110 Proceedings of Scientific Societies, [ January, 
Dr. Edmund B. Wilson, late lecturer on biology in Williams Col- 
lege and author of zoological essays of sterling value. The 
standard of science-teaching in our American colleges is steadily 
rising. 
— The Nature Novitates, published during the last six years 
every fortnight by R. Friedlander & Sohn, at Berlin, is sold fora 
dollar a year, and proves a useful bibliographic list of current lit- 
erature of all nations on natural history and the exact sciences, 
with brief news items, which we find of occasional use. 
— The meeting of the German naturalists and physicians was 
opened September 18, at Magdeburg; over a thousand members 
were present. The association will meet next year at Strasburg, 
with Professors Kussmaul and De Bary as secretaries. 
— Professor Dr. Arnold Foerster, the well known hymenopter- 
ist, died at Aachen, Aug. 13. He was a school-teacher, and we 
well remember his courteous greeting when we called on him 
twelve years ago. 
— Alfred E. Brehm, the author of Illustrirtes Thierleben, 
and well known as a traveler, died in November last; he was born 
in 1829. Dr. L. Fitzinger, the well-known zodlogist of Vienna, 
died Sept. 22. 
— We regret to notice that Science Record, of which two vol- 
umes have appeared, published by S. E. Cassino & Co., and 
edited by Mr. J. S. Kingsley, ceased to exist with the December 
number. 
— The next meeting of the Society of Naturalists, E. U. S., 
was to be held at Washington, D. C., during the week following 
Christmas, 1884. 
— The late ‘Sir Erasmus Wilson’s munificent bequest to the 
Royal College of Surgeons is expected to reach the sum of 
£200,000. 
— On July 25, 1884, died in London George B. Sowerby, 
known as a conchologist and palzontologist. He continued the 
Thesaurus Conchyliorum begun by his father. 
ras 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
BIOLOGICAL Society or WAsHINGTON, Nov. 29, 1884.—The fol- 
lowing communications were presented: Mr. Sanderson Smith on 
the recent deep-sea explorations of the United States Fish Commis- 
sion, with special reference to geological results; Mr. Leonard 
Stejneger exhibited specimens illustrating the shedding of the 
bill in auks; Dr. George Vasey on the grasses of the arid plains; 
Mr. Charles D.-Walcott on the oldest known fauna on the Amer- 
ican continent; Professor Lester F. Ward on the occurrence of 
the seventeen-year locust in Virginia in October, 1884. 
* 
