solved in 500 cubic centimetres of water, and then dilute sulphuric acid added till the hydrazoic acid was liberated. The solution was then distilled till the distillate ceased to give a precipitate with silver nitrate.

The distillate was then diluted to a definite volume and its strength determined by titration with standard ammonia solution. The yield of the acid was 87 per cent of the theoretical, 500 cubic centimetres of nearly 4 per cent solution being obtained.

A part of the acid solution was neutralized with potassium carbonate, and evaporated to crystallization. Beautiful, tabular, transparent crystals of the potassium salt, KN,, were formed.

The salts of hydrazoic acid, excepting the salts of the alkali metals and the metals of the alkaline earths, are explosive. In some respects the acid resembles hydrochloric acid. With soluble silver salts a white precipitate, AgN,, is formed. Lead acts similarly. These salts explode very violently when heated.

1

The most remarkable property of hydrazoic acid and its soluble salts is their physiological action. In this respect they resemble the nitrite of amyl, C, H11NO,, having a marked influence upon the action of the heart. The author found by experiment that one-tenth of a grain of the potassium salt, KN,, dissolved upon the tongue (the resulting solution not being swallowed, but ejected from the mouth) was sufficient to increase the pulse from 96 beats per minute to 153. This required only five minutes' time after the dose was taken. This rate of heart-beat is not sustained, however. A sudden and rapid reduction takes place, and ten minutes after the dose was taken the heart was giving 60 feeble beats per minute, making a total variation of 97 beats per minute. Considering the fact that this effect was produced by the small quantity of the substance which was absorbed by the mucous membrane of the tongue, this property is certainly remarkable. The vapors of the hydrazoic acid produce similar effects when inhaled.

The laboratory work reported in this article was performed in the chemical laboratory of Cornell University; and the author wishes to acknowledge that the success of the work was largely due to the aid and direction given by Dr. W. R. Orndorff. Thanks are also due him for his kindness in reading and correcting the manuscript.

ON PROTOPTERUS ANNECTENS.

BY DR. R. W. SHUFELDT, WASHINGTON, D.C. THERE has been very recently published in the Transactions of the Royal Irish Academy (Vol. XXX., Part III., pp 109-230, Plates vii. to xvii.) the long-delayed work of Professor W. N. Parker of the University College, at Cardiff, Wales, "On the Anatomy and Physiology of Protopterus annectens.” Through the courtesy of its author, a reprint of that most valuable quarto is now before me, and it is my wish to write a brief notice here in regard to it. The elaborate manner in which the Transactions of the Academy are published is too well know to require remark, but in the present instance it is impossible to pass this work without a word upon the truly superb plates that illustrate it. These, some ten in number, were chromo-lithographed by Professor Parker's younger brother, M. P. Parker, and printed by West, Newman. They present us with much of the anatomy and histology of Protopterus, and are throughout perfect masterpieces of the kind, and of the very highest order of merit.

As is well known, this genus formerly was written Lepidosiren, the South American species being L. paradoxu, and the African one L. annectens ̧1 and among the first to pay any attention to it, of a reliable nature, was Sir Richard Owen, who, in 1839-1841,

1 Dr. Günther classifies them as follows:Suborder III.

Families. 1. Sirenidæ

Genera.

(Lepid siren, incl. Protopterus Ceratodus. (Two extinct genera, Dipterus and Heliodus. Extinct Phancropleuron.

And he remarks that "Two species are known, L. paradoxa, from the system of the river Amazon, and L. (Prot ›pterus) annecteus, which abounds in many localities of the west coast of Africa, is spread over the whole of tropical Africa, and in many districts of the central parts forms a regular article of diet."

published his " Description of Lepidosiren annectens" in the Transactions of the Linnæan Society of London (Vol XVIII.), since which time naturalists have never ceased to furnish various accounts of the biology of this extremely important form, but usually based, as Professor Parker remarks, upon badly preserved material. Our present author was far more fortunate as he had perfectly fresh specimens to work upon. Of these he has said in his " Introduction," that All my material, with the exception of two specimens, purchased last autumn, were placed at my disposal by Professor Wiedersheim. These were received alive direct from the neighborhood of the Gambia, and to Dr. J. Beard is due the credit of having arranged for their transport. While in the torpid condition about one hundred specimens had been dug out, each surrounded by a clod of earth,' and the clods were then packed together in open crates. In this manner they travelled without harm, nearly all of them being alive and in a healthy condition on their arrival in Freiburg. On being removed from the clods, they were, by the kind permission of Professor Hildebrandt, placed in a large wire cage, sunk beneath the water in a basin used for the culture of water plants in one of the bot-houses of the Botanical Gardens, in which a constant temperature of 22.5° C. was maintained." ...Protopterus lives probably to a great age, and this supposition is supported by the somewhat incredible statement of the natives mentioned by Stuhlmann, that some specimens reach a length of six feet. From the observations of Hyrtl and Bischoff, it appears that Lepidosiren also attains a large size, reaching, at any rate, three feet in length" (p 112).

It was found that Protopterus grows very rapidly, has great vitality, and, although able to sustain fasts, is exceedingly voracious, devouring all the abundant snails, earth-worms, and small fish given them, and then killing and eating each other, making it difficult in the extreme to preserve the specimens.

Protopterus is most active at night, and appears to keep mostly to the shallow water, where they move deliberately about on the bottom, alternately using the peculiar limbs of either side, though their movements do not seem to be guided by any strict regularity. "Gray has compared these movements with those of a Triton, and several other observers have noticed them. The powerful tail forms a most efficient organ for swimming rapidly through the water."

66

It is well known that Protopterus comes to the surface to breathe at short intervals, and thus it is evident that the lungs perform an important, if not the chief, part in respiration during the active life of the animal. The air passes out again through the opercular aperture, and the movements of the operculum itself indicate the fact that bronchial as well as pulmonary respiration takes place."

Externally, the sexes present no characters whatever distinguishing them apart, and even in immature specimens it is difficult to tell ovary from testis.

In the present brief notice it will be impossible for us to even abstract the positive advances Professor Parker has made for us in our knowledge of both the anatomy and physiology of this instructive Dipnoan. He sums up handsomely on page 213, under his "General Abstract, Summary of Chief Resu'ts, and Conclusions."

His researches convince him that, although many points of resemblance exist between Protopterus and certain Elasmobranchs and Ganoids on the one hand, and on the other to some of the lower Amphibians, it exhibits numerous distinctive characters of its own, both primitive and specialized, and so, together with Lepidosiren and Ceratodus, must be placed at a great distance from either class. Further, he believes that the Dipnoi, as a group, should not be retained among the fishes, still less among the Amphibia.

2 To those less familiar with the habits of this extraordinary fish, I would say that the species averages about four feet in length, and is an inhabitant of the Gambia River in Africa. They bury themselves in the mud during the dry season, making a kind of nest in which they pass a period of torpidity. Here they may remain for the best part of the year, but on the return of the wet season resume again their aquatic mode of life.

a In 1889, it will be remembered, Stuhlmann also gave an interesting account of Pro:opterus, published in German. (Berlin.)

Highly specialized in some respects, in both Protopterus and Lepidosiren, this specialization is largely due to a change of habit, and that, undoudtedly, these two types are, genericly, very distinct.

In conclusion, I may simply add that this classical work will, in the future, prove to be one of the very greatest value to all students of the morphology of the Amphibia and of Pisces, as it will be indispensible to the general biologist

OBSERVATIONS ON A CYCLONE NEAR WILLIAMSTOWN, KANSAS.

BY E. H. S. BAILEY, UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS, LAWRENCE, KAN. A SEVERE and fatal cyclone visited a small area of country in the Kaw ralley, in Jefferson County, on June 21, at about six o'clock in the evening, and the peculiar topography of the country gave an opportunity to make some observations that may be of scientific interest. The valley at this point is about two miles in width, the river running nearly east. On the south side it is bounded by bluffs about a hundred feet in height, and on the north side there is a strip of level meadow, something over a mile in width, before one reaches the bluffs, which are of about the same height as those on the south side.

The general trend of the broad valley is east, but at a point a mile or so beyond where the cyclone lifted the river runs toward the southeast for perhaps a mile. On the particular afternoon in question the weather had been extremely hot and sultry, the mercury ranging between 90° and 95° F. The weather had been warm and dry, with only one local shower for about two weeks. About two hours before the cyclone burst upon the valley there was a gathering of clouds in the northwest, with thunder and lightning. A short time before the storm burst an ominous stillness was noted, and a sudden darkening of the sky. During the heaviest of the storm a peculiar green tint of the sky was noticed in the locality.

As the storm came from the west, it seemed to settle near the ground at the base of the bluff, and, wherever the bluff was not broken by lateral valleys, its path was about one-half on the side of the hill and the other half on the sloping meadow to the south.

Wherever the cyclone crossed the course of lateral ravines, even if they were quite narrow, it dipped down into them and destroyed trees and buildings. It was not swerved from its general eastward course even at one point where a broader valley joined that of the Kaw. At this point, as the country was heavily timbered, there was a special opportunity to observe the action of the wind. Elm and walnut trees, two or three feet in diameter, were either torn up by the roots, laid prostrate, or twisted off fifteen or twenty feet from the ground. Here the track of the cyclone, where it did appreciable damage, was a little less than 600 yards in width. There were, occasionally, wrecked chimneys and slightly injured roofs on the outer edges of this path. All along the course of the storm the debris was deposited in the peculiar way that is characteristic of these furious whirlwinds. The material north of the centre of the track was deposited in lines from northwest to southeast, and that on the south side of the centre in lines running from southwest to northeast. In the centre of the track there was a tendency to distribute the material in an east and west direction. A line of telephone poles on the south side were laid in parallel lines, thus, /////. Fields of grass and wheat were beaten to the ground and the stalks laid in the directions above noted: W. → E. The wires of the telephone line and of the barb-wire fence were lifted into the tree-tops about fifty feet north of their original position. There was a little debris deposited on the west side of some of the buildings demolished, but most of it was carried along the track and thoroughly pulverized. Strong, new farm wagons were wrenched to pieces, and the spokes were even broken off near the hub, before they were deposited half a mile away.

The terrible force of the wind could be seen in the beheading of the wheat, the uncovering of potatoes in the hills, the transportation of grave-stones 300 yards, and the picking of all the feathers from the chickens

One of the most interesting effects that was noticed was upon

the trees that were left standing or laid prostrate and bereft of every vestige of foliage and of nearly all the bark. All the wood on the west side of these trees, often being exposed by having the bark torn off, was roughened as if by a sand blast; while that on the east side was smooth. This roughness was uniform, showing that it was not produced by occasional missiles hurled through the air. This roughening, if not produced by the actual friction of the air, must have been produced by the sand and gravel in the air, or by the rain that beat against the surface.

Some who witnessed the storm saw the clouds of dust that accompanied the wind, so the sand-blast theory is no doubt the correct explanation.

The most serious work of destruction was accomplished just before the cyclone lifted. Here the valley broadened out towards the north, and the bluff for a distance of a mile or more disappeared. With one last sweeping blow the storm lifted, and the only other evidence of its work was a partially demolished barn. Just at the point where the intensity seemed concentrated, the path was much narrower than farther west. The strip of land devastated was about five miles in length. From the manner in which it followed the base of the bluff, one would infer that had it not been for this obstruction the storm would have passed off towards the northeast instead of pursuing, as it did, a direction a little south of east.

NOTES ON THE COPEPODA OF WISCONSIN.

BY C. DWIGHT MARSH, RIPON, WISCONSIN.

In the waters of Wisconsin and in the adjacent lakes are found the following twenty-one species of free-swimming copepods: Diaptomus sanguineus, Forbes; D. leptopus, Forbes; D. pallidus, Herrick; D. sicilis, Forbes; D. ashlandi sp. nov; D. minutus, Lillj.; D. oregonensis, Lillj.; Epischura lacustris, Forbes; Limnocalanus macrurus, Sars; Cyclops americanus, sp. nov.; C. brevispinosus, Herrick; C. pulchellus, Koch; C. navus, Herrick; C. arcus, Herrick; C. leucarti, Sars; C. signatus, Koch; C. modestus, Herrick; C. fluviatilis, Herrick; C. serrulatus, Fischer; C. phaleratus, Koch; C fimbriatus. Fischer.

Although two of these, D. ashlandi and C. americanus, are new species, it is not probable that they are peculiar to the Wisconsin fauna. The copepods of America have thus far received very little attention, the only important publications on the subject being by three men, Professor Cragin, Professor Herrick and Professor Forbes. If more were known of our copepods it is probable that it would be found that there are few local differences in the fauna of our northern States. The copepods are readily transported from one body of water to another and, without change of structure, seem to endure great changes in their environment In fact, half of our species of cyclops are not only widely distributed in America, but are identical with those of Europe. Those that may be considered distinctly American are closely allied to well-known European forms.

C. leucarti is found in nearly all parts of the world where collections have been made and, so far as can be inferred from the published descriptions, varies but little, even in the minute details of its structure.

C. americanus closely resembles C. viridis, and is probably the species which has by other American authors been identified with viridis. Although there seems to be good reason for separating it from the European species, the similarity of the two forms is so great that it is only by a close examination that the structural differences become apparent.

It is very possible that C. brevispinosus should be considered a pelagic variety of C. americanus, thus reducing by one the number of species peculiar to America. There is some reason, too, for supposing that C. navus is not specifically distinct from C. pulchellus.

C. pulchellus is the common pelagic form of the Great Lakes. Although found in smaller lakes, it is more commonly replaced by C. brevispinosus, which is a species of wide distribution. C. navus is found only in stagnant pools.

The most common of all our species is C. serrulatus. Rarely is a collection without this form, which seems to adapt itself easily to very different surroundings. It has, however, wide

limits of variation, and it is, perhaps, due to this fact that it is so universally distributed. The littoral and pelagic forms are so different that they have been considered specifically distinct. C. modestus is a rare form. Thus far it has been found in only a single locality in Wisconsin.

None of the American species of Diaptomus is identical with those of Europe, although in some cases the relationship is very close.

D. sicilis is the common pelagic form of the Great Lakes, but occurs also in smaller bodies of water. D. ashlandi has been found only in the Great Lakes.

The most common species in the smaller lakes is D. oregonensis. This was described by Lilljeborg from specimens collected in Oregon, and probably is common through our northern States. D. minutus is common in Newfoundland, Greenland and Iceland. It occurs in some of the small lakes in northern

Wisconsin and in Green Lake. It is likely that it occurs quite generally through the northern part of North America, and possibly central Wisconsin is near its southern limit.

Especial interest attaches to the fauna of Green Lake. This is about seven miles long, with a maximum depth of nearly two hundred feet. While the pelagic fauna of the Great Lakes is quite distinct from that of the smaller lakes, we find in Green Lake both sets of faunæ. D. sicilis and Limnocalanus macrurus I have not found outside the Great Lakes except in Green Lake. But besides these species the pelagic fauna of Green Lake includes C. brevispinosus and C. fluviatilis, which are the characteristic species of the smaller lakes.

A more detailed account of the Wisconsin copepoda will soon appear in the Transactions of the Wisconsin Academy.

THE HILLOCK AND MOUND FORMATIONS OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA.

BY DANIEL CLEVELAND, SAN DIEGO, CALIFORNIA. SOME time ago, in an article upon the nest of the trap-door spider, which appeared in Science, I mentioned the low mounds in which these nests in many districts are so often located, as being in themselves an interesting formation. I now propose to offer an explanation of the origin of the formation.

Let me begin by saying that these mounds are not confined to this vicinity, for they extend throughout this State and elsewhere on this coast and in Texas; but they are more numerous and better defined here than elsewhere; they are, in fact, a characteristic of certain large areas of our territory. For this reason, among others, I believe this to be the best field for observing and investigating this remarkable formation.

Lying just back of the commercial portion of the city of San Diego there is a great mesa or table-land, which stretches away for a distance of from eight to ten miles to the valleys at the base of the Coast Range. It possesses a rich brown soil, holding in many places considerable aggregations of loose stones which have drifted down from the neighboring mountains and been ground into pebbles. Here for miles the surface is gently undulating, with low mounds lying as close together and as numerous, considering their size, as the ground will permit. These mounds are from one to three feet in height above their bases, and are from ten to thirty feet in diameter, separated by greatly varying areas which in their depressions in many places contain accumulations of cobble stones. An unscientific person seeing these plains for the first time might imagine that they had once been densely populated by large burrowing animals which had left these hillocks to mark their subterranean dwellings.

Several theories have been advanced to account for this formation. The most probable hypothesis is suggested by the nature of the soil and the peculiar vegetation of these plains. The soil itself is dry and hard for the six to eight months constituting the rainless season. During the time of heavy rains it is soft and mellow. During the time of drought it becomes almost as hard as stone.

Each mound, it is evident enough, marks the former home of a shrub or. as was almost always the case, of a cluster of shrubbery, to whose agency the mound in large degree owed its existThree shrubs-Rhus laurina, Nutt.; Simmondsia Califor

ence.

nia, Nutt.; and Isomeris arborea, Nutt.-are conspicuous among the large vegetation of these plains, and have been very important factors in the formation of these mounds. Of these plants Rhus laurina is the largest and is much more abundant than the other two. It is an interesting fact that these three shrubs are confined to this section of California, mostly to this county, and that they were all first collected at San Diego about 1840, and were named by the eccentric naturalist Thomas Nuttall. He established the genera Simmondsia and Isomeris. The habits of these plants peculiarly fit them for their office of mound builders. They grow in small compact groups. Many stems rise from the roots, which are large and spreading. The foliage of Rhus and Simmondsia especially is dense and falls close to the ground.

Dust blown by the steady trade winds of the dry season is arrested by the shrub and accumulates with the fallen leaves at its base, making a steady accretion of material. In this way a mound gradually rises about the plant, in time covering the lower branches and in the case of the smaller shrubs-Simmondsia and Isomeris-nearly or quite enveloping the whole plant. This process of mound building can still be seen in isolated hillocks. An examination of the older mounds confirms this theory. In the lower portion of the mound the earth is compact and indurated, while the surface soil is a light loam mixed with decayed and decaying leaves. The mound is protected from washing by the rains at the summit by the overhanging branches and foliage, and at the base by a compact mass of roots. Outside of the foliage and roots the process of erosion goes on steadily, though slowly, during the rainy season, when this soil is peculiarly susceptible to the action of water, and the hollows between the mounds are then formed.

When in the course of time the plant dies from natural decay, from being smothered by the drift that environs it or from the fires that sometimes sweep over these plains, the mounds, being deprived of protection, are attacked by wind and rain and gradually worn down. The mounds are thus made shallower and broader at the base, until from this steady subsidence they sink down and flatten out almost to the general level of the plain.

The presence of living shrubs upon the more perfect mounds and of masses of roots well preserved or in process of decay in mounds in subsidence, where no large growing vegetation has been seen for many years, and in the oldest and flattest mounds the disappearance of all traces of shrubs and roots, confirm our theory of mound formation and subsidence.

What the shrubs I have named-Rhus, Simmondsia and Isomeris have effected in coöperation with the wind and rain in the formation of mounds in this section, has been accomplished elsewhere by other shrubs and trees. It is a familiar fact that upon the great prairies of Texas mats of timber are generally found upon the summit of hillocks, very much larger, of course, than the mounds of southern California, as those trees are larger than our shrubs.

CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. - XXXI. [Edited by D. G. Brinton, M.D., LL.D., D.Sc.]

The Archæology of Oaxaca.

Two or three years ago the State of Oaxaca, in Mexico, established an Archæological Museum, and placed it in charge of the very competent and enthusiastic scientist, Dr. Nicolas Leon, of Michoacan, who had already won for himself a wide reputation as curator of the Museum at Morelia. Through some unfortunate political changes the modest appropriations awarded to both these institutions have been diverted into other channels. This is a matter of great regret to all who are interested in the preservation of the ancient monuments of Mexico and the further investigations into the numerous remains there found.

The State of Oaxaca especially has an archæological importance which attaches a unique value to the investigation of its remains. From the earliest days of which tradition records the echoes, it was the home of the Zapotecs, and the profoundest researches into the pre-Columbian origin of the Aztec and Mexican civilization point, not to the fabulous "Empire of the Toltecs," but to these Zapotecs as the tribe which first spread abroad

the light of a higher culture, who invented the famous sacred calendar, so long the subject of astonishment to the learned, and who constructed edifices of brick and stone whose massive walls, strange ornamentation and remarkable architectural details, place them among the most impressive of any on the continent.

One of these was described, not for the first time, but with considerable care, by the engineer Aureliano Estrada, in the Memorias de la Sociedad Scientifica Antonio Alzate, of Mexico, last year. It is a mass of buildings crowning the summit of the Cerro de Quiengola, a mountain some 2,500 feet in height in the District of Tehuantepec. It presents thick walls of stone and burnt brick, circular and square towers, truncated pyramids and all the proofs of an extensive population.

It is sincerely to be hoped that these and numerous other remains in this state will be protected from destruction and thoroughly examined to the benefit of science.

The Basques and the Iberians.

An unusual number of papers and essays on questions relating to the ethnic position of the Basques and their possible relationship to the ancient Iberians, have appeared in France within the last year.

First, the linguists have had much to say. It is well known that Wilhelm von Humboldt in the first decade of the present century wrote an admirable analysis of the place-names throughout Spain, showing, he believed, by them, that the Basques at the time of the Roman conquest extended westward from the Pyrenees to the Atlantic coast. His conclusions have been alternately accepted and denied by special students of the tongue, and so they are to-day. Professor Julien Vinson, for example, a distinguished Basque scholar, says: "There is no historic proof, nor even scientific probability, that the Basque at any time occupied a much larger area than at present. The opinion that the Iberian peninsula or other parts of southwestern Europe were peopled by a race or races speaking a kindred dialect is based merely on etymologies, and must be considered a pure hypothesis."

Directly the contrary is maintained by M. J. F. Bladé, who observes: "Inasmuch as, in a large area surrounding the present territory of the Basques, altars are almost daily found inscribed to gods unknown among the Celts, and tombs bearing names certainly not Celtic, the conclusion appears justified that these names are ancient Basque, and that this tongue once spread over Aquitania and Iberia.'

Meanwhile, the physical anthropologists have been at work. Dr. Lajard, in the Bulletin of the Anthropological Society of Paris, published the results of a comparison of ancient and modern skulls in the Canary Islands, with a large number from Portugal and Spain; reaching the result, that not only was the race of the Guanches of the Canaries identical with that of the old Iberians, but that both point to the still older race of Cro Magnon, as their near relatives. This does not take in the Basques, but leaves them to one side; while, as we certainly know that the Guanches were blonde Hamites, closely akin to the Rifians at Morocco, it places the Iberians along with the North Africans. As for the present Basque population, they are reported by M. De Cartailhac as losing their language and diminishing in number. Even in the most remote and secluded districts, the deaths are more numerous than the births, owing to the rarity of marriages; and French and Spanish are in a fair way to drive out this curious and venerable tongue from its last refuge in the fastnesses of the Pyrenees.

Man in South America.

There is no part of the world that offers a more curious subject of speculation as to its future than the continent of South America, as was well set forth in an address before the American Geographical Society, by its President, Mr. Gardiner G. Hubbard.

That the Amazon river system alone drains a basin of fertile land, basking under a climate of perpetual summer, greater in area than the whole of Europe, is an astounding fact in itself. This vast territory is practically uninhabited. Its aboriginal

population is disappearing, or has disappeared, and the whites who in sparce number take their place, scarcely pretend to come with the expectation of remaining. There are tracts as large as the whole of France, of which we know less than of any equal area on the globe. Tribes of men are living there who are yet absolutely in the Stone Age, and who, even by barter or distant rumor, never heard of the European race or the use of metals.

The question up to which Mr. Hubbard leads his reader is second in importance to none in anthropology-that of acclimation. Is it possible for the white race, when it shall be endowed with all the resources of art and science which it is soon to have in its grasp, successfully to fight against the terrible odds of a tropical climate? He quotes in his favor the words of the historian, Buckle, and the naturalist, Bates; he might have added others of weight; but it cannot be doubted that most of the medical observers who have devoted themselves to this vast inquiry, lean to the opinion that never will the white race flourish under tropical skies

NOTES AND NEWS.

THE fifth summer meeting of the Geological Society of America will be held Tuesday and Wednesday, August 15 and 16, in the Geological Lecture Room, Science Hall, University of Wisconsin. On account of the World's Congress of Geologists convening in Chicago, August 24, an invitation will be sent to geologists residing outside of North America to attend this meeting and present papers. A meeting of exceptional interest is anticipated. Fellows desiring to read papers should send titles and abstracts not later than July 15, in order to secure insertion in the preliminary list of papers. Matters for the programme, distributed at the first session, should be sent in by August 10. The meeting-room has facilities for lantern views, and members are invited to bring such illustrations. Matter sent by express or mail may be addressed in care of the Secretary, Room 32, Science Hall, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. Packages should be clearly marked with the sender's name and prepaid. The excursions offered to the Fellows of the Geological Society of America are as follows: To the Lake Superior Region, to Devil's Lake, to the Dells of the Wisconsin, and to the Driftless Area.

- The Pope Manufacturing Company, of Boston and Hartford, makers of the Columbia bicycles, have engaged of late in a novel enterprise. They offered some time ago to give one of their bicycles to the school teacher who should be most successful in detecting errors in the school books in use in this country, provided the errors were determined to be such either by the authors and publishers of the books or by an impartial board of examiners. Typographical mistakes and disputed points in history and opinion were not to be included, but only errors of fact or of statement which could be shown to be such. Responses came from all parts of the country and the company have already awarded several of their bicycles to the persons who complied with the conditions of the gift. The kind of errors detected may be learned from the pamphlet entitled “ Errors in School Books," which the Pope Company have issued, and which has now appeared in a second edition. Some of the errors are hardly more than ambiguous statements; others are erroneous dates; while others still are misstatements of scientific fact, as, for instance, the statement in a geographical work that the earth moves around the sun in a circle. Most of the publishers took the criticisms good naturedly, and whenever they were shown to be well founded corrected the books accordingly. The Pope Company have now renewed their offer of a bicycle to each of the five persons who shall send them the greatest number of errors in school books before September 1, 1893, the present competition to be open to all persons and not to teachers alone. That errors in school books are specially mischievous is obvious, since the young people who use the books have not, as a rule, the means of detecting them, and though the class of errors to which the Pope Manufacturing Company have devoted themselves are not perhaps the worst, they are the most easily detected and proved, and we should be glad if this new enterprise might result in the exposure and correction of every one of them.

SCIENCE:

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NOTES ON THE FLORA OF LONG ISLAND.

BY SMITH ELY JELLIFFE, M.D., BROOKLYN, N.Y. THE flora of Long Island is one of some degree of richness, which upon a casual observation would seem to be a somewhat anomalous statement, for it would appear that a sand waste a few miles wide and about a hundred miles in length would hardly be a place upon which a rich or abundant flora could flourish.

Long Island, so geologists tell us, is a portion of the terminal moraine of the glacier that stretched across the country from east to west; traversing the entire length of the island there is a rocky ledge, the so-called "back bone," from which the land falls in more or less steep descents to the north, and in long gradual slopes southward; the whole coast is rich in fresh and salt water marshes, which are more pronounced upon the southern coast.

The earliest notices upon the subject are to found in a paper published in 1807, entitled "Plantæ Plandomensis," or a catalogue of the plants growing near Plandome, Queens County, by Caspar Wistar Eddy. In 1835, J. B. Zabriskie published a "List of Plants Growing near Erasmus Hall, Flatbush," and from 1843 to 1853 John Torrey M.D., in his publication on the "Flora of New York," included many Long Island plants. In 1874, E. S. Miller and D. W. Young published their "Catalogue of the Plants of Suffolk County," to which additions were made in the Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. This journal also contains many notes upon the island flora. C. H. Peck, N. L. Britton, A. H. Hollick, Geo. D. Hulst, W. H. Rudkin, W. H. Leggett, J. L. Zabriskie, Mrs. E. G. Britton, Mrs L. D. Pychouska, F. E. Tillinghast and others have contributed notes from time to time upon new or interesting plants found on the island.

In round numbers about 1500 phænogamous plants have been recorded; the work in the cryptogams has been scanty, yet the writer has records of upwards of 750 species, which promises much for the numerical value of this portion of the flora when more completely studied.

he most characteristic of the plants are found in the salt Larshes and along the sands of the sea coast, here are a number of interesting grasses and sedges, including Fuirena squarrosa, Heleocharis Robbinsii, rostellata and melanocarpa, Scirpus subterminalis. Rhyncospora nitens, Calamagrostis Nuttalliana, Glycenaspfluitans, Eragrostis pectinacea and others; the salt-loving plants as Ranunculus cymbalaria, Lecheas, racemulosa, minor and major; fuusonia tomentosus in quantities and H. ericoides, though much rarer, Prunus maritima and several of the more common forms are constantly to be found at almost all points along the southern shore. In the fresher marshes Spiranthes, Habenaria, Calopogon and Pogonia. Cypripidiun and Goodyera are intermingled with rush and sedge and grass.

Along the ridges and in the higher lands the Composites, Labiates and Graminiæ are widely distributed, there seeming to be a nearly equal distribution throughout the three counties. In general, however, the plants found in Suffolk county are among the most characteristic, there being there some fifty or sixty plants that belong to the New Jersey pine barren flora and whose presence is to be explained upon the geological grounds that this eastern portion of the island was at one time a portion of the Atlantic littoral plain. Among those plants found. in Suffolk county, some of which are also to be met with in Queen county, there may be mentioned Camelina sativa, Reseda luteola, Drosera longifolia and filiformis, Ascyrum stans and Crux andreæ, Arenaria squarrosa, Polygala lutea, Quercus phellos, Cyperus dentatus and Cupressus thyoides, as of more particular interest. Recent investigations by Dr. A. H Hollick, of Columbia College, have been directed to a better understanding of this portion of the flora, and interested botanists are referred to his papers in the Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences.

The knowledge of the cryptogamic flora is still in its infancy. The ferns are well known and comprise the majority of the common Aspleniums and Aspidiums with here and there a more or less uncommon form, as Woodsia obtusa, Woodwardia angustifolia. The Bryophytes are represented by over 100 species, and it is certain that twice that number will be found when the collectors are more numerous and alert. Catharine a crispa is one of the rarer plants that has been found. The list of lichens is far from complete, 60 species are recorded and hardly a rock lichen collected. The number of species of fungi is 250, also a new field. The best known of the lower cryptogams are the marine algæ, they having been studied from the time of Professor Bailey to the present. Bostrychia rivularis, Callithamnion dietziae, which Professor Farlow, from a study of the original specimens in the herbarium of the Long Island Historical Society, is disposed to regard as a var. laxa of C. Baileyi, Callithamnion tenue are a few of those interesting algae that are more or less uncommon. The diatoms are represented by a list of 78 species, which, with 45 species of fresh-water alga completes the numerical enumeration of the island's flora. Figures, however, are totally inadequate to express the characteristics of the flora of any region, however sparse it may be in vegetation, and it is hoped that in the near future a flora of Long Island will be in sufficiently advanced condition to warrant its publication, at least the portion recording the distribution of the phænogamous plants.

CONSUMPTION AMONG THE COLORED PEOPLE OF THE SOUTHERN STATES.

BY G. W. HUBBARD, M.D., NASHVILLE, TENN. PROBABLY no greater change in the social condition of a people can be imagined than the transformation of a race from the state of slavery to that of freedom.

The colored people of the late slave-holding States have now been free for twenty-eight years; and their present condition in regard to health and mortality, as compared with that which prevailed before their emancipation, is an interesting question, not only to the physician, but also to the philanthropist and the student of social science.

It is almost, if not quite, impossible to obtain reliable vital statistics concerning the people of the Southern States outside the larger cities and towns; and it is only within a few years that even these have been complete and reliable.

In this article I shall consider only one disease, phthisis pulmonalis; but it may be well to remark that the general death-rate among the colored people in the southern cities, where statistics are attainable, is nearly twice as great as that among the whites.

I have made careful inquiries of many physicians who practised in the South before the late civil war, and it has been their universal testimony that pulmonary consumption was a comparatively rare disease among the slave population, some even affirming that it was entirely unknown. It would probably be safe to say that this disease was very much less frequent among the negroes than among the white people.