cosmical cause, not to anything local or even telluric. The question here passes from the geologist, and must be addressed to the astronomer." In another paper, on "The Eroding Power of Ice," Professor Newberry reiterated these views, and maintained, besides, in answer to objections, that "ice has a great, though unmeasured and perhaps immeasurable, eroding power; and that, in regions which they have occupied, glaciers have been always important and often preponderating agents in effecting geological changes." He supported his views with citations from his own extended studies of glacial action in the Alps and in many different regions of the United States and Canada. G. F. Wright, of Oberlin, Ohio, pointed out, in a paper on the "Result of Explorations of the Glacial Boundary between New Jersey and Illinois," that "the signs of glaciation cease where there is no barrier to account for their cessation, and where no barrier ever could have existed, such as must be supposed if the so-called glacial phenomena are the product of floating ice." To the question, Why is the boundary of the glacial area so crooked? the author replied, assigning, as a principal cause, aside from differences of level, the probability that unequal amounts of snow fell over different regions of the north, and this snow became very unevenly extended in its subsequent flow over the surface. A little reflection, he added, "will show that the glacial theory will not make extravagant suppositions as to the amount of ice required." In the general discussions of the subject, Dr. Dawson objected to the loose significance with which the term "moraine" has been used, and especially to the definition of it as "detrital matter heaped up by the forcible mechanical action of ice"; and pointed out that such a definition would certainly include work which was not performed by land-glaciers. Major Powell called attention to the fact that wholly different agencies, each acting in its own way, produced a class of geological features that went under the general name of "terraces." We have sea-beach terraces, lake-shore terraces, and yet another class of terraces exceedingly common in the Rocky and Cascade Mountains, due to a different cause from the others.
Parental Rights and the Gens among the Omahas.—Alice C. Fletcher, of New York, gave, at the recent meeting of the American Association, a paper on the laws and privileges of the gens, among the Omaha Indians. A child who has lost its father or mother is considered an orphan. Its particular place is gone, and it passes into the gens. If it is the father who dies, the mother loses all maternal rights. Each child, unless of very tender age, will be separated from the mother, and will go into the family of some one of the father's relatives. It may thereafter be claimed as his own child by the male head of the family to which it has been allotted. This separation of her children from a widow is permanent. She usually marries again, and in that event is not burdened with her off-spring by previous husbands; but, if she remains unmarried, she is expected to work for the family that has adopted her children, rather than for the children themselves. The women are not wanting in affection for the children of whom they are bereft; but the separation is looked upon as a matter of course, and none of the interested parties regard it as a grievance, or even as a hardship.
Tarantula-Bites and the Dancing-Care—The tarantula, that gigantic spider of supposed very poisonous qualities, is native in Italy, and in the neighborhood of Tarento, whence its name is derived. Its bite and sting have been supposed to be extremely painful, and to produce a periodical derangement, manifesting itself in various ways. The affected persons were fabled to be attacked with a kind of compulsion to dance, which was called, after its cause, tarantismus; and real benefit, in the shape of a dilution of the poison, and a weakening of its effects, was supposed to accrue from subjecting the bitten person to a violent exercise of dancing. The doctors regarded the tarantismus as a kind of hypochondria, to which the women of Southern Italy were peculiarly subject, and some had prescriptions of particular kinds of music and special dances for its cure. Some held that different kinds of music should be prescribed to different persons, according to their character and temperament. Possi-
