AprRit 4, 1884. ] 
SCIENCE. 
423 
RECENT PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 
Academy of natural sciences, Philadelphia, 
March 11.— Professor Thomas Meehan made acom- 
munication upon a root said to be that of Conium 
maculatum, which was so virulently poisonous as to 
have quickly caused the death of a number of chil- 
dren who had eaten of it. In consequence of the 
rarity of Conium in the neighborhood, he was inclined 
to believe the species to be Cicutum maculatum, a 
common local plant, the root of which resembles that 
of Conium, but is not so dense. He proposed plant- 
ing the roots with a view to making a further report 
on the subject when the leaves are sufficiently de- 
veloped to place the specific characters beyond ques- 
tion. —— Mr. Edward Potts stated that the stems of 
Urnatella gracilis on the dry sponge-crusts recently 
collected had germinated after being placed in a life- 
case, showing that life persists in the stems during the 
winter, and makes itself manifest in the spring. He 
had found it somewhat difficult to work out the com- 
plete life-history of the polyp, in consequence of its 
being the prey of several associated forms of life. —— 
In a paper on the rufous or thatching ant of Dakota 
and Colorado, the Rev. Dr. H. C. McCook recorded 
the finding of the hills made by the species on the 
entire rolling prairie lying between the Cheyenne and 
the James Rivers. Specimens of the insect had also 
been sent to him from Iowa Gulch, near Leadville, 
taken from an elevation of 11,300 feet above the level 
of the sea. In its power to resist the vigor of the 
winter at high elevations, the American form resem- 
bles the Formica rufa of Switzerland, which is found 
as far up the Alps as the line of vegetation, farther 
progress being apparently limited by the lack of vege- 
table growth rather than by the cold. They may 
therefore be reckoned, both on this continent and in 
Europe, as among the most hardy of the ant-fauna, 
and best adapted to contend with severities of cold. 
Their hills in Dakota are, for the most part, conical 
elevations somewhat flattened at the top. Some 
present the peculiarity of a square base, giving the 
hill the appearance of a pyramid with a rounded top. 
Their height ranges from eight inches to a foot and 
ahalf. The largest mound observed was found near 
the summit of the Ute Pass. It was a conical heap, 
four feet long, and about one foot high, and looked 
like a small hay-stack, in consequence of its being 
covered or thatched, in common with all the others 
about Leadville and in Dakota, with bits of wood and 
broken sprigs of pine. As the colony increases its 
numbers, and the necessities of internal domestic 
economy require the enlargement of the formicaries, 
the excavated soil is brought up and laid on the 
thatching. In course of timea new roof of chips and 
clipped grass is overlaid; and thus, in the ordinary 
growth of a mound, there would be an alternation of 
earth and vegetable substance. The marriage-flight 
of the species takes place in the spring, with the first 
appearance of vegetation; and the swarms are a 
source of annoyance to the workers in the fields, al- 
though they do not get angry and rush at parties, 
attacking them, as beesdo. The annoyance produced 
by such swarms is more than compensated for by a 
curious insectivorous habit of the ants, of which the 
settlers avail themselves to rid their clothing of lice. 
Garments so infected, left in the vicinity of the for- 
micaries, are quickly and perfectly cleaned of both 
parasites and eggs, —a fact which was formerly well 
known to the Indians of the plains and to old pio- 
neers and campers. 
Natural science association, Staten Island. 
March 8. — Mr. Seehusen read a paper upon gems, 
giving a description and history of the principal 
stones used as gems, with specimens to illustrate the 
notes. —— Mr. Leng read a paper upon the Coccinel- 
lidae of Staten Island, of which he recorded eleven 
species. —— Mr. Hollick remarked, that numerous 
specimens of the common seal (Phoca concolor) had 
visited the shores of Staten Island during the past 
month. If not disturbed, they would, no doubt, 
again return to the locality, and remain permanently 
with us, as do the sea-lions on the ‘seal rocks’ of 
San Francisco harbor, where they are protected by 
law. The speaker also remarked, that a single speci- 
men of the great northern diver (Colymbus torqua- 
tus) had been noted in the bay, not far from the 
Staten Island shore. 
Biological society, Washington, 
March 8.—Dr. J .H. Kidder, U.S.N., exhibited spe- 
cimens of Bacillus tuberculosus, and summarized the 
existing state of knowledge and opinions concerning 
its relation to tuberculosis. Dr. D. E. Salmon called 
attention to the claims of Toussaint as the discoverer 
of Micrococcus in tuberculosis, and remarked that 
the relation of Koch’s B. tuberculosus to the disease 
is not yet certainly ascertained to be more essential 
than that of Micrococcus. —— Dr. D. E. Salmon 
exhibited specimens of infectious tuberculosis from 
cattle, in which he had been able to discover no traces 
of bacillus. —~ Mr. C. W. Smiley read a paper on 
what fish-culture has first to accomplish. Fish-cul- 
ture, he remarked, cannot be expected to perform 
what is impossible; namely, to fill the waters of a 
continent to overflowing with an inexhaustible sup- 
ply of fish: on the contrary, it will have to put forth 
the utmost effort to prevent the entire annihilation 
of the fish-supply through the uncontrollable activity 
of the fishermen. ——Col. Marshall McDonald read 
a paper on the influence of temperature upon the 
movements of fishin rivers, in which the fluctuations ~- 
of the catch of shad in the Potomac in 1881-83 were 
explained by reference to the varying temperature 
of the waters of ocean, bay, and river, at the time of 
their anadromous movements. 
March 22.— Col. Marshall McDonald exhibited a 
chart showing the natural and restricted river-distri- 
bution of the shad. Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, U.S.A., 
offered some remarks on the patella, describing the 
position of this bone, which he considered to be a 
true sesamoid in various forms of mammals and 
