> F 
JANUARY 18, 1884.] 
SCIENCE. 79 
RECENT PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
American philosophical society. 
The Proceedings of the society, vol. xxi., No. 114, 
from April to December, 1883, to be distributed to 
the members and correspondents of the society in 
January, contains: 1. A memoir on the migration 
of the Tutelo tribe of Indians, by Horatio Hale (with 
fa map); 2. Medieval sermon-books, etc., by Prof. I. 
F. Crane of Cornell university; 3. The latitude of 
Haverford college, by Isaac Sharpless; 4. A crinoid 
with movable spines, by H.S. Williams (with a plate) ; 
5. The role of parasitic photophytes, by W. N. Lock- 
ington; 6. The reversion of series, and its applica- 
tion to the solution of numerical equations, by J. G. 
Hagen, S.J.; 7. The conversion of chlorine into 
hydrochloric acid in the deposition of gold from its 
solutions by charcoal: 8. A brief account of the more 
important public collections of American archeology 
in the United States, by Henry Phillips, jun.; 9. 
Photodynamic notes, No. viii., by Pliny E. Chase; 
10. Introduction to a study of the North-American 
Noctuidae, by A. R. Grote; 11. Revision of the 
Lysiopetalidae, by A. S. Packard, jun.; 12. The 
Perry county fault, by E. W. Claypole; 13. Seeds 
sprouting in ice, by Joseph Lesley; 14. A relic of 
the native flora of Pennsylvania, by E. W. Claypole; 
15. The Portage rocks in Perry county, by the same; 
16. The genus Rensselaeria, by the same; 17. A 
_ large Catskill crustacean, by the same (with a plate); 
18. Cbituary notice of Henry Seybert, by Monclure 
_ Robinson; 19. The zone of asteroids and ring of 
Saturn, by Daniel Kirkwood; 20. Obituary notice 
of Dr. John F. Meigs, by Dr. William Pepper; 21. 
_ Kintze’s fire-damp indicator, by Charles A. Ash- 
burner; 22. Obituary notice of Oswald Heer, by Leo 
Lesquereux; 23. Obituary notice of Dr. John L. 
LeConte, by Dr. George H. Horn; 24. Aerial ships, 
by Russell Thayer, C.E.; 25. Section of Chemung 
rocks at Le Roy, Bradford county, Penn., by A. T. 
Lilley; 26. Distribution of Loup Fork formation in 
New Mexico, by E. D. Cope; 27. Second addition to 
the knowledge of the Puerco epoch, by the same; 
28. The trituberculate type of tooth in the mammalia, 
by the same; 29. Delaney’s synchronous multiplex 
telegraph, by Edwin J. Houston; 30. The micro- 
scopic examination of timber with regard to its 
strength, by Frank M. Day (with a plate). Several 
papers requiring illustrations are left over to be pub- 
lished in No. 115, as it is the custom of the society to 
publish its two annual numbers of its proceedings 
as nearly on the 1st of January and June as possi- 
ble. No. 114 includes pp. 1 to 350 of the current 
vol. xxi. 
The society has also published, as part i. of vol. 
Xvi. of its transactions, a Dictionary of Egyptian 
hieroglyphics, by Edward Y. McCauley, U.S.N. (240 
p., 4°), printed from relief-plates photographed from 
Commodore McCauley’s manuscript. 
The society is printing the last pages of its library 
catalogue, the fourth and last part of which will be 
published in February or March. The whole cata- 
ce 
logue (three parts of which have been distributed 
in previous years) will make about fifteen hundred 
pages octavo. There will be subsequently published 
an alphabetical index of author’s names, and a sup- 
plement of books received since a certain date. 
The society is also printing, as a volume of about 
five hundred pages octavo, a succinct transcript of 
its minutes from 1744 to 1837, made by the secretary 
in 1882. Its proceedings were first published in 1838, 
and subsequently in one series up to the current No. 
114. The possible destruction of the minute-books, 
by fire or otherwise, has always been a cause of anxi- 
ety. When this volume from 1744 to 1837 is printed, 
a complete history of the society will be secured. 
Already proof-reading has reached p. 288 (minutes of 
1800), and the volume will probably be published in 
May next. 
Cincinnati society of natural history. 
Jan. 8. —Dr. Walter A. Dun read a paper on some 
recent explorations of mounds in the Scioto valley. 
The paper gave a detailed description of the mound, 
a large one, its dimensions being thirty-three feet in 
height, and a hundred and fifteen feet in diameter. 
The shaft sunk from the top showed several intrusive 
burials, and that the mound was constructed of suc- 
cessive layers of sand and clay. At the depth of 
twenty-five feet a vault constructed of logs was 
found, in which was a large quantity of root-like 
fibres, with a skeleton in a fair state of preservation. 
The skull was saved almost entire, and was described 
in detail by the doctor, who found it to compare 
closely with the figures of mound-builder skulls in 
Squier and Davis’s ‘Monuments,’ and Morton’s 
‘Crania americana.’ A number of flint arrow-points, 
shell beads, and a small octagonal piece of sandstone, 
were also found in the ‘vault.’ The vault was eight 
feet high, five feet and a half long, and four feet 
wide. 
The discovery of an authentic mound-builder’s 
skull was regarded as important, and worthy of rec- 
ord, Dr. Dun also read a detailed description of the 
teeth and jaw of the skull, prepared at his request by 
Dr. E.G. Betty. Mr. Joseph F. James remarked that 
a skull found near Memphis, Tenn., associated with 
some earthen pots bearing dates of 1654-1708, showed 
the same remarkable flattening of the occipital region 
shown in Dr. Dun’s specimen. 
Mr. J. R. Skinner said that he had lately observed 
that the symbol of the Aztec god, Itzcoatl («HUA 
was the same as a marking upon what is known as 
the Richardson tablet from Wilmington, O. 
Society of arts, Massachusetts institute of technology. 
Dew. 27. — Mr. John Ritchie, jun., exhibited and 
explained a model showing the orbit of the comet of 
1812, and Mr. J. R. Robinson described his safety- 
seam steam-boiler. Mr. Robinson’s first invention 
consisted in reaming out the edges of the rivet-holes 
in the plates on the inside, or where they come in 
contact, making them conical for a short distance. 
