JUNE 20, 1884.] © 
Biological society, Washington. 
May 31.—Mr. James E. Benedict described the 
recent cruise of the steamer Albatross in the Gulf of 
Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, and exhibited some of 
the most remarkable objects collected. Ensign E. 
EK. Hayden, U.S.N., read a paper on a new method 
of figuring fossil leaves and other objects by the aid 
of photography, with a saving of time, and increase of 
accuracy; the method consisting of drawing in India 
ink, upon a silver-print photograph, the outline of the 
object to be figured, the defects of the photograph 
being supplied by the draughtsman through com- 
parison with the specimen. The photograph is then 
dismissed, and a photo-engraving is made by the 
ordinary method from the black lines of the sketch 
which remains. In the discussion which followed, 
it was shown that this process was novel only in its 
_ successful application by the author to the illustration 
of fossil leaves. —— Mr. J. A. Ryder spoke of the de- 
velopment of viviparous minnows, and particularly 
of Gambrusia patruelis B. & G. The young fish 
develop within the body of the female parent, and 
within the follicles in which the eggs themselves were 
developed. These follicles, which were covered with 
a rich network of fine capillary vessels, assumed the 
office of a respiratory apparatus, by which the gases 
were interchanged between the embryo and the par- 
ent fish. This follicle also acted as an egg-membrane, 
being actually perforated by a round opening, which 
the speaker termed the ‘follicular pore,’ and which 
was analogous to the micropyle of the ordinary fish- 
egg. The arrangement of the follicles of the ovary 
within the body of the female was described at some 
length, and the peculiar differences between the two 
sexes in the arrangement of the viscera were pointed 
out. The fibrous bands, which act as supports or 
stays to the basal portion of the anal fin of the male, 
which is modified as an intromittent organ, were also 
described. The great difference in the sizes of the 
sexes was also referred to, the female weighing over 
six times as much as the male. The speaker con- 
cluded by expressing his earnest desire to investigate 
the other known forms of viviparous fishes, such as 
the Embiotocoids of the west coast, the viviparous 
blenny, and other bony fishes which have this habit, 
and which, in his opinion, would throw considerable 
light upon some of the peculiar physiological pro- 
cesses involved in the viviparous methods of develop- 
ment. —— Mr. Romyn Hitchcock exhibited a collec- 
tion of Foraminifera belonging to the genus Lagena, 
and explained the relations between this genus and 
the Nodosarine group; these briefly being that Lage- 
na may be taken as the type of the group, passing 
through various stages of complexity, through Nodo- 
saria, and ending in Cristellaria as the most complete 
manifestation of its method of growth. 
Natural-history society of New Brunswick, St. John. 
May 6. —Mr. R. Chalmers read a paper on the his- 
tory of the Grand Falls of the St. John River, explain- 
ing its origin and features. Like Niagara Falls, it 
was shown to be the result of geographical changes 
in the quaternary era, causing the damming-up of a 
SCIENCE. 
769 
more ancient channel, and the consequent erosion of 
anew one. Facts bearing upon the nature and rate 
of change were at the same time given. 
June 4.—Mr. C. F. Matthew gave an account of 
the late meeting of the Royal society of Canada, in 
Ottawa, reviewing the papers read in the natural- 
history section, and especially remarking on the im- 
portance of Dr. G. M. Dawson’s discovery of evidences 
of an interglacial era in the north-west. —— Dr. L. 
Allison read a paper on the structure and habits of 
rhizopods, with special reference to local forms. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
OnE of the best results of the polar exploration 
congress, held at Vienna in April, was a resolution 
that the observations of all the polar stations should 
be published not only in the language in which they 
were written, but in German, English, or French as 
well, Neumayer of Hamburg appealed to the con- 
gress for aid in his endeavors to make hydrographic 
charts of the South Atlantic Ocean. The chiefs of 
the different stations reported their observations. 
The scale adopted by the committee of the electrical 
exhibition of Paris, in 1881, was adopted as a basis 
for the observations of the intensity of the magnetic 
earth-currents. The end of the year 1885 was named 
for the conclusion of the work of the various stations. 
— Prof. F. H. Snow of the University of Kansas 
reports, that although the month of May was one of 
the coldest on record, yet it was marked by an entire 
absence of frosts. The rainfall was ample, though 
less than the average. 
— Prof. W. B. Scott is now on his way to Montana 
with the fourth scientific expedition from Princeton, 
with the object of exploring the Wahsatch eocene of 
Wyoming and Montana. 
— Professor Mushketoff will be sent by the geo- 
logical committee of the St. Petersburg academy of 
sciences to explore the Kalmuk steppe (between 
Volga, Don, and Manikh). Later in the season 
he will make a geological exploration of the cele- 
brated mineral springs of Piotigozsk and vicinity 
(northern Caucasus). This study is to decide many 
important questions about their protection and im- 
provement. These springs are under direct govern- 
ment administration from the beginning of this year, 
after a long lease to a contractor. 
— Nature announces the call of Dr. Hugo Gyldén, 
director of the Stockholm observatory, to the profes- 
sorship of practical astronomy at Gottingen. 
— The forthcoming volume of the Encyclopaedia 
Britannica, the seventeenth, extending from MOT to 
ORM, will contain the following articles: Naviga- 
tion, by Capt. H. A. Moriarty, R.N.; Nebular theory, 
by Dr. R. S. Ball, F.R.S.; Newton, by Mr. H. M. 
Taylor of Trinity college, Cambridge; Nitrogen, by 
Prof. W. Dittmar; Nitroglycerine, by Sir Frederick 
A. Abel; Numbers, by Prof. A. Cayley; Numerals, 
by Prof. W. Robertson Smith; Numismatics, by Mr. 
Reginald S. Poole; Nutrition, by Prof. A. Gamgee; 
