We shall proceed from here to Callao where I suppose we shall arrive in nine days, from there to Panama, then Galapagos, etc. Soundings and dredgings will be continued and we hope to reap much scientific knowledge. Professor Agassiz is very well, excepting somewhat fatigued from his overland travel, and all the rest of our company are enjoying good health. The Professor was most successful in collecting during his travel from Talcahuana. -J. HENRY BLAKE. Valparaiso, May 11th. THE meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, as announced in our last number, will be held in Dubuque, Iowa, on Wednesday, August 21st. The meeting will be called to order at 10 A.M. by President Gray. After the usual formalities of organization, the general meeting will adjourn and the members will meet in their respective sections for organization, and as soon as this is accomplished, the reading of papers will be in order. The order of the last meeting, by which the retiring president will preside during the first day and deliver his address in the evening, will be followed at this meeting, as it seems appropriate to have the president's address, and the formal resignation of his chair to his successor, on the first day of the session. We trust that at this meeting of the Association, members will not forget the important bearing which a proper organization has upon its scientific success, for certainly at several former meetings sufficient attention has not been given to the formalities required by the carefully prepared Constitution of the Association. Especially should care be used in the nomination of the six members of the Standing Committee, the Permanent Chairman, Secretaries and Committees of the Sections. Every year there has been more or less complaint in regard to the admission of papers which were not worth the time they occupied, and at times papers have undoubtedly been excluded that had better claims for admission than others which were allowed to be read. This will ever be the case to a certain extent, from the very nature of the Association, but we feel convinced that if the following clause of the Constitution were strictly adhered to, many of these complaints would be avoided. RULE 9. No paper shall be placed on the programme unless admitted by the Sectional Committee; nor shall any be read, unless an abstract of it has previously been presented to the Secretary of the Section, who shall furnish to the Chairman the titles of papers of which abstracts have been received. Still another Rule of the Constitution, if properly attended to by the Standing Committee, would certainly save the Association from the discredit of publishing a few papers which a good natured committee had admitted to be read and discussed (sometimes with the hope that the discussion on the paper would induce its author to withdraw it from publication), but which have not the merit of "advancing science." The execution of this duty of the Standing Committee would also probably save the Permanent Secretary much disagreeable correspondence during the "printing period” after the meeting, and though it might reduce the size of the annual volume, it would certainly add to its value as well as to the credit of the Association. We allude to Section 11 of RULE 4. Before adjourning, [it shall be the duty of the Standing Comm`ttee] to decide which papers, discussions, or other proceedings, shall be published. • re Another important item in regard to the success of the meetings, and one to which every member having a paper to present and the Standing and Sectional Committees should give their hearty cooperation, is that of the daily programmes. The Constitution quests" members to send the titles, with abstracts of their papers, 'to the Permanent Secretary, at least a day previous to the commencement of the meeting; but there is often great delay in getting the list of papers presented in type, and still greater in arranging the programme for each day. This might be avoided by passing a vote providing that papers on the Secretary's list, at the meeting of the Standing Committee the evening before the first general session, should have precedence over all others in making up the programmes by the Sectional Committees. It would also greatly facilitate matters if the Sectional Committees were obliged to give their programmes for the day following to the Permanent Secretary by 4 o'clock in the afternoon previous, and the programme for the first day immediately after the organization of the Sections, not allowing papers to be read in a Section until its Committee had fully prepared the programme for the day; for it is almost always owing to the little confusion in calling up the first papers, without proper announcement, that renders it so difficult to get smoothly started in the scientific work, while a recess of an hour to enable the Committee to prepare the programmes would save much more time to the section than thus taken, and would give members a chance to greet each other before real work commenced. The following are the officers of the Dubuque meeting. President, J. Lawrence Smith of Louisville, Vice President, Alex. Winchell of Ann Arbor. Permanent Secretary, Joseph Lovering of Cambridge. General Secretary, E. S. Morse of Salem. Treasurer, W. S. Vaux of Philadelphia. The Standing Committee consists of the above named oflicers and the following officers of the preceding meeting, Asa Gray of Cambridge, G. F. Barker of New Haven, and F. W. Putnam of Salem. (Six more members of the Standing Committee are elected at large from the Association on the first day, and the Permanent Chairmen of the Sections become members of the Committee.) Local Committee. — H. T. Woodman, chairman; C. A. White, 1st vice chairman; Asa Horr, 2d vice chairman; Samuel Calvin, local secretary; E. D. Cook, assistant secretary; R. A. Babbage, treasurer; and 205 other gentlemen. We are convinced by the cordial tone of the circular of the Local Committee and from private letters received, that the citizens of Dubuque are resolved to spare no effort on their part to make the 21st meeting of the Association a decided success. We quote the following items from the circular : On the evening of Wednesday, August 21st, a reception will be extended to the Association by the Hon. Wm. B. Allison, U. S. Senator elect, and Chairman of the Committee of Reception. Response from the Association, after which Prof. Asa Gray, retiring President of the Association, will deliver his address and give up the chair to his successor. From the success that has already attended the efforts of the Special Committees, and the expressed determination of the citizens to extend a liberal hospitality to the members, we can confidently promise that all can be entertained at private residences, free of charge, during the session. The Local Committee, therefore, earnestly request those intending to be present to notify the Local Secretary by letter as soon as possible. Members and those intending to become members will report immediately upon their arrival at the Reception Room of the Local Committee and register their names, when they will be conducted to the places to which they have been assigned. Notice of the location of the Reception Room of the Local Committee will be posted at the railroad depots, steamboat landings, and in the street cars and omnibuses of the city. Negotiations with the railroads have now progressed so far as to make it almost certain that we shall be able to give return passes over all the principal Imes. All railroads leading from the city have generously offered the use of their lines for excursions to localities of special interest. Steamboats on the Mississippi river have also been tendered for a similar purpose. Arrangements for a number of excursions have been made, subject to the approval of the Association. Carriage excursions to the lead and spar caves, smelting furnaces, and to the exposures of fossiliferous rocks will also be provided for. Microscopists will confer, as soon as possible after their arrival, with the Curators of the Iowa Institute of Science and Arts at the Reception Room of the Local Committee, in relation to the care of any instruments or specimens they may have for exhibition. "NATURE" for June 20th opens with a résumé of the discoveries of Livingstone, and gives an account of the latest authentic reports, which place him at Unyanyembeh, where stores were being sent him under charge of his son. It is Livingstone's purpose to go southward and discover the outlet to the great basin of the Tanganyika, extending from about 3° to 10° S. lat. and 27° to 39° E. long., which he had discovered, and explored on all sides except the southeastern. ANSWERS TO CORRESPONDENTS. F. C. H., Yellow Springs, Ohio. It is not at all improbable that some Tachina parasite infests Coreus tristis De Geer. It is well known that beetles in the imago state are sometimes so parasitized, and we have bred a small Tachina-fly from Cassúla aurichalcea Fabr. See also AMER. NAT., Vol. V, p. 217. We should like specimens from Coreus tristis.-C. V. R. Mrs. P. H., New Haven.-The specimens of insects you sent to the NATURALIST, and which you found in such numbers on May 20th, are doubtless the Termes frontalis Haldeman (order Neuroptera), and are called the American white ants. The workers and females are white and wingless. The males, which are mostly black and winged, appear in May and June and for a few days are often seen in countless swarms. These insects live in moist, decaying wood only, and doubtless found a congenial home under the doorstep mentioned.-E. N. BOOKS RECEIVED. Proceedings of the California Academy of Science. Vol. iv, Pt. iv, 1871. San Francisco. 1872. Rectification of T. A. Conrad's " Synopsis of the family of Naiades of North America,” By Isaac Lea. Svo pamph. New Edition. Philadelphia. 1872. Report of the Entomological Society of the Province of Ontario, for the year ending 1871. 8vo pamph. Toronto. 1872. Preliminary Report of the United States Geological Survey of Montana and portions of adjacent Territories, being the 5th Annual Report of Progress, By F. V. Hayden, United States Geologist. Conducted under authority of Secretary of the Interior. Svo. pp. 538. Illustrations and Maps. Government documents. Washington. 1872. Annual Report of the Indiana Horticultural Society, Proceedings of the eleventh annual session held at Indianapolis, Jan., 1872. 8vo cloth. Indianapolis. Natural History of the Tres Marias and Socorro, (From the Proceedings of the Boston Society of Natural History. June 7, 1871). By Andrew J. Grayson. Svo pamph. Amnesic and Ataric Aphasia, etc. By T. M. B. Cross, M.D. 8vo pamph. Louisville. 1972. Descriptions of New Species of Fossils from the vicinity of Louisville, Kentucky, and the Falls of the Ohio, From the collections of Dr. James Knapp of Louisville. By James Hall and R. R. Whitfield. 8vo. 8 pages. May, 1872. Hypotheses. By F. J. Finois. Svo pamph. pp. 32. 1872. Nes Silicon Steel. 8vo pamph. Rome. 1872. Custodian's Report of the Boston Society of Natural History for the year ending May 1, 1871. Boston. 1871. Remarks on the Nomenclature of Achromatic Objectives for the Compound Microscope. By Dr. J. J. Woodward, U.S.A. 8vo pamph. (From the American Journal of Science and Arts, Vol. iii. June, 1872.) On Reversions among the Ammonites. By Prof. A. Hyatt. 8vo pamph. 1870. Catalogue of Spheniscidæ. By Alpheus Hyatt. Svo pamph. (From the Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., May 17, 1871.) Monographie des Poissons de Cuba Compris dans la sous-famille des Sparini. Par Felipe Poey. (Extrait des "Annals of the Lyc. Nat. Hist. of N. Y.," Vol. x.) 1872. Fifth Annual Report of the Provost to the Trustees of the Peabody Institute of the city of Baltimore, June 6, 1872. 8vo pamph. Baltimore. 1872. Annual Report of D. F. Boyd, Superintendent of Louisiana State University, for the year 1871, to the Governor of the State of Louisiana. Svo pamph. New Orleans. 1872. Description of the Balanoptera Musculus in the possession of the Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. By Thos. Dwight, Jr., M.D. 4to pamph. Tri-Daily Bulletin and Tri-Daily Weather Map, issued at the War Department, Office of the Chief Signal Officer, June 1, 1872.3 copies each. Descriptions of New Species of Fossils from vicinity of Louisville, Ky. From the Collection of Dr. James Knapp. By James Hall and R. P. Whitfield. (Continued.) pp. 8. 8vo. June. 1872. Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia. Part 3. Oct. - Dec., 1871. (Reed, July 1, 1872.) History of the Names Cambrian and Silurian in Geology. By T. Sterry Hunt. (From the Canadian Naturalist, April and July, 1872.) 8vo. pp. 64. Fossil Cephalapods of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. Embryology. By A. Hyatt. (Bulletin of Museum of Comparative Zoology, Vol. íiì, No. 5, July, 1872) svo, pp. 59-112, 4 plates. The American Journal of Science and Arts. La Revue Scientifique. Series 2. Nos. 50- 53, Third Series. July, 1872. New Haven. 1872. Paris. Nature. Nos, for June and July, 1872. London, The Academy. Nos. for June and July, 1872. London. The Field. No. for July, 1872. London. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club. Vol. London. OF all American butterflies Brenthis Bellona presents the strangest history. Everybody knows that butterflies pass through several stages of growth, from the egg, caterpillar and chrysalis to the butterfly a cycle of changes which succeed each other with perfect uniformity from year to year; it is also known to most who read these pages that many butterflies pass through this cycle twice or even thrice in the course of the year, while others again are "single-brooded." If one should assert that Brenthis Bellona was single-brooded, most, if not all, observers would say it was an error; do not butterflies of this species, fresh from the chrysalis, appear late in May, again in July and still, once more, in September?- true, and yet, properly speaking, the insect is single-brooded. In this genus - at least in B. Bellona and B. Myrina-occurs a phenomenon, which, so far as I know, is quite unique among butterflies; there are two sets of individuals, each following its own cycle of changes, apparently with as little to do with the other set as if it were a different species; each set has its own distinct seasons and thus gives rise to the apparition of two or three successive"broods" in the course of the year. At the very end of the season this butterfly will be found laying eggs, which hatch in a few days; the little caterpillars, after Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1972, by the PEABODY ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. AMER. NATURALIST, VOL. VI. 33 (513) |