vex transversely, and is received into a basin. From this the water flows by a succession of falls to a large basin below, which is adorned with numerous fountains. At four points in its circumference are the gilded figures, of life size, of four prominent species of animals-the elephant, horse, ox and rhinoceros. each side of the staircase of waterfalls is a series of small fountains composed of very many fine jets of little elevation, the whole producing the effect of tufted vegetation.

The hall of meeting is well adapted for the use of the Congress, which includes a membership of two hundred and fifty persons. The proceedings of the first day, August the 29th, opened with an election for officers, which resulted in the selection of the names above enumerated. An allocution from Prof. James Hall, of New York, president of the committee of Philadelphia, followed. The report of this committee succeeded, and the organization was completed by the announcement of the names of the officers elected.

The papers announced for the opening day were the following: 1. M. Daubrée, Etudes expérimentales sur les déformations et les cassures de l'écorce terrestre. 2. M. A. Favre, Sur les expériences relatives aux effets de refoulements latéraux en géologie. 3. M. De Chancourtois, Représentation et coordination des faits d'alignements (Failles et Filons). 4. M. De Lapparent, Les plissements de la craie entre la France et l'Angleterre à propos du chemin de fer sous-marin. 5. M. Gorceix, Sur les gisements aurifères et sur les pierres précieuses du Brésil.

The papers for the 30th of August were the following: I. M. James Hall, On the Nomenclature of American palæozoic rocks and the construction of geological maps. 2. M. Stephanescu, Nomenclature géologique uniforme pour tous les pays en ce qui regarde les terrains et les étages. 3. M. Van den Broeck, Valeur des termes de l'échelle stratigraphique du globe. 4. M. Renevier, Rapport sur l'emploi des couleurs et des termes désignant les subdivisions des terrains. 5. M. Rutot, De l'adoption des subdivisions uniformes pour les terrains tertiaries. 6. M. De Chancourtois, Unification des conventions pour les cartes gélogiques. 7. M. Villanova, Bases d'un dictionnaire de géologie. 8. M. l'Abbé Almera, Réimpression des ouvrages de paléontologie. On the 31st of August the following papers were read: 1. T. Sterry Hunt, Limits of the Cambrian Formation. 2. De Moeller, Composition et subdivisions générales du système carbonifère. 3. J. P. Lesley, Limits of the Permian and Carboniferous in Pennsylvania, 4. Vélain, Phénomènes Geysériens dans le Trias de Morvan à propos de la délimitation du Trias et du Lias.

The following papers were read on the 2d of September: 1. Cope, Relations of horizons of Vertebrate Fossils of Europe and North America. 2. Gosselet, De la Synonomie des especes fossiles au point de vue du droit de priorité. 3. Rouault, Amorphozoaires

du Silurien inferieure de Bretagne. 4. DeMorillet, Divisions du Quaternaire. 5. Winkler, Origine des dunes sur le littoral de la Hollande. 6. Van den Broeck, Influence des phénomènes météoriques sur l'altération des Róches. 7. W. P. Blake, Geological Maps of the United States of North America. 8. Violet d'Aoust, Origine des volcans. 9. Bouejot (by M. Delesse), Calcaire blue eruptif. 10. Choffat, Mélanges d'horizons stratigraphiques par suite des mouvements du sol.

Papers of the 3d of September: 1. Des Cloizeaux, Microcline et Feldspaths tricliniques. 2. Michel Lévy, Emploi du Microscope polarisant à lumière parallèle pour l'étude des roches. 3. Jannetaz, Rapports de la propagation de la chaleur dans les roches et de leur structure, au point de vue de leur origine. 4. Vélain, Ses Roches trachytiques de la Réunion au point de vue de la classification. 5. Sterry Hunt, Terrains Precambriens de l'Amerique du Nord. 6. Szabo, Classification et chronologie des roches éruptives tertiaires de la Hongrie. 7. Ribeiro, Formation Tertiaire du Portugal. 8. Chamberlin, The Kettle Moraine of the Great Lake district of North America.

On September the fourth, the Council presented to the Congress several propositions, viz:

A committee to propose a system of coloration for geological

maps.

A committee to propose a uniform nomenclature for geological horizons and formations.

A committee to investigate and report on a method of uniformity in nomenclature in palæontology.

That the second meeting of the Congress take place three years hence in Bologna, Italy.

That in the interim the present Council of the Congress transact its affairs.

Which propositions were, with slight modifications of their original forms, adopted by the Congress.

The sessions of the Congress were largely attended, and under the able ruling of Professor Hèbert, were conducted with dispatch and effect. The interest of the occasion was enhanced by the entertainments offered by the Department of Public Instruction and by private citizens. Of the former may be mentioned that at the Arts et Metiers, where the garden was illuminated by the Jablokoff lights, and the one at the residence of the Minister. Of the latter, the entertainments at the residences of Profs. Hèbert, Gaudry and Daubrée, will be remembered by those who at tended them. After the adjournment of the Congress a banquet was held at the Hotel Continental.

A number of the members of the Congress remained to take part in the annual excursions of the Geological Society of France, which immediately followed.

In his recent lecture on civilization and science, Prof. Du

Bois-Reymond asks that more science be taught in the German gymnasia, though he does not propose to convert the gymnasium into a school for science-teaching. "All that I ask is that as much shall shall be done to meet the wants of the future physician, architect or military officer as those of the future judge, or preacher, or teacher of classical languages. Thus I ask for only so much natural history in the lower classes of the school as will awaken the faculty of observing, and that facilities be given for familiarizing the lads with the methods of classification which is rooted in the depths of the understanding, and whose educational force is so eloquently described by Cuvier. Let Darwinism, of which I am myself an adherent, be excluded from the gymnasium. In the higher classes, for the reasons assigned in my report, I should like to have taught, not physics and chemistry with experiments, but mechanics, the elements of astronomy, also of mathematical and physical geography-to which studies one hour more than heretofore could be devoted without injury."

In Von Ihering's recent work on the nervous system of molluscs, a new arrangement of the molluscs is given which may be novel to our malacologists, as the work itself is rather expensive. The genus Chiton and allies are associated with the worm Chatoderma and the doubtful form Neomenia, forming the Phylum Amphineura, as follows:

II. Solenoconcha (Scaphopoda).

III. Arthrocochlides (Gastropoda, Prosobranchiata).

IV. Platycochlides (Class 1. Ichnopoda, embracing the Nudibranchiata, Tec

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tibranchiata and Pulmonata.)

2. Pteropoda.

3. Cephalopoda.

A work on the songs of birds and other animals as related to human music, and as furnishing a basis for a theory of melody, is in course of preparation by Mr. Xenos Clarke, of San Francisco, Cal., who writes that "the chief impediment is the lack of recorded observations. I should be most grateful if you could kindly assist me in any of these ways, viz:

"1. References to books, etc., containing songs of birds or other animals in musical notation. (Copies of these would be still more valuable.)

"2. Results of your observations on birds or their songs.

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'3. Is there noticed with any frequency in these songs the occurrence of any fundamental intervals of human music, as the octave, fifth, fourth and third?

“4. (A question only seemingly irrelevant.) If singing in the ears has ever happened to you, have any of the fundamental intervals, above mentioned, been observed between the minute. tones ?

"5. Any information that may occur to you as bearing on these subjects?" We refer the matter to our ornithological readers. -The Zoologischer Anzeiger, published in Leipzig and edited by Prof. J. Victor Carus, proves to be a most useful periodical. The editor has two objects in view: besides giving digests of new works and articles, to make the literature complete as possible and to have the addresses of working and teaching zoologists, zoötomists, anatomists and palæontologists, as full and trustworthy as may be. For this purpose he would like to receive the aid of American naturalists, and especially to receive copies. of our journals and proceedings in exchange for his journal. The Anzeiger will, by and by, contain a list of public museums, institutes, etc., which are not connected with universities and colleges. As the journal is published fortnightly, men of science will find it the most convenient way of publishing quickly short preliminary abstracts of new researches of all kinds relating to zoology.

-The New York Academy of Sciences begins its sessions for the winter in its new rooms, handsomer and more attractive than its previous quarters. The library of the Academy has been moved up town into rooms granted for it, in the new (fire-proof) building of the American Museum of Natural History, where it is to have the best care and accommodations and remains subject to the control of the Academy.

The eleventh annual meeting of the Kansas Academy of Science was held at Topeka, on October 8th and 9th, with an attendance larger than in previous years. The number of papers presented was also larger than usual. Prof. B. F. Mudge, of Manhattan, was elected president, and E. A. Popenoe, of Topeko, secretary, for the ensuing term of one year.

Recent arrivals at the Philadelphia Zoological Garden: 1 water snake (Tropidonotus sipedon), New Jersey; 2 capybaras (Hydrocharus capybara); I douroucouli (Nyctipithecus trivirgatus); I capucin (Cebus apella), South America; 2 bonnet macaques (Macacus radiatus); 2 rhesus monkeys (Macacus erythraus); I common macaque (Macacus cynomolgus), India; 5 Guinea baboons (Cynocephalus sphinx), West Africa; large alligator (Alligator missippiensis), Florida; 1 European glass snake (Pseudopus pallasi), Austria; 5 copperheads (Ancistrodon contortrix), Pennsylvania; I green bittern (Ardea virescens); I golden-crowned thrush (Sciurus aurocapillus) Pennsylvania; 2 cinereous vultures (Vultur cinereus); 2 griffon vultures (Gyps fulvus), North Africa; 4 barn owls (Strix flammea americana); 2 Angora rabbits; 7 weeper capucins (Cebus capucinus), South America; I little brown bat (Vespertilio subulatus), New Jersey; I brown pelican (Pelecanus

fuscus), Florida; I rufous rat kangaroo (Hypsiprymus rufescens), born in the garden; 1 pig tailed macaque (Macacus nemestrinus); I rhesus monkey (Macacus erythræus), India; 6 hog-nosed snakes (Heterodon platyrhinus); I garter snake (Eutania sirtalis parietalis), Ohio; 1 opossum (Didelphys virginiana); 2 gray lizards (Sceloporus undulatus), New Jersey; I black snike (Bascanion constrictor); I water snake (Tropidonotus rhombifer), Illinois; I brindled gnu (Catoblepas gorgon), South Africa; I common quail (Ortyx virginianus); 2 whooping cranes (Grus americanus); 2 sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis), North America; 2 red coatis (Nasua nasica rufa), South America; I elk (Cervus canadensis), born in the garden; 2 tortoises (Testudo tabulata), South America; 1 gray squirrel (Sciurus carolinensis); 2 common hoopoes (Upupa epops), Europe, Asia and North Africa; 1 jackdaw (Corvus monedula), Europe and Asia; I sickle-billed curlew (Numenius longirostris), Atlantic States; I night hawk (Chordeiles virginianus), United States; 4 common chameleons (Chamaleo vulgaris), Europe, Asia and North Africa; 1 Yarrell's curassow (Crax carunculata), Brazil; I screech owl (Scops asio); I cat-bird (Mimus carolinensis); I green linnet (Ligurinus chloris); I chaffinch (Fringilla calebs), Great Britain; 2 white-footed mice (Hesperomys leucopus), United States; I Savannah deer (Cervus savannarum), born in the garden.-Arthur E. Brown, Gard. Supt.

- AMERICAN NATURALIST. The numbers of this journal issued during the past year were published at the following dates: February, January 31st; March, February 23d; April, March, 19th; May, April 22d; June, May 22d; July, June 28th; August, July 27th; September, August 21st; October, September 23d; November, October 30th; December, November 29th. -Editors.

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PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES.

NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.-The semi-annual meeting. was held at New York, November 5-7. A report to Congress, recommending the future consolidation of the various geodetic, geographical and geological surveys of the United States, was adopted by the Academy. The following papers on natural science were read and discussed: The early types of insects, by S. H. Scudder; On the arrangement of the exhibition rooms in the Museum of Comparative Zoology at Cambridge; Arrangement of a zoological marine laboratory at Newport; On the embryology of the gar pike; On some of the zoological results of the United States Coast Survey Steamer Blake, by Alexander Agassiz; On some remains of new Dipnoan fishes and their relation to living forms; On some mooted points in American geology, by J. S. Newberry; On the characters of Theromorphous reptiles, by E. D. Cope; Note on the Two-ocean Pass, Wyoming Territory; On the discovery of recent glaciers in the Wind River mountains; Plan of a general geolog