450 



SCIUNCE. 



[Vol. VI., No. 146. 



at 10 o'clock A.M., and continue four days. The 

 meetings will be held in W^illard's hotel hall, on 

 Pennsylvania Ave. The executive committee have 

 selected the following topics for consideration at 

 the meeting : 1°. The best form in which the 

 results of registration of diseases and deaths can 

 be given to the pubhc in weekly, monthly, and 

 annual reports ; 2°. The proper organization of 

 health boards and local sanitary service ; 3°. Re- 

 cent sanitary experiences in connection with the 

 exclusion and suppression of epidemic disease ; 

 also the Lomb prize essays. In addition to 

 other able and comprehensive papers expected to 

 be presented at this meeting, the secretary has 

 received notice of the following : Dr. J. S. Billings, 

 Forms of tables for vital statistics ; Dr. E. M. 

 Hunt, Sanitary and statistical nomenclature ; Dr. 

 Charles H. Fisher, Statistics of consum^Dtion in 

 Ehode Island for a quarter of a century ; Dr. E. 

 M. Hart well, The German system of physical 

 training ; Dr. William Oscar Thrailkill, School 

 hygiene, public and private ; Dr. Joseph Holt, 

 Sanitary protection of New Orleans, municipal 

 and maritime ; Dr. S. T. Armstrong, Maritime 

 sanitation ; Dr. P. H. Bryce, Small-pox in 

 Canada, and the methods of dealing with it in 

 the different provinces ; Dr. Benj. Lee, The debit 

 and credit account of the Plymouth epidemic ; 

 Dr. C. A. Lindsley, An epidemic of tj^phoid fever ; 

 Dr. O. W. Wight, Experiences in disinfecting 

 sewers ; Dr. J. N. McCormick, Progi'ess of health 

 work in Kentucky ; Dr. Thomas F. Wood, Ob- 

 servation on the Cape Fear River water as a source 

 of water-sui)ply : A study into the character of 

 southern river water ; Dr. D. E. Salmon, The 

 virus of hog cholera ; George N. BeU, Hygiene of 

 the dwelling ; Dr. John Morris, The proper dis- 

 posal of the dead ; Dr. A. C. Bernays, The rela- 

 tion between micro-organisms and cells ; Dr. W. 

 H. Watkins, The layman in sanitation ; Dr. R. 

 Harvey Reed, Who is responsible for the iniquities 

 of the tliird and fourth generations, and how 

 shall they \q avoided ? Dr. W. John Harris, Care- 

 lessness the cause of disease. The committee on 

 disinfectants will present quite a voluminous re- 

 port (printed), embodying their investigations and 

 conclusions on the subject of disinfection and dis- 

 infectants. 



— The Massachusetts teachers' association will 

 hold its forty-first annual meeting in the Girls' 

 high school building, Boston, on November 27-28. 

 The two volumes recently pubhshed by the asso- 

 ciation — the first a history of the association from 

 its organization in November, 1845, with an 

 abstract of its proceedings (1845 - 80) ; and the 

 second a continuation of the above, with the ad- 



dresses at the annual meeting in 1882 in full — 

 may be obtained at twenty- five cents each, upon 

 application to the treasurer, Alfred Bunker, 

 Boston. 



— Prof. E. Hitchcock writes from Geneva, N.Y., 

 to announce that a portion of the skeleton of an- 

 other mastodon has just been unearthed in Seneca 

 Castle, N.Y., about five miles from Geneva. It 

 was found, as is usual, at the bottom of a peat 

 morass lately drained for farming purposes. The 

 aggravating thing to the naturalist is that the 

 bones most decisive in determining the species were 

 not found, though all were remarkably sound and 

 strong. The left tusk measured eight feet nine 

 inches on its outer curve, and evidently was not 

 the whole tusk. The two styloid bones were weU 

 preserved. The rest of the bones were vertebrae, 

 about one-half the ribs, and many of the bones of 

 the hand and foot, but no head or pelvis. The 

 bones were discovered through Mr. F. B. Peck, a 

 senior in Amherst college, and they are the 

 property of this institution. The peat and muck 

 were only three feet thick, which must account 

 for the scarcity of the large bones. 



— Capt. Charles Haley, of the schooner Gene- 

 vieve, recently arrived at Philadelphia from 

 Charleston, S.C, reports that on Oct. 29, at 10.30 

 A.M., when about thhty miles south of Frying 

 Pan Shoal lightship, he had his main and mizzen 

 masts carried away about twenty feet below the 

 cross-trees. The weather was clear and pleasant, 

 moderate swell, light breeze from W.N.W., and 

 vessel going tlu'ough the water at about four knots, 

 heading N.E. by E., with all sail set. Noticing a 

 small cloud to windward, of cirro-cumulus forma- 

 tion, and hearing a sizzling sound aloft, he sang 

 out to clew up the topsails. The next moment 

 the topsails gathered up in a bunch, and the main 

 and mizzen masts were twisted off and taken over- 

 board. At the same time the jib and foresail 

 were flapping to windward with each roU, and he 

 could have held an open umbrella over his head, 

 there was so little wind. A few minutes after- 

 ward the sun came out bright and clear. About 

 2 P.M. the same day a gale sprung up from S.W., 

 and blew for twenty hom:s. The mate said the 

 small cloud that came down from windward 

 looked like the first appearance that a cloud gen- 

 erally assumes when a water-spout is beginning to 

 form. 



— A New York Herald despatch of Nov. 16 

 announces that Vesuvius is again in a state of 

 eruption. The lava is streaming down on' the 

 west side of the mountain, and some alarm is ex- 

 pressed, as the observatory authorities believe that 



