SCIENTIFIC NEWS.

-Under the title of Die Vereinigten Staaten von Nord Amerika, Erster Band. Physikalische Geographie und Natur character, Dr. F. Ratzel, of München, has written a voluminous. octavo of 667 pages, illustrated with five colored maps. After discussing the geology and physical geography, the author describes in a general way our river-systems and lakes, with the climate, and under the caption of the vegetable world, the relations of the vegetation and climate to those of Europe and Asia, the distribution of our forests, prairies and plains or steppes; in two appendices the author enters into the vexed question of the origin of prairies, and other botanical subjects. The last chapter is devoted to the animals of the United States, giving a general view of the distribution of animal life, and a view of our characteristic mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibia and fishes, molluscs, insects and lower animals; and the work closes with a series of sketches of our forest scenery, the Hudson river, the scenery of New England, the Alleghenies, the pine barrens, the Floridian tropical scenery, Niagara Falls, and a glance at the Rocky Mountains and California.

-The first Annual Report of the U. S. Entomological Commission has recently made its appearance, and forms a volume of about 750 pages. The main report contains chapters on a variety of subjects, and is copiously illustrated with lithographic plates, three maps and woodcuts. Naturalists will perhaps be interested in the chapters on the distribution, metamorphosis and anatomy of the locust. The report is mainly practical in its scope, so as to be of immediate use to western farmers. A further appropriation was made at the last session of Congress for the completion of the work.

In view of publishing a work on the Antiquity of Smoking and the Aboriginal Art of Pipe Making, Mr. E. A. Barber, West Chester, Pa., requests the co-operation of archæologists. Any notes, references, accurate sketches, with explanations, or other information bearing on the subject, will be thankfully received and fully credited. Drawings, cuts, or photographs of unique or odd pipes, snuff-boxes, etc., of aboriginal tribes, are more especially desired. The object of the work will be a more careful review of the history of smoking and its dissemination among different peoples, particularly among pre-historic nations.

- A finely illustrated work, entitled Iconographia Crinoideorum in statis Suecia Siluricis fossilium. Auctore N. P. Angelin. Opus postumum edendum curavit Regia Academia Scientiarum Suecica, Cum tabulis xxis, Holmiæ, 1878, will interest American students of Silurian Crinoids. There are thirty-four pages of text, and the twenty-nine folio plates are beautifully drawn.

There are a good many details given regarding the arrangement of the plates of the calyx, and a number of Cystideans are illustrated.

Prof. Edward Forbes and his Country, is the title of an interesting sketch of this gifted naturalist, and of the Isle of Man, his birthplace, prepared by Robert Garner for the Midland Naturalist, the journal of the associated natural history, philosophical and archæological societies and field clubs of the midland counties of England. We have seen several numbers of this journal sent to Hayden's U. S. Geological Survey, and American naturalists would find it to be a readable, attractive periodical.

The Chicago Academy of Sciences presents a good record of progress during the past year. The total number of specimens in the Museum is 30,049, the shells amounting to 15,000, and the insects to 6,000 specimens. The list of papers read numbers 21 titles. Explorations in Florida have been made by Messrs. Velie and Calkins. One hundred and ten foreign societies and thirty American ones send their publications.

The appointment of Prof. Spencer F. Baird to the Secretaryship of the Smithsonian Institution, is in every way appropriate. Prof. Baird's familiarity with the workings of the Institution, together with his wide acquaintance with the sciences, and with the needs of scientific men, are guarantees that a continuation of its prosperous career awaits the Smithsonian.

Entomological Contributions, No. iv., by Mr. J. A. Lintner, extracted from the thirtieth annual report of the New York State Museum of Natural History, for the year 1876, contains a variety of articles relating chiefly to the Lepidoptera; a few of them are of a practical, economic nature.

Recent arrivals at the Philadelphia Zoological Garden: 1 raccoon (Procyon lotor); 7 hog-nosed snakes (Heterodon platythinus); 2 chain snakes (Ophibolus doliatus triangulus); I scarlet ringed snake (Cemophora coccinea); I milk snake (Coluber obsoletus confinis); 7 colubers (Coluber vulpinus); 2 black snakes (Bascanion constrictor); 3 water snakes (Tropidonotus sipedon);

con

copperbelly snake snake (T. sipedon erythrogaster); 4 garter snakes (Eutania sirtalis); 2 garter snakes (E. sirtalis parietalis); I young snake (Bascanion [?]) from Indiana; I copperhead (Ancistrodon contortrix); 2 milk snakes (C. obsoletus finis); I pine snake (Pityophis melanoleucus); 14 prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus), born in the garden; 4 ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus), born in the garden; I spotted cavy (Calogenys paca); I mule deer (Cervus macrotis), born in the garden; 2 gray gophers (Spermophilus franklin); 2 common marmosets (Hassale jacchus); I stoat (Putorius erminea); I fallow deer (Dama vulgaris), white var., born in the garden; 1 lizard (Sceloporus); I

song thrush (Turdus musicus), England; 1 robin (Turdus migratorius); I gray fox (Vulpus virginianus); 2 prairie wolves (Canis latrans); 2 swift foxes (Vulpes velox); I spider monkey (Ateles belzebuth), Brazil; I coati (Nasua narica), red var., Brazil; 1 opossum and 11 young (Didelphys virginiana).

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PROCEEDINGS OF SCIENTIFIC SOCITIES.

APPALACHIAN MOUNTAIN CLUB.-June 12.-The reports of the Councillors of Topography and Art presented their report. Mr. W. H. Pickering described some new points of interest near Campton, N. H.; Miss M. F. Whitman read a paper entitled "Moat Mt. Experiences."

June 22.-The Club made an excursion to Mt. Wachusett.

July 10-The fifth field meeting was held at the Fabyan House, White Mountains, N. H. Mr. Samuel H. Scudder spoke of the insects of high altitude in North America. Prof. C. H. Hitchcock exhibited a model of the White mountains, and read an explanatory paper, including the results of recent explorations.

ENTOMOLOGICAL CLUB OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.-The annual meeting of the Club will be held at St. Louis, Mo., on Tuesday, August 20, 1878, at three o'clock, P. M. All entomologists who are interested are invited to assist, and will report at the headquarters of the Association at the Lindell Hotel, on the 19th or 20th, where they will be informed of the exact place of meeting. The meetings of the Association will begin on the morning of August 21. Prof. J. K. Rees, at St. Louis, will give information to members about car fares and accommodations. B. Pickman Mann, Secretary.

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SCIENTIFIC SERIALS.

THE PALEONTOLOGIST, Cincinnati, July 2, 1878; U. P. James. We have received the first number of this publication, which appears in octavo size, and is very neatly printed. We are informed on the title page that it will be issued whenever there is sufficient material in a state of preparation to warrant it. Its object is stated to be to insure "early publication of scientific memoirs in geology and palæontology, in order to avoid the frequent delays when depending on the regular serials, journals and proceedings of societies." This number containing a paper by Mr. U. P. James, on extinct Invertebrata from the Lower Silurian formation, and includes descriptions of twenty-nine species.

We have to remark on the advent of this publication, that we always regret the appearance of a new scientific journal unless

it be well supported by the "sinews of war," or have a field not already occupied by an existing one. Nevertheless, the method which marks the primitive stage of scientific organization of allowing incompetent persons to have charge of the issue of scientific serials, must result in independent publications. So whatever the raison d'etre of the publication before us, it offers an example of the only way of escaping various abuses.

ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR WISSENSCHAFTLICHE ZOOLOGIE, Supplement May 28. On the first embryological phases of Tendra zostericola, by W. Repiachoff. Contributions to a knowledge of Protozoa, by A. Schneider. On the form and signification of organic muscle-cells, by W. Flemming. Remarks on the anatomy of Limnadia hermanni, by F. Spangenberg. Studies on the history of the Polish Tur (Ur, Urus, Bos primigenius), by A. Wrzesniowski. On the unity of structure of the brain in the different orders of insects, by J. H. L. Flögel. Archigetes sieboldi, a sexually mature Cestode nurse, by R. Leuckart. The Epiphysis in the brain of Plagiostomes, by E. Ehlers.

ARCHIV FÜR NATURGESCHICHTE, Yahrgang 44, Heft. 3.-Herpetological studies, by J. von Bedriaga. Contribution to anatomy of the integument of mammals, by H. Ribbert. Attempt at a natural classification of the spiders, by G. Bertkau. Reflections on the theory by which season dimorphism in butterflies may be explained, by P. Kramer, Contribution to a knowledge of hermaphroditism and the spermatophores in the nephropneutic Gasthopods, by G. Pfeffer.

ANNALES DES SCIENCES NATURELLES, March 20-Observations on the structure of the eyes of crustacea and worms, by J. Chatin. Observations on the Notommata Werneckii, and its parasitism in the tubes of Vaucheria, by M. Balbiani.

JENAISCHE ZEITSCHRIFT FÜR NATURWISSENSCHAFT, March 15. -Individuality in animals, by E. Haeckel. The Leptomedusæ of Heligoland, by R. Böhm.

PSYCHE, Jan., Feb.-Recent Progress of Entomology in North. America, by S. H. Scudder. Bibliographical Record.

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ERRATA. Page 351, line 18, for equalis Stm. read ochracea Brandt. Page 353, line 24, for Sb read Stm. Page 209, line 10, for rarely read surely. Page 211, line 15 from bottom, for true lily read tree-lily.

THE

AMERICAN NATURALIST.

VOL. XII. SEPTEMBER, 1878. No. 9.

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THE SENSORY ORGANS-SUGGESTIONS WITH A VIEW TO GENERALIZATION.1

BY FRANCIS DERCUM, M.D., PH.D.

PERHAPS in the whole range of physiological and anatomical

studies, no subject is invested with a deeper interest than that of the sensory organs. It is by means of them that we first become aware of our own existence; it is by means of them, in other words, that consciousness is first awakened in us, and it is through them that we subsequently continue our acquaintance with the outer world. It would be of great importance, were it possible, to arrive at some general conclusion regarding their morphology-some general view regarding the essential elements or the essential conditions of their structure. Judging from our knowledge at present it may seem that an attempt in this direction would be fruitless. Notwithstanding there are several prime facts which do not seem to have attracted the general attention which their importance deserves, and these when placed in their proper relations may give a new character to the subject, and perhaps open new avenues for investigation.

It will be interesting, therefore, to hastily review what is known. regarding the constant elements of the various sensory organs. Under this head, of course, it will be unnecessary to consider the more or less mechanical arrangements by which force is conducted, and we will adhere, therefore, to that part of the literature only which treats of the ultimate structures by which impressions appear to be received.

1 Read before the Alumni Society of the Auxiliary Department of the University of Pennsylvania, March 29, 1878.