798 
Zoological gardens, Fairmount park, Independence 
hall, and other places of interest; and the various 
institutions in the city will weleome the association 
to their halls. During the meeting, free excursions 
will be offered, to the seashore, the anthracite-coal 
regions, and other places of interest, and possibly 
limited excursions to more distant points after the 
meeting. Special botanical and geological excursions 
will also be made. 
The local committee are now preparing a map and 
guide-book for the use of members. The association 
post-office will be established in the Academy of mu- 
sic, under charge of Gen. Huidekoper, postmaster of 
Philadelphia; and letters and packages bearing the 
letters A.A.A.S. will be delivered there. Special free 
telegraphic facilities for personal messages have been 
secured, including the use of the transatlantic cable 
for the benefit of foreign guests. The transportation 
of specimens, apparatus, etc., will be attended to by 
the local committee, who will give particulars on 
receiving applications through the local secretaries. 
‘Every possible care will be taken of objects sent for 
exhibition or use during the meeting, and a suitable 
hall will be provided for their exhibition. It is hoped 
that members having specimens or apparatus of par- 
ticular interest will exhibit them at the meeting. 
The meeting will be called to order, in general ses- 
sion, at ten o’clock on Thursday morning, Sept. 4, in 
the Academy of music, by President C. A. Young 
of Princeton, who will resign the chair to the presi- 
dent-elect, Prof. J. P. Lesley of Philadelphia. After 
the adjournment of the general session, the sections 
will organize in their respective halls. General ses- 
sions and sections will be held on Friday. The vice- 
presidents of the sections will probably give their 
addresses during the day; and in the evening Presi- 
denit Young will deliver his address at the Academy 
of music, after which there will be a reception ten- 
dered to the members of the association and their 
invited guests by the local committee and citizens of 
Philadelphia. Saturday will probably be given up to 
excursions and receptions. The general programme 
for the rest of the meeting will be similar to that at 
previous meetings. 
The headquarters of the association will be at the 
Academy of music, which is on Broad street, in the 
centre of the city, very near the station of the Penn- 
sylvania railroad and several large hotels. The sec- 
tions will be amply accommodated in other halls in 
the immediate vicinity. 
The offices of the permanent secretary and local 
committee, the association post-office, etc., will be at 
the Academy of music after Sept. 1: previous to that 
they will be at the Academy of natural sciences. 
The permanent secretary will establish his office in 
Philadelphia on Aug. 22. 
The officers of several of the sections are arranging 
for special topics of discussion for the different days 
of the meeting. A committee of section D has 
already sent outa special circular. The vice-presi- 
dent of section E wishes it to be known that several 
papers have been already promised upon the subject 
of the crystalline rocks, which will probably form a 
SCIENCE. 
[Vou. IIL, No. 73. 
special topic for discussion by geologists; and that it 
is proposed to assign particular days to prominent 
subjects in geology, a large number of papers being 
expected. The officers of the sections are ready to 
receive suggestions from members; and any special 
plans for the advancement of the work of the sec- 
tions will be made known on application. 
— The annual meeting of the society for the 
promotion of agricultural science will be held in 
Philadelphia during the meeting of the American 
association. 
— The first mail from Kadiak Island received this 
season has arrived at San Francisco, bringing dates 
to May 2. According to the correspondent of the 
Bulletin, the account of the eruption of the volcano 
on Augustine Island, Cook’s Inlet, sent by the last 
advices of 1883, was much exaggerated. The island 
‘‘was not split in two, and no new island was formed ; 
but the west side of the summit has fallen in, form- 
ing a new crater, while the whole island has risen to 
such an extent as to fill up the only bay or boat har- 
bor, and to extend the reefs, or sea-otter rocks, run- 
ning out from the island in various directions.”” The 
hunting-party feared to be lost has arrived safely in 
Kadiak. No tidal waves were observed on the west 
shore of Cook’s Inlet or on Kadiak Island. The win- 
ter had been very mild, the mercury not having fallen 
below 10° F.; and spring began in March, wild-flow- 
ers being in bloom in the latter part of April. 
— We had occasion to review in Science, some time 
ago, the cardinal characteristics of the scientific work 
of the leading nations considered asa whole; and the 
fact was noted that German ideas have set a common 
standard in scientific research, which is accepted in 
most European countries. No English-speaking per- 
son, interested in the history or progress of investi- 
gation, nowadays would think himself competent to 
work in any scientific field without a pretty thorough 
first-hand knowledge of what had been previously 
written on the subject in at least two or three foreign 
languages, in particular the German. It is perhaps 
not too strong a thing to say, that no school in this 
country has pursued a better method of study, or 
done more good in the direction of assisting the 
learner to acquire a really useful knowledge of German 
and French, than the Summer school of languages, 
which has been held in the halls of Amherst college 
for a number of years past. We learn that the 
school will be continued this year under the general 
direction of Professor Montague of the department 
of modern languages in that college; that the depart- 
ment of German instruction will be in charge of Pro- 
fessor Heness, principal of the school of modern lan- 
guages at New Haven, and Professor Zuellig, late of 
Boston; and that the incentives to and the facilities 
for acquiring this language at the coming session of 
the school are expected to be of a high order, ‘The 
department of French will be in charge of Professor 
Bernard, late of L’ Ecole Albert-le-Grand, Paris; and 
a department of Latin and Greek will be conducted 
this year, as formerly, with Professor Shumway of 
Rutgers college as principal. As is well known, the 
