1883. ] Proceedings of Scientific Societies. 905 
de Geografia y Estadistica, of the Société Zodlogique de France, 
of the Entomological Society of Philadelphia, etc., and a valued 
and active correspondent of the Smithsonian Institution, of the 
Cambridge Museum of Comparative Zodlogy, and of several 
other noted scientific institutions. 
— Gen. Sir Edward Sabine, K.C.B., F.R.S., and president of 
the Royal Society of London, died in June. Besides his activity 
as member of various scientific societies, he will be remembered 
for his studies of the phenomena of terrestrial magnetism, first 
undertaken while attached to the Arctic expeditions of Ross and 
Parry. His other papers on physical science were also numerous. 
— om 
PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
eggs. 
March 8.—Professor Cope gave an account of the Permian rep- 
tilian fauna, and described a saurian intermediate between types 
before identified from that formation under the name of Chilonyx 
rapidens. The reptiles of this epoch all belong to the Theromor- 
pha, and have no affinity. to those of Mesozoic times. The ba- 
trachia and reptilia also resemble each other more closely than 
do those of other periods, and both resemble mammals in certain 
parts of their structure, so that the points of departure of all forms 
of vertebrate life above fishes appear to exist in the Permian. 
Professor Heilprin again insisted upon the impossibility of the po- 
lar-ice cap attaining any such thickness as some have attributed to 
it, and observed that if the principles he had enunciated were true, 
they would apply also to Alpine and other summits, which must 
rise above the line of greatest precipitation. He cited numerous 
cts from various observers to prove that such lofty summits 
have, in fact, a much thinner covering of snow than more moder- 
ate elevations, and are in some cases entirely bare. Such an 
arctic glacier as was postulated by some would require 25,000 
years to move from 65° N. lat. to its terminal moraine, even if it 
Moved at the rate of one foot per day. With the infinitesimal 
. 
slope it would have, two and a half inches would be a more prob- 
