116 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. VL, No. 131. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The local committee of the American association 

 lias issued its second circular containing the general 

 programme of themeetingat Ann Arbor. The meet- 

 ing will be called to order on Wednesday, Aug. 26, at 

 10 A.M., when Professor Lesley will resign the chair 

 to President-elect Professor IS'ewton of New Haven, 

 and the usual addresses of welcome will be delivered. 

 In the evening Professor Lesley will give his presi- 

 dential address. On Thursday evening the citizens 

 of Ann Arbor will tender a reception at the court 

 house, and on Friday it is probable that a lawn party 

 will be given on the university grounds. On Satur- 

 day a long excursion, as previously announced, will 

 take place ; on Monday a short excursion for the mem- 

 bers of the botanical club has been planned, probably 

 to the Tamarack swamp, one of the detached spots 

 common in Southern Michigan, where a northern 

 flora has lingered under favorable conditions through 

 the various climatic changes of later geologic times. 

 It is probable that similar trips to points of local in- 

 terest may be arranged for some of the sections. It 

 may be well to call the attention of botanists to the 

 fact, that, while at Ann Arbor, they are within a few 

 hours' ride of one of the remaining tracks of pine 

 which represents all that is left of one of the for- 

 merly most magnificent pine-forests of the continent. 

 The chairman of section C announces that the fol- 

 lowing subjects have been chosen for discussion: 

 first, what is the best initiatory course of work for 

 students entering upon laboratory practice '? second, 

 to what extent is a knowledge of molecular physics 

 necessary for one who would teach theoretical chemis- 

 try? In the discussion in section D, mechanical 

 science, of the best method of teaching mechanical 

 engineering, in order that what is read and said may 

 be to the point, the following classification should be 

 observed: (a) schools of mechanical engineering; (&) 

 mechanic arts schools for the education of super- 

 intendents, foremen, etc; (c) manual training-schools. 

 The distinction between ' mechanical laboratory prac- 

 tice ' and ' shop practice ' should also be made and 

 appreciated. The oflicers of the Michigan central, 

 and of the Toledo, Ann Arbor, and Northern 

 Michigan railroads, have agreed that all persons at- 

 tending the Ann Arbor meeting may receive return 

 tickets to their homes over the roads by which they 

 may have come on presenting a receipt for their fare, 

 from the ticket-agent at their home, and a certificate 

 from the local secretary that they have been in at- 

 tendance upon the meeting. Those who expect to 

 avail themselves of the special train from Buffalo 

 should immediately notify the secretary, as not enough 

 have as yet signified their intention of going in the 

 train to justify its running. 



— We have all heard much of the famous Solen- 

 hofen Archaeopteryx, and of the toothed birds of 

 America, and have doubtless understood in a general 

 way that they cleared up much of the obscure geologi- 

 cal pedigree of birds. We are indebted to Professor 

 Wiedersheim for two excellent articles, summaries of 

 the history and significance of these discoveries. 



These essays are to be found, one in vol. iii. of the 

 Biologisches centralblatt, and the other in Humboldt 

 for June, 1885. The latter is the less technical, and 

 has the advantage of being illustrated, and is indeed 

 a very admirable popular article. As the new Dar- 

 win memorial has recalled attention to the early 

 struggle of evolution against prejudice, it is inter- 

 esting to think how opportunely the first discovery 

 (1860) of the 'fossil link, Archaeopteryx, between 

 birds and reptiles, came to support the Darwinians. 

 It awoke a storm of discussion, and there was no 

 little indignation in Germany when the specimen 

 was allowed to leave Solenhofen for the British mu- 

 seum. It was sold for thirty-five hundred dollars to 

 the English. Altogether Archaeopteryx has proba- 

 bly occasioned more human emotions than any other 

 known fossil. The second specimen of Archaeopte- 

 ryx was more perfect, and was finally sold to the 

 Berlin museum for twenty thousand marks. This 

 specimen has been recently described by Professor 

 Dames, the first having been monographed by the 

 venerable Kichard Owen. Wiedersheim does not 

 accept all of Dames's conclusions, but gives at the end 

 of his second article his own views as to the evolution 

 of birds. He thinks the class had a double origin, 

 thei-e being two divergent lines from some as yet un- 

 determined reptilian ancestor. One line led through 

 the dinosaurians to the ancestor of Marsh's Hespe- 

 rornis and the running-birds (Eatitae): the other 

 line began with long-tailed saurians, from which 

 sprung, on the one hand, the flying saurians ; on the 

 other, the line of development leading to Archaeop- 

 teryx, then, further, to Marsh's Ichthyornis, the an- 

 cestor of the flying birds (Carinatae). Whether this 

 theory of the double origin of birds will hold, may be 

 fairly questioned ; but, at the same time, the theory 

 cannot be summarily dismissed. It does not yet 

 appear that the theory will satisfactorily account for 

 the common avian characteristics of the two great 

 sub-classes of birds, since the divergence, it supposes, 

 began between reptilian ancestors. 



— In consequence of prolonged researches on the 

 absorption and assimilation of peptone. Dr. F. Hof- 

 meister has arrived at some very interesting results. 

 If peptone and other nutrients are introduced direct- 

 ly into the blood, even in small quantities, they are 

 expelled through the secreting organs, whilst on the 

 reception of much larger quantities of the same sub- 

 stances by way of the intestine, under physiological 

 conditions, nothing similar is observed. From these 

 phenomena, Hofmeister concludes that the absorption 

 of peptone in the intestine is no simple mechanical 

 process of filtration or diffusion, but a function of 

 definite living cells, — the colorless blood-corpuscles. 

 Certain substances are no doubt carried about in the 

 extra-cellular fluid; and whether they are absorbed 

 by the tissues, or lost, depends upon chance alone. 

 It is not so in the case of 'cellular transportation;' 

 for, if the substances are enclosed in the cell- walls, 

 they are not subject to the laws of diffusion, and are 

 not used up until they reach the tissues which have 

 an affinity for them. If the cells are moved about 

 by the currents in the blood, they reach the tissues by 



