1881. ] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 1033 
PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN PaHILosopHicaL Society, 
March 18, 1881.—A memoir On the Preglacial drainage of Lake 
Erie and other great lakes, by Dr. J. W. Spencer, was read and 
illustrated by the secretary. A paper on a geological section at 
St. Marys, in Elk county, Pa., was read by Mr. Ashburner. 
April 1.—Prof. W. M. Fontaine offered for publication in the 
Transactions of the Society, a memoir on the Rhetic flora and 
the formation to which they belong, in Virginia and North Caro- 
lina. Mr. Mansfield, of Connelton, Beaver county, Pa., communi- 
cated by letter a drawing, life size, of a fine fossil, Eurypterus, found 
by him in the shale immediately beneath the Darlington cannel 
beds, lower productive coal measures. Mr. E. B. Harden presented 
two models in plaster, one geologically colored, the other un- 
colored, of a large portion of Blair county, Pa., on a scale of 
8000’ 1’’, vertical scale exaggerated two and a-half times. Cap- 
tain E. Y. McCauley, U.S.N., communicated for publication in the 
Proceedings, An alphabet ‘and syllabary of the Egyptian lan- 
guage for the use of students. 
April 15.—A drawing and a description of his improved “Centi- 
grad Photometer,” was received from D. Coglievina of Vienna. Pro- 
fessor P. E. Chase explained certain relations of the spectrum line 
F with other lines and data, suggesting the probable identity of 
hydrogen and the luminiferous zther, Professor E. D. Cope 
read a paper on the classification of the Perissodactyla. Dr. Konig 
made remarks on Dr. P. F, Reinsch's plates of the BtigfORCOD I 
lithology of the Anthracite and other coals. Mr. Lesley com- 
municated an appendix to Dr. Spencer’s paper on the Lake Erie 
former water-basin, suggesting the probable course of the upper 
Ohio from Pittsburgh to Butler, thence via New Castle, up the 
present Mahoning valley, and down the grand valley of the Ohio 
to Lake Erie. 
May 6.—Mr. Frazer exhibited coins, also specimens of granite, 
cement, lead, bronze and steel, used by the Egyptians in erecting the 
obelisk, now in New York, and sections of the granite under the mi- 
croscope. Mr. Ashburner exhibited a suite of maps of one of the — 
British coal fields. Dr. Chance communicated a paper, entitled 
“An analysis of the fire damp explosions in the Anthracite coal 
mines from 1876 to 1880.’’ 
June 17,—Communications were made as follows, viz.: 1. Note 
on the Geology of West Virginia, by J. C. White. 2. A Series 
of Standard Units, by Pliny E. Chase. 3. On Alaska, by Prof. 
George A. Konig. 
July 15.—The following communications were read: 1. On the 
Argilliferous Gravels of North Carolina, by H. M. Chance, M. D. 
2. The Brain of the Cat, Fels domesticus, with four plates, by 
Burt G. Wilder, Prof. Anatomy in Cornell University. 3. The 
_ Vagus Nerve of the Cat, with four plates, by T. B. Stowell. _ 
VOL, XY.—No. xtt, no: 
