November 6, 1885.] 



SGIEJSrCE. 



409 



Elkhorn, Walworth county. Wis. His term will ex- 

 pire January 28, or within a day or two of that time. 

 He is the same man who has carried on extensive 

 swindhng operations of a similar nature in the east. 



Would it not be well to have him ' sent up ' as 

 many times as possible ? I send you this information, 

 hoping that it may seem wise to you to make his 

 whereabouts known through your widely-circulated 

 columns, and to encourage all interested to make it 

 as warm as possible for this impostor. He very 

 probably assumes other names than those I have 

 given. 



He is rather short, of light complexion, has a 

 cynical expression, wears eye-glasses, talks with 

 the greatest freedom of geologists, finding few 

 worthy of recognition or favor. He looks to be 

 thirty years, but represented himself here as forty- 

 six. He told in many places about here, but did not 

 say it here, that he was distributing specimens from 

 the Smithsonian institution. He imposed upon many 

 in that way. He is conversant with geology and 

 geological work, and is certainly well posted on fossil 

 plants. 



Prof. N. H. Winchell, Minneapolis; Prof. W. F. 

 Bundy, Whitewater, Wis. ; Smith D. Atkins, Free- 

 port, 111. — are men who know his operations here- 

 about. R. D. Salisbury. 



Beloit. Wis , Nov. 2. 



Recent Proceedings of Societies. 



Academy of natural sciencefi, Philadelphia. 



Oct. 27. — Mr. John A. Ryder made some remarks 

 on a new theory of the development of limbs and 

 their muscles, which he had elaborated in the course 

 of his embryological studies. These have led him to 

 conclusions very similar to those defended by Prof. 

 A. Dohrn and Dr. Paul Meyer, of Naples, though 

 Mr. Ryder's results have been reached quite inde- 

 pendently of the European investigators. The new 

 views assume that great modifications of develop- 

 ment have been induced by the presence of yolk and 

 by intra-maternal changes. Somewhat modifying 

 Haeckel's views as to the gastrula mouth, the latter 

 is supposed to have become greatly elongated an- 

 tero-posteriorly. The muscular segments or myo- 

 tomes are supposed to have been developed from the 

 edge of such a primitive mouth either directly or 

 indirectly, thus giving rise to metameric segments 

 enclosed by the larval skin or epiblast. The mus- 

 cular segments then push out processes into pockets 

 or folds of the latter to produce the various types of 

 limbs. A large amount of detail was used in illus- 

 tration and expansion of these views, in the course 

 of which it was shown that the methods of compara- 

 tive anatomy alone were no longer capable of dealing 

 with many of the more important morphological 

 problems without help from the science of embry- 

 ology. Dr. H. C. Wood gave the results of experi- 

 ments on the effect of injecting gastric juice into the 

 blood of animals. A plan having been devised for 

 indicating graphically the changes in temperature, it 

 was found that an active fever was quickly pro- 

 duced. It was observed that the heat of the body 

 was inverse to the amount of heat given off, thus 

 indicating that fever is a complex process, depending 

 on the relations of heat production and heat dissipa- 

 tion. The action of the pepsin in such cases is not 



clear, but it probably influences the nerve centres. 



Mr. Lewis Woolman called attention to a very sym- 

 metrical bowlder from the neighborhood of Thirty- 

 first street and Haverford avenue, which was quite 

 angular, although associated with rounded pebbles, 

 and which contained on one side impressions of 

 fossils. These were identified by Prof. Heilprin as 

 Orthis and Atrypa spinosa. They were the first 

 Devonian fossils to which his attention had been 

 drawn in this connection. Instantaneous micro- 

 scopic photographs, by Mr. D. S. Holman, of Amoe- 

 bae, were exhibited. The views show, for the first 

 time, the remarkable changes of form occurring in 

 these organisms in the space of a few seconds. 



Natural science association, Staten Island. 



Oct. 10. — Mr. Hollick showed plants of the par- 

 tridge berry (Mitchella repens, L.) bearing peculiar 

 leafy berries, and made the following remarks upon 

 the same : " Last autumn I mentioned finding some 

 of these berries at Tottenville, with green leaves ap- 

 parently growing out of the top or sides. On first 

 sight these leaves appear like developments of the 

 calyx lobes, but on a close inspection it is seen that 

 the green leaves are growing from expanded petioles, 

 which have tightly clasped the berries to a greater 

 or less extent, and assumed their red color. The line 

 between the berry and its enclosing envelope is not 

 always distinct ; but during the winter specimens 

 which had been frozen were examined, and in them 

 the line could be traced far more distinctly, owing to 

 the berry being somewhat shrunken. These berries 

 were kept in water for some time, and, although 

 they and the stem leaves retained their colors per- 

 fectly, yet the adventitious leaves soon turned yellow 

 and withered away. During the past summer and 

 present autumn the locality was again searched for 

 fresh specimens, and a number were discovered. In 

 the newly- developed berries, as might be expected, 

 the clasping petioles had not yet assumed the pure 

 red color, many being of a duller red, and some dis- 

 tinctly streaked with green. After having been 

 kept in water for a few days, however, the red be- 

 came uniform throughout." Mr. Congdon exhibited 



a spider covered with a fungoid growth, a species of 

 the genus Achlya, and gave an account of its life his- 

 tory. This fungus is frequently found on insects 

 which have fallen into the water, as in the case of 

 this spider. It begins as a microscopic germ. A 

 small thread next grows out from one side, bifurcat- 

 ing as it extends, until by repeated subdivisions it 

 has formed a complete network of delicate threads 

 It reproduces itself asexually by means of the pro- 

 toplasm in these threads, which breaks up into little 

 balls, and when ripe is expelled into the water. They 

 swim about for some time by means of ciliae placed 

 at either end, which finally settle down on the body 

 of the nidus, and in a short time have grown into a 



plant like the parent. Mr. W. T. Davis exhibited a 



deformed specimen of Danais Archippus, the monarch 

 butterfly. On the 6th of August a full grown cater- 

 pillar was collected, and, after having transformed 

 to a chrysalis, was removed from its point of suspen- 

 sion and a pin passed through it. This chry^salis 

 was intended for a cabinet specimen, but it was noted 

 as time went on that it gradually changed color, 

 assuming the tints peculiar to the chrysalis before 

 the butterfly emerges. On the 21st of August the 

 butterfly hatched out, having developed about the 



