one of unusual interest. 



— Professor Kowalewsky, of Moscow, has gone to the Cau- 

 casus to examine the petroleum deposits of that region. 



PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 

 American Philosophical Society. Nov. 4, 1881. — Dr. E. 



Heath described his exploration of the rivers Beni and Mam< 

 m Bolivia, illustratin ' his remarks with maps of the region t 

 Plored, and giving manv particulars relative to the productic 

 oi that part of Bolivia.' 



Nov. 18.— Dr. Brinton explained the substance of his paper 

 the names of the gods in the Kiche Myth. 



