562 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 



following particulars: Ihere is an evident tendency 

 ■to divide species upon small details of sculpture, fortu- 

 nately checked, as the author admits, where the 

 specimens are numerous; but the summary admits 

 eighty-eight species in a hundred and seventy-two, 

 founded on only one and two specimens, — an un- 

 paralleled percentage in any monographic work on 

 Staphylinidae ever published. The descriptions are 

 unnecessarily verbose and tiresome, and could have 

 been abbreviated by half with advantage to both 

 author and reader. The division of Stenus, in 

 which the author believes himself to have taken the 

 initiative, is unnecessary and untenable. The genus 

 A re us of Casey has already been separated by Mot- 

 schuhky [Bull. Mosc, 1860, i. 556) under the name 

 Hemistenus, but has found no followers. 



— The American brigantine Senoruta was in lati- 

 tude 35° 50' north, longitude 74° 12' west, at meridian, 

 Nov. 16, and experienced the severe storm of that 

 elate. About two p.m., when it was blowing very hard 

 from the north-east, five whirlwinds were seen to the 

 southward and eastward. They were black columns 

 of water about four hundred feet in diameter, and 

 their tops seemed to reach the clouds. They moved 

 with great velocity at right angles to the wind, and, 

 after passing the vessel, disappeared to the northward 

 and westward. Four went ahead of the vessel, and 

 one astern, within a half-mile. The whirlwinds were 

 moving at the rate of twenty-five or thirty miles an 

 hour. The appearance of waterspouts in the midst 

 of a gale, and moving at right angles to the wind, is 

 quite unusual. 



— The molluscan fauna of the Silurian period in 

 Gotland is illustrated in a fine quarto, with numer- 

 ous plates by Prof. G. Lindstrom of Stockholm, pub- 

 lished by the Swedish academy. It comprises the 

 gastropods and pteropods, and is, perhaps, the first 

 paper which treats at all fully of the Silurian mem- 

 bers of these groups, and contains much of interest, 

 both new and old. A Silurian genus of Chitons 

 (Chelodes), a remarkable Patellid (Tryblidium), and 

 a very large number of forms allied to the recent 

 Pleurotomariae, are fully described. The presence of 

 Subulites, and other siphonostomatous gastropods in 

 Silurian times, is demonstrated, and some extremely 

 singular new genera made known. The text is in 

 English, and the whole work extremely creditable to 

 its learned author, and useful to the paleontologist. 



— An additional discovery by Dr. Lindstrom, in the 

 same rocks, is worthy of special notice. In beds 

 which are said to be the equivalent of our Niagara 

 group, he has discovered a remarkably well-preserved 

 scorpion, of which a photograph is before us. That 

 it w r as air-breathing, though found in a purely marine 

 deposit (into which it was probably washed), is proved 

 by the fact that one of the stigmata is plainly visible. 

 Dr. Thorell, one of the foremost students of Arachnida 

 in the world, and Dr. Lindstrom, are preparing a 

 paper upon it, and have given it the name of Palaeo- 

 phoneus nuncius. No scorpions, nor indeed any 

 Arachnida, have before been found fossil in beds lower 

 than the carboniferous deposits, in which some twenty- 



five species have been found in this country and Eu- 

 rope; yet this Silurian example is more perfect than 

 any specimen of a fossil scorpion from any formation. 

 It presents some marked peculiarities, but it seems 

 to be unquestionably a scorpion. 



— In his 'Contributions to the tertiary geology 

 and paleontology of the United States,' Prof. A. 

 Heilprin has collected a series of six papers, mostly 

 from the publications of the Philadelphia academy of 

 sciences. Mr. Heilprin does not recognize the exist- 

 ence of any pliocene strata in the eastern and south- 

 ern portions of the United States. A map which is 

 added embraces only the tertiaries of the Atlantic 

 and Gulf coast regions, and the lower Mississippi 

 valley. This is the first time that a succinct state- 

 ment of the tertiary geology of the eastern United 

 States has been attempted; and Professor Heilprin 

 has produced a work which will be valuable to those 

 who may undertake the exhaustive study of the 

 eastern tertiaries, which they so much need. 



— In a paper read before the Linnean society of 

 New South Wales, Oct. 29 last, Dr. Lendenfeld con- 

 tests the views of the French physiologists, that the 

 position and movements of the wings of insects are 

 merely the results of the mechanical influence of the 

 resisting air, and gives instances where muscular con- 

 traction had been clearly proved. 



— The committee on organization of the Ninth 

 international medical congress, to be held in the 

 United States in 1887, met in Washington, D.C., on 

 Nov. 29, 1884, for the determination of the general 

 plan of the congress, the election of officers of the 

 committee who will be nominated to fill the same 

 offices in the congress, and the consideration of ques- 

 tions of finance. The officers elected are as follows: 

 president, Dr. Austin Flint, sen., of New York; vice- 

 presidents, Dr. Alfred Stille of Philadelphia, Dr. 

 Henry I. Bowditch of Boston, Dr. K. P. Howard of 

 Montreal, Canada; secretary-general, Dr. J. S. Bil- 

 lings, U. S. army; treasurer, Dr. J. M. Browne, U. S. 

 navy; members of the executive committee (in addi- 

 tion to the president, secretary-general, and treasurer), 

 Dr. I. Minis Hays of Philadelphia, Dr. A. Jacobi of 

 New York, Dr. Christopher Johnston of Baltimore, 

 Dr. S. C. Busey of Washington. The executive com- 

 mittee will proceed at once to complete the work of 

 organization. 



— The next meeting of the Society of naturalists 

 of the eastern United States will be held at Washing- 

 ton, D.C., on Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 29 and 30, 

 1884. By the courtesy of the Smithsonian institution, 

 the society will have the use of the lecture-room of 

 the institution for its meetings. The first session 

 will be on Monday the 29th, at ten a.m. promptly. 

 It is expected to have a discussion on the teaching of 

 natural history in colleges. 



— The San Diego society of natural history has 

 received an addition to its herbarium of seven 

 hundred species of southern and lower Californian 

 plants. This series of plants will be known as the 

 Orcutt herbarium. 



