968 Organic Compounds in their Relations to Life. [December, 



" Mortality among Architeuthidae." Professor Verrill {Am. 

 Journ. Set., xxi, p. 251, Mar., 18S1) notes a strange mortality of 

 giant squids (" Architeuthis"), which, according to Capt. J. W. 

 Collins, occurred in Oct., 1875. Twenty or thirty specimens 

 were found floating on the water and secured for bait by the. fish- 

 ing fleet. They were mostly somewhat mutilated when found. 



A novel mission in England sends beautiful sea-shells, which 

 are generally collected by children, to little sick people in homes 

 or hospitals. Since May, 1879, it has distributed a quarter of a 

 million of shells from the West Indies, South Africa and Spain, 

 as well as from the English coast. — Footes Leisure Hour. 



A specimen nt Trjda na w Lam., m ighing 528 pounds, was 

 obtained by Professor Ward, of Rochester, New York, at Singa- 

 pore. It was thirty-six inches long and twenty-seven broad, and 

 was presented to the California State Mining Bureau, by Mr. J. Z. 

 Davis— 5. F. Bulletin, Mar. 2d. 



Erratum. — By an inexplicable and unfortunate " lapsus " in 

 this record for 18S0 (p. 716), the name of W. H. Ballou was 

 substituted for that of Rev. W. M. Beauchamp, who should have 

 been credited with the authorship of the note on the distribution 

 of Bythinia tentaculata in the United States (cf. Am. Nat., July, 

 1880, p. 523, and Mar., 1882, pp. 244-5). 



THE ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN THEIR RELATIONS 

 TO LIFE. 1 



BY LESTER F. WARD. 



IN a paper on the " Formation of the Chemical Elements," 8 read 

 March 29, 1879, before the Philosophical Society of Wash- 



ington, I proposed the following cai 

 principal known forms of matter: 

 " /. ( V/emieal Elements.— Substan 



mical definitions of the three 

 :es whose molecules are cotn- 



posed either of those of other cher 

 weight, or of such as are too low t 

 gation, and therefore imperceptible 

 progress of development of star-sy 



nical elements of less atomic 

 > be capable of molar aggre- 

 to sense : formed during the 

 terns at temperatures higher 



1 Read before the Philosophical Society o 

 read before the Biological Section of the Ame 



Washington, January 28, 1SS2; also 



i(Felru ry, 1881), pp. 526-539- 



