- 
May 2, 1884.]- 
the Norway spruce. The male flowers would ma- 
ture before the female had advanced far enough to 
be receptive of the pollen. ——-Mr. Meehan also 
stated that in his garden at Germantown, there were 
few trees that did not exude sap from wounds made 
in winter or early spring; but among them all, few 
bled, as it was termed by horticulturists, more pro- 
fusely than Cladastris tinctoria. The icicles formed 
from this exuding sap afforded a good opportunity to 
test the saccharine character of the liquid. During 
congelation by frost, all foreign substances were re- 
jected, and, in the formation of the icicle, the sugar 
was pushed forward to the extreme point. The end 
of an icicle of a sugar-maple was its only sweet part, 
and this was very sweet from the:accumulation of 
the saccharine matter. The end of the icicle from 
the Cladastris was also sweet, though less so than in 
any other sugar-bearing tree he had observed. 
Philosophical society, Washington. 
March 1.—Gen. R. D. Mussey read a paper on 
the application of physical methods to intellectual 
science, discussing the extent to which those methods 
which have been successfully employed in the inves- 
tigation of the phenomena of nature are applicable 
to the sciences whose subject-matter is mental opera- 
tions. —— Mr. I. C. Russell followed with a commu- 
nication on deposits of volcanic dust in the Great 
Basin. The sediments of the great quaternary lake 
of western Nevada, named Lahontan by Mr. Clarence 
King, include as minor members certain strata of 
white, unconsolidated, dust-like material closely re- 
sembling diatomaceous earth. Microscopic exami- 
nation shows them to consist of minute shards of 
glass, and indicates their volcanic origin. Similar 
strata occur in the deposits of the quaternary lake 
which occupied the Mono basin, adjacent to the La- 
hontan; but these are coarser, and include fragments 
with pumiceous structure. Fragments of pumice are 
likewise found on the surface of the land in the 
vicinity of Mono Lake, and the distribution of these 
indicates their origin in a chain of rhyolitic cones 
extending southward from Mono Lake. The sub- 
aerial deposits belong to eruptions which, though 
prehistoric, must be quite recent. The sub-aqueous 
deposits were derived from quaternary eruptions. 
Those of the Mono basin can be referred, without 
hesitation, to the Mono craters; and those of the 
Lahontan basin are provisionally referred to the same 
source. Up to the present time, no other rhyolitic 
volcanoes of quaternary age have been discovered 
in the vicinity. Dr. T. Antisell remarked that the 
source of the volcanic dust should not be sought in 
existing volcanoes on the land: he regarded pumice 
as the product of submarine eruption exclusively. 
— Mr. L. F. Ward read a paper on some physical 
and economic features of the upper Missouri system, 
describing the ancient and modern flood-plains of the 
Missouri and the Yellowstone where they issue from 
the mountains, and discussing the method of their 
formation. These are susceptible of irrigation; but 
diversion of river-water for that purpose, and its dis- 
SCIENCE. DOD 
tribution over the land, involve difficult problems in 
political economy. The matter is a proper subject 
for governmental control. Discussion followed, in 
the course of which Prof. C. V. Riley remarked that 
the final solution of the grasshopper problem lies 
in the cultivation of the northern plains. 
March 15.— Mr. G. K. Gilbert spoke on the diver- 
sion of water-courses by the rotation of the earth, 
maintaining, that, under certain indicated conditions, 
the deflecting force generally admitted to result from 
terrestrial rotation should result in observable modi- 
fications of valley configuration. —— Mr. G. E. Curtis 
read a paper on the relations between northers and 
magnetic disturbances at Havana, discussing the co- 
incidences which had been pointed out, and demon- 
strating their accidental nature. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
By invitation of the authorities of the Johns 
Hopkins university, Sir William Thomson will de- 
liver, in October next, a course of eighteen lectures 
on molecular dynamics, before the physical section of 
the Johns Hopkins university, beginning on Wednes- 
day, Oct. 1. These lectures are intended only for 
students who are interested in advanced work. Pro- 
fessors and students of physics are invited to attend; 
and arrangements will be made by which they may 
easily obtain temporary lodgings, provided an early 
intimation is received of their intention to come. A 
registration fee of five dollars will be required. 
— The Montreal local executive committee of the 
British association for the advancement of science 
is prepared to enroll ladies and gentlemen, residents 
on the continent of America, as members of the 
association, on the following conditions: 1°. Life 
members for a single payment of fifty dollars; 2°. 
Annual members for a payment of ten dollars the 
first year, and five dollars each consecutive year there- 
after; 3°. Associate members for a payment of five 
dollars. Associates are not eligible to hold office in, 
nor to serve on any committees of, the association; 
nor do they receive the annual reports. All other 
privileges of membership for the year are open to 
them. No person who is not a member is admitted to 
any of the meetings of the association. The privilege 
of reduced fares by the railway and steamboat lines 
is limited to the life, annual, and associate members. 
Applications for admission to membership may be 
addressed to Mr. J. D. Crawford, post-office box 147, 
Montreal, 
— Bliss’s classified index to the maps in Peter- 
mann’s Geographische mittheilungen, from 1855 to 
1881, has just been issued by Harvard college library 
in advance of its completion, in the Bulletin of the 
university. It occupies fifty-five small quarto pages, 
and will be found exceedingly helpful to those using 
that treasury of excellent charts. The principal di- 
vision is, of course, geographical; but many titles are 
conveniently repeated under the miscellaneous head, 
