SCUDDER took his seat at the board as the successor of Mr. THOMAS T. Bouvé, late President of the Boston Society of Natural History. The Hon. CHARLES FRANCIS ADAMS, an original member of the board, appointed by Mr. Peabody in 1866, resigned, and Mr. JOHN C. PHILLIPS was elected as his successor. The Hon. STEPHEN SALISBURY, who has had the charge of the funds since they were given by Mr. Peabody, resigned the office of Treasurer, and Col. THEODORE LYMAN was elected Treasurer. The other members of the board are the Hon. ROBERT C. WINTHROP, Chairman, Professor ASA GRAY, and Dr. HENRY WHEATLAND, Secretary.

The reports of the Treasurer and Curator were read and, as heretofore, will be presented to the President and Fellows in print. The following items are taken from the Curator's report: Two rooms, with their galleries and adjoining halls, and the floor of a third room are now open to the public from nine to five o'clock on week days. The collections thus far exhibited in the new and permanent cases are so arranged as to exhibit both their ethnological and archæological bearings. The object of this arrangement is to show as far as possible the recent condition of a people, and to trace its history, its connections, and, if possible, its origin in far distant time, by the records which we have of its life, its arts, and its industries. The principles of this arrangement must not be understood to exclude the presentation of other important subjects, such as the corresponding developments of implements, weapons, art, and customs among different peoples and other auxiliary collections illustrative of the general history and development of man from geological time.

The collections now on exhibition consist of those from the mounds and caves of the southern, western, and central states, filling all the cases in the first northern room; those from Mexico, Central America, and Egypt on the first gallery; the Pueblo collection in the second hall; those from California, Alaska, etc., and a few small lots from recent Indian tribes, in the second northern room; the large South American collections in the second southern room; and those from the Pacific Islands, Africa, India, China and Japan on the second southern gallery. It is expected that two more galleries will be open to the public during the present year, -one to contain the European collection, the other that relating to the North American Indians. The large collection of human crania and skeletons is not yet open to the public, but is of ready access to special students in that department.

The largest and most important accessions during the past year were the Peruvian collection presented by Dr. W. Sturgis Bigelow, of Boston; the several hundred crania transferred from the Museum of Comparative Zoology by Mr. Agassiz; the collections made from the mounds in Arkansas by the late Edwin Curtis, who had for several years been engaged in explorations for the museum; and those from burial caves in Northern Mexico obtained by Dr. Edward Palmer. The total number of entries in the catalogue for the year reaches over four thousand, representing several times that number of specimens. Numerous volumes and pamphlets have also been added to the museum library. The researches by Dr. Abbott in the Trenton gravels were continued during the year, and many palæolithic implements found by him have been received. A very interesting collection of stone implements of paleolithic forms were also received, having been collected in Massachusetts by Mr. David Dodge.

In closing his report, the Curator called attention to the necessity which had forced the discontinuance of the several

explorations in various parts of North and Central America, from which most valuable material and important results were being obtained, and expressed a hope that additional means would be secured for their continuance before it should be too late.

- Three investigations have been in progress in the Physical Laboratory during the winter:

1. The laws of the propagation of magnetic waves, by HAROLD WHITING.

The results of a series of experiments extending over four years show that the mean velocity of a long magnetic pulse over a rod of soft iron, half an inch in diameter, is about twenty-five feet per second, or nearly half a million times less than the corresponding velocity of the electric pulse over the French Atlantic cable, and that the parallelism between lines of magnetic force and lines of electric flow (already established for a state of equilibrium) probably extends throughout the whole process of the development and disappearance of these lines.

These results seem to throw light upon several anomalies in the action of electric engines (especially on their inefficiency under high velocities); and suggest improvements in the construction of machines both for the consumption and production of electricity.

2. Effect of great cold upon magnetism, by JOHN TROWBRIDGE and J. B. GREENOUGH.

The effect of low temperatures upon the magnetism of steel is very marked. Previous observers had not carried their observations below -25° C. By the use of solid carbonic acid late experiments in the Physical Laboratory have shown that a magnetic bar can be deprived of sixty per cent of its magnetic condition.

3. A research upon thermoelectric lines, by C. B. PEN

These results come from the fundamental equation when restrictive forces are not considered. A body free from such forces is then a perfect gas.

2. Molecular cohesion at the absolute zero of temperature, by N. D. C. HODGES.

From the consideration that, if superficial tension could exist at the absolute zero, it would be possible for a liquid to rise in a capillary tube at the expense of no other form of energy, we must conclude that, as superficial tension would exist if there were any molecular cohesion, molecular cohesion must reach a maximum at some point short of the absolute zero, and become nothing at the absolute zero of temperature.

The same result comes from the fact that in any reversible

cycle fo

The Anniversary memoirs, a quarto volume of over 600 pages and 42 plates, which the Boston Society of Natural History has just issued in celebration of the semi-centennial of its foundation, contains the following papers by officers of the University:

Propositions concerning the classification of lavas considered with reference to the circumstances of their extrusion, by N. S. SHALER (15 pp.). The Devonian insects of New Brunswick, by S. H. SCUDDER (41 pp. 1 pl.). The Gymnosporangia or Cedar-apples of the United States, by W. G. FARLOW (38 pp. 2 pl.). A structural feature, hitherto unknown among Echinodermata, found in deep-sea Ophiurans, by THEODORE LYMAN (12 pp. 2 pl.). Contributions to the anatomy of the milk-weed butterfly, Danais Archippus Fabr., by EDWARD BURGESS (16 pp. 2 pl.). Studies on the tongue of reptiles and birds, by C. S. MINOT (20 pp. 1 pl.). Notes on the crania of New England Indians, by LUCIEN CARR (10 pp. 2 pl.). The feeling of effort, by WILLIAM JAMES (32 pp.).

The following are by graduates of the Lawrence Scientific School:- The genesis of the tertiary species of Planorbis at Steinheim by ALPHEUS HYATT (114 pp. 9 pl.). The development of the squid, Loligo Pealii Lesueur, by W. K. BROOKS (22 pp. 3 pl.). The anatomy, histology, and embryology of Limulus Polyphemus, by A. S. PACKARD, Jr. (45 pp. 7 pl.). On the identity of the ascending process of the astragalus in birds with the intermedium, by E. S. MORSE (10 pp. I pl.).

There only remain the History of the Society (250 pp. 2 pl., 9 portr.), by T. T. BouVÉ, an honorary alumnus; and a paper by S. F. CLARKE, of Johns Hopkins University, on the development of a double-headed vertebrate (6 pp. 1 pl.).

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Professor SHALER reports on Appalachian geology: From the geological sections across the Appalachian system of mountains made during the several campaigns of the summer school of geology, have become satisfied that certain very curious changes in the thickness of strata occur along that line. The most conspicuous of these is found in the section of sub-carboniferous rocks between Pound Gap and Cumberland Gap on the boundary line between Kentucky and Virginia. East of Pound Gap, on the line of the road to Abingdon, Virginia, the sub-carboniferous series consists principally of shales and sandstones, and has a thickness of about five thousand feet. At Cumberland Gap these shales and sandstones have shrunk to about one twentieth of this thickness, and are composed of much finer materials, while the limestones have become thicker, the total thickness at the last-named point being seven hundred feet. The same thinning of the shales and sandstones occurs to the westward and northward, though not

at such a rapid rate. It seems likely that this region of thick sandstones and shales marks the neighborhood of the mouth of a great river that in pre-carboniferous times came from the Appalachian island on the east. A careful study of the sediments along this face of the old Appalachian continental island may enable us to determine the places where its greater streams entered the sea.

Professor SHALER reports on the Effects of the Cincinnati anticlinal on the distribution of sediments: The Cincinnati anticlinal that extends from near Lake Erie to Southern Tennessee, and existed as a ridge on the sea floor from the early stages of the Cincinnati group to the carboniferous age, exercised a great effect on the distribution of sediments derived from the Appalachian island. Its principal effect was to retain near the shore the coarser sediments derived from that mass of land, and prevent their passing into the deeper sea on the west. The consequence was that many formations which are quite arenaceous on the eastern face of this axis are very free from sandy matter to the west of the ridge. It was not until the later part of the millstone grit period that this sinus between the Appalachian island and the Cincinnati axis was obliterated.

The effect of submerged ridges on the sea floor in regulating the distribution of sediments derived from the land, is thus seen to be a matter of importance to the geologist, and must be taken into consideration in the interpretation of sedimentary deposits.

- HOLT & Co. of New York have in press a book upon the Structure and Life-histories of Butterflies, by S. H. SCUDDER, Assistant Librarian. It relates particularly to American butterflies, and is mainly a reproduction of lectures given several years ago before the Lowell Institute. It deals with the general problems suggested by a study of the structure, development, seasons, distribution, and coloring of butterflies from an "evolutionary" point of view, and will discuss more fully than has heretofore been attempted the ancestry of this group of insects. Nearly three quarters of the two hundred illustrations have been prepared for the work, while the others are borrowed principally from Harris and Riley.

In a paper upon the Carboniferous insects of Great Britain, recently read to the Boston Society of Natural History, and to be published with illustrations in its Memoirs, Mr. S. H. SCUDDER showed that the only two hexapod insects, which, besides a cockroach, had been found in the English coal, should be referred to the Neuroptera, and not to the Orthoptera, as recently maintained by Woodward and Swinton. The structure of the wings in both these insects, viz., Gryllacris Brongniarti and Lithomantis carbonarius, was shown to be similar to that of the Planipennian Neuroptera, and very different from, though superficially resembling, that of the Gryllacridae and Mantidae to which they had been thought allied. This view is the same as that originally held for the former by Audouin on its discovery nearly fifty years ago, and being shown distinct from the modern genera, Gryllacris and Corydalis, to which it had been referred, the new name of Lithosialis was proposed for this fossil. A year ago a second species of the same genus was described by Novák from the Bohemian coal, under the name of Gryllacris bohemica. Two new forms were added by Mr. Scudder to the English coal-fauna, Archaeoptilus ingens, the largest palæozoic insect known, and Brodia priscotincta, remarkable for the admirable preservation of the colored bands of the wings; both belong to the same general group as those already mentioned.

At the meeting of the Boston Society of Natural History (section of entomology), March 23, Mr. EDWARD BURGESS, of the Bussey Institution, described the structure of the pharynx in the Orthoptera, and particularly in Anabrus, where its muscular development is as well marked as in the case of the Lepidoptera. A closely similar arrangement of longitudinal and annular, or transverse, muscular layers, as well as suspensory muscles, obtains in both orders; and thus the evolution of a powerful sucking pharynx from one possessing only the ordinary function of deglutition is made easy.

Mr. BURGESS spoke also of the very uniform character of the endocranium in mandibulate insects. This portion of the interior skeleton has received almost no notice, but will be found an interesting study, and its modifications throughout the hexapods deserve to be followed up.

Among the recent acquisitions of the Museum of Comparative Zoology we would call the attention of the public to the glass models of the Sea Anemones and of the Jellyfishes now on exhibition in the Systematic Room of Radiates. The difficulty of exhibiting the objects themselves is very great, and for many of the pelagic animals there is nothing more satisfactory than these exquisite models.

The collection of New York fossils purchased for the Museum from Professor G. Washington Taylor is specially rich in Cephalopods. Some of the Orthoceratites are of gigantic size, the complete tube of some of them measuring more than twenty-four feet in length. The collection is also very rich in Graptolites. The principal formations represented are the Birdseye, Black River, Hudson River, Helderberg, Trenton, and Goniatite Limestones.

In the Preliminary Report on the Starfishes of the "Blake" Expeditions, Professor PERRIER of the Jardin des Plantes calls special attention to a most interesting genus, Hymenodiscus, intermediate between the true Starfishes and Ophiurans. He insists specially on its many-sided affinities, which are real and not fanciful, as in the case of Bursinga, which thus far has erroneously been considered to represent such an intermediate type, and to be at the same time the representative in the present epoch of some of the early synthetic Starfish types. Previously to the explorations of the "Blake," the number of species of Starfishes known from the Gulf of Mexico did not exceed twenty-seven. Professor Perrier now enumerates seventy.

already made a beginning in the study of natural history, will be open at Annisquam, Mass., from June 15 to September 15, under the direction of the Boston Society of Natural History. It will be carried on under the care of the curator, Professor A. HYATT, and the immediate supervision of Mr. VAN VLECK, assistant in the museum of the society. Terms may be learned of the curator at the society's

museum.

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At the last stated meeting of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, on January 12th, the Rumford Premium, consisting of a gold and a silver medal, was presented to Professor J. WILLARD GIBBS, of New Haven, for his Researches in Thermo-dynamics. The Proceedings of the Academy (vol. xvi.) will contain the Address made by its President (Professor JOSEPH LOVERING) on this occasion, and the reply by Professor GIBBS. In the same volume will appear a communication by Professor LOVERING on the "Anticipation of the Lissajous' curves." In this paper, the analysis and the experimental illustration of these curves is traced back, from the date (1857) of the publication by Lissajous, through a long ancestral line, to their birthplace in Salem in 1815. The so-called Lissajous curves are properly called the Bowditch curves, except that the earth itself has been experimenting upon one set of them for thousands of years.

Messrs. LITTLE, BROWN & Co. will shortly publish Ideality in the physical sciences, by the late Professor BENJAMIN PEIRCE. This is the title of the six lectures which attracted great attention when they were delivered, two winters ago, at the Lowell Institute in Boston. They were subsequently given at the Peabody Institute, in Baltimore; and two or three of them have been read, from time to time, in various private circles. They embody views in religion and philosophy of deep general interest, and an original discussion of the scientific questions which arise in connection with the Nebular Theory. They were in part prepared for the press by the author, who desired to leave on public record this expression of opinions to which he had been led by the thought of a lifetime.

Professor PICKERING reports: "The latest discovery at the Observatory is the detection of another star whose spectrum consists of bright bands. There have been four similar stars previously known, one of which was discovered in Cambridge last summer. The new object is very near o' Canis Majoris, so that it is visible in winter when the others are below the horizon. It is easily seen with a small telescope, while the other stars, which are much fainter, can be studied to advantage only with instruments of the largest size. The spectrum consists of three bands, the central one, which is very faint or wanting in the other stars of the same class, coinciding with the F line of hydrogen."

The Observatory has recently undertaken to furnish, for the Selenographical Society of London, a series of photometric determinations of the brightness of points on the Moon's surface selected by the Society, in order to establish a standard scale of brightness in future observations.