SCIENCE A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE Fripay, Apriu 5, 1907. CONTENTS The American Association for the Advance- ment of Science :— Section B—Physics: Proresson Dayton C. Scientific Books :— Morgan’s Qualitative Analysis: PROFESSOR Scientific Journals and Articles............ 537 Societies and Academies :— The New York Section of the American Chemical Society: C. M. Joyce. Section of Geology and Mineralogy of the New York Academy of Sciences: Dr. ALExis A. JuLIEN. The Torrey Botanical Club: C. ' Discussion and Correspondence :— Inheritance of the Beli in Hampshire Swine: Dr. W. J. SprntMan. Wing Veins of Insects: Proresson C. W. WoopwortTu. Delaying the Blossoming of Peach Trees by Etherization: V. A. CLaRK. An Illinois State Academy of Science: Proressor A. R. Croox. The University of Maine and the State Legislature: P. L. R. The Asso- ciated Press and Newspaper Science: MEL- Special Articles :— The First Species Rule for determining Types of Genera—How it works in Orni- thology: Dr. J. A. ALLEN ............45. 546 Current Notes on Meteorology and Climatol- ogy :— Cumulus Clouds over the San Francisco Fire: Proressor R. DeC. WARD ......... 554 The Shaler Memorial Fund 555 MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for review should be sent to the Editor of Scrzncr, Garrison-on- Hudson, N. Y. The Inland Waterways Commission ......... 556 Scientifie Notes and News 557 University and Educational News........... 560 THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE SECTION B—PHYSICS THE annual meeting of Section B, Physics, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, was held in Fayerweather Hall of Columbia Univer- sity, in New York City, on December 27, 28 and 29, 1906. The annual meeting of the American Physical Society occurred at the same time and place; each society nomi- nally held a separate meeting for the trans- action of business, but all of the sessions for the reading of papers were joint ses- sions. The presiding officers were Professor W. C. Sabine, of Harvard University, vice- president and chairman of Section B, and Professor Carl Barus, of Brown Univer- sity, president of the American Physical Society. The other officers of Section B who were present were the retiring vicé- president, Henry Crew; the secretary, D. C. Miller; member of the council, E. F. Nichols; member of the general committee, William Hallock; members of the sectional committee, Henry Crew, W. C. Sabine, D. C. Miller, E. B. Rosa (elected at this meet- ing to serve for five years), G. F. Hull, E. L. Nichols; press secretary, W. S. Day. For the next meeting, to be held in Chicago, in convocation week of 1907-8, the officers, so far as now determined, are: | a + | | 3 522 Vice-president and Chairman of Section B— Dayton C. Miller. Retiring Vice-president—W. O. Sabine. Members of the Sectional Committee—W. C. Sabine, Dayton C. Miller, A. D. Cole, G. F. Hull, F, E. Nipher, E. L. Nichols, A. Trowbridge, E. B. Rosa. Secretary of Section B—A. D. Cole, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. On December 28, the retiring vice-presi- dent, Professor Henry Crew, of North- western University, gave a most interest- ing and important address on ‘Fact and Theory in Spectroscopy’; this address was printed in full in Science for January 4, 1907. Probably the sessions of Section B have never before been attended by so large a number of representative physicists; at some of the meetings more than one hun- dred and fifty persons were present. The papers were many (nearly fifty in number) and were, upon the whole, of a very high order of merit. The meeting was uni- versally pronounced a most successful one. There was no distinction between the programs of the Physical Society and of Section B; the abstracts and titles of the papers of both societies are given below. Effect of a Magnetic Field upon the Ioniza- tion in a Closed Vessel: W. W. Strona, Johns Hopkins University. According to present views, atoms con- tain charged particles which are in rota- tion. In magnetic substances such as iron or oxygen more of these charged par- ticles rotate in one direction than in an- other, and these orbits of rotation lie in the same or in parallel planes. In a mag- netic field atoms would turn so that their planes would be perpendicular to the field. The effect of the field would then be to decrease the velocity of these charged par- ticles, but not to change their radius of rotation. This would make the atom more stable. One could expect that the natural SCIENCE. [N. 8S. Von. XXV. No. 640 ionization in a closed vessel would be de- creased by the application of a strong magnetic field. This was the effect looked for. The electroscope consisted of a sheet-iron box of some three litres volume containing air at atmospheric pressure. The charged electrode consisted of a wire bent into the are of a circle at one end. The gold leaf was attached to a rod at a point slightly different from the center of the electrode are. The length of the gold leaf being slightly less than the radius of this are, at different positions its end would be at dif- ferent distances from the charged elec- trode. By this means the gold leaf could be made very sensitive to changes of volt- age of the charged electrode. The gold leaf was earthed. By using a large electromagnet the rate of leak was found to be changed as much as thirty parts in a hundred at times although this change was not found to be constant. The greatest effect was found when the field was turned on for the first time. An example of the readings are as follows, they being made consecutively : Leak in Seale Divi- Rate of Leak sions of Micrometer in Scale Divisions Time. Microscope. per Second Field on, 663 secs. .... .737 0111 Field off, 613 secs. .... .876 00143 Field on, 515 secs. .... .540 .00105 Field off, 520 secs. .... .835 .00161 The writer can not attribute this change as due to any other effect than that of a magnetic field on the natural ionization. It may be possible, however, that there is some other explanation. Projections of the Globe Appropriate for Laboratory Methods of Studying the General Circulation of the Atmosphere: CLEVELAND ABBE, United States Weather Bureau. The general circulation of the atmos- phere is controlled by the general distribu- Aprit 5, 1907] tion of land and water, and by the insola- tion, with its resultant temperature, evap- oration and clouds. In the analytical treatment of this problem, beginning with d’Alembert, Ferrel and Erman, as well as in the more elegant works of Helmholtz, Oberbeck and Margules, it has always been considered necessary to simplify the prob- lem by assuming a uniform surface and uniform coefficient of resistance for the whole globe, as also a uniform condition of dry air. In this shape the problem is already very complicated, and it is likely that the profound meteorological problem of the deduction of the actual winds from the laws of mechanics, will for a long time be too difficult for pure analysis; but on many occasions I have stated my belief that a solution may be arrived at in an experimental way. We may represent any portion of the globe, with its atmosphere, by a horizontal plane surface, covered with some heavy gas or liquid, such as a thin layer of carbonic- acid gas, or alcohol, or water, which is to be set in steady rotation, and may be warmed from below in such a way as to approximately imitate the actual isotherms of the lower atmosphere. Special areas of high and low temperature can easily be imitated by electrical resistance coils. These rotating areas are to be covered by plates of glass, rotating with them. Various theorems relative to the simi- larity of such a model to the atmosphere of the earth were first published by Helmholtz in 1873, ‘On a Theorem Relative to Move- ments that are Geometrically Similar in Fluid Bodies,’ and these ideas were further applied by him in memoirs on atmospheric motions, in 1888 and 1889; and further de- velopments have lately been given by Lord Rayleigh. But in applying these ideas to our two polar projections we stumble upon a great difficulty, namely, that the maps are SCIENCE 523 not true representations of the spherical surface of the earth. In the present case we should like to pre- serve the equality of surface areas; and to- preserve equality of distances, since we have to compare velocities; and above all, we should like to preserve the equality of the moments of inertia. That which best satisfies all desiderata seems to be Airy’s ‘projection by balance of errors,’ published by him in 1861. The combination of Airy’s development with Helmholtz’s method of mechanical similarity should enable us to interpret our laboratory ex- periments. I consider it extremely desirable that these experiments should be made on a large scale, with due regard to all numer- ical, statistical and mechanical details, in some laboratory where the study of meteor- ology is prosecuted as a branch of mathe- matical physics. Some New and Useful Data in Reference to the Moisture of the Air: Henry EmeErsON WETHERILL, Philadelphia. This paper gave an outline of researches upon the relative humidity of the air, as determined with a new cobalt chloride scale and test paper, and referred to the use of a special instrument for measuring the moisture of the body in different diseases. References were made to new psychrom- eters for correcting hygroscopes and to studies of the measurement of the perspira- tion, in malarial and other fevers, as carried out in the Philippines, Panama and elsewhere; and also to a cobalt hygroscope depending upon the change of weight of the test papers with humidity. The weigh- ings of this change suggested the produc- tion of an instrument that might be called the hygrobaro, and one that would be of service to the weather bureau. = a dt | ; a | $ | | | \ a 524 The Campensated Two-circuit Electro- dynamometer for Alternating Current Measurements of Precision: Epwarp B. Rosa, Bureau of Standards. If an electric current pass in series through a shunt S and the fixed coil F of an electrodynamometer, and a small de- rived current, taken from the potential points ab of the shunt flow in series through the resistance R and the moving coil, a deflection will occur proportional to the square of the current and inversely as the resistance, R. The current may be either direct or alternating. Hence if a known direct current, measured by means of a potentiometer, standard cell and standard resistance, be used first to get the constant of the dynamometer, the value of an alternating current can then be ob- tained. It is shown in the paper mathe- matically that any self-inductance in the shunt S or the fixed coil F does not pro- duce an error in the alternating current measurement, but that the self-inductance of the moving coil and any Foucault cur- rents in the fixed coil or in any neighbor- ing conductor or metallic parts do cause an error. It is shown how to detect such an error and to compensate for it, so that the deflected readings of the instrument are the same as though these sources of error were absent. The mathematical theory is verified by experiment, and alter- nating currents up to 500 amperes are thus measured with precision. The compensa- tion holds good at different frequencies, and the error of a Kelvin balance, due to frequency, is measured. The Power Factor and Temperature Coef- ficient of Mica Condensers: E. B. Rosa and F. W. Grover, Bureau of Standards. Absorption and leakage in a condenser are a cause of expenditure of energy when the condenser is placed on an alternating- current circuit. This energy is, of course, SCIENCE [N.S. Vou. XXV. No. 640 smaller for good condensers than for poor ones, and for very good condensers is ex- tremely small, so small that the heat result- ing is inappreciable unless the voltage is higher than can safely be applied to the condenser. In the comparison of con- densers by means of an alternating cur- rent bridge, it is shown in the paper how the phase angle of the currents through the two condensers can be compared, the differ- ence indicating which is the better con- denser. In an air condenser the current is 90° in phase ahead of the electromotive foree acting on the condenser, and if a mica condenser is compared with an air condenser and shows a difference in phase of 10’, the angle for the mica condenser is 89°50’. The power factor is then cos 89°50’ = .0029. If the power factors of standard mica condensers are determined, other condensers may be compared with them and their differences (+ or —) being directly measured, giving the power factors of the condensers under test. This is the best single test of the quality of a con- denser, and capacities measured in this way are not subject to the error due to the leakage to which direct-current measure- ments are subject. The temperature coefficient of a mica condenser will be affected by the paraffine in which it is embedded. Some grades of paraffine melt at a relatively low tempera- ture and soften and expand rapidly at still lower temperatures. The temperature co- efficient of the condenser will be small and nearly constant up to a certain temper- ature and then rather suddenly increase greatly. The temperature at which this sudden inerease occurs is sometimes low enough to occur in summer weather without any additional heating. A good mica con- denser should be embedded in high-grade paraffine, so that its temperature coef- ficient may remain small through all ordi- nary ranges of laboratory temperatures. / Aprit 5, 1907] There is a great difference among con- densers as to power factor and temperature coefficient, and a condenser should never be purchased without a knowledge of these constants as well as a knowledge of its capacity. The Diffraction of Electric Waves of Short Wave-length: A. D. Coxe, Ohio State University. Peeuliarities observed in a quantitative study of the reflection of electric waves seemed to be due to diffraction and led to this study. These peculiarities were: (1) A sudden increase in the amount of energy passing through a slit of increasing width when it becomes more than a quarter wave wide, (2) the amount of energy reflected from a narrow mirror was found to be greater than that passing through a slit of the same width provided each is but a small fraction of a wave-length wide, (3) irregularities noticed when screens were in- troduced to eut off direct radiation. The earlier investigations of Trouton, Zehnder and Righi were carried out with apparatus which did not give quantitative results. A modified form of Klemenci¢ thermo-receiver made it possible to study the distribution of refracted energy quan- titatively. A Righi exciter, actuated by an induction coil and Wehnelt interrupter, was used for generating the waves. The lateral distribution was studied and the result exhibited by curves for the fol- lowing eases: (1) A slit about three fourths of a wave-length wide showed a broad spreading of energy, with a central ‘bright band’ having a dark band and weaker bright band at each side. Their locations agreed with the optical formula, Aa sin 6. (2) A wider slit showed interference bands nearer together. (3) Case of energy dis- tribution behind a thin metallic edge placed on the axis of a plane wave front. (4) Similar with the edge displaced laterally. SCIENCE 525 Trouton’s discovery that the system of nodes and loops formed by reflection at perpendicular incidence from a small plane mirror is shifted outward if the mirror is made with dimensions of a wave-length or less was verified and the amount of the shifting measured for several cases. The study of diffraction is being con- tinued. Final Report on Ether-drift Experiments: Epwarp W. Morizy and Dayton C. MILLER. At the Philadelphia meeting an account was given of experiments to detect ether drift. These observations gave no indica- tions of a drift of the ether. It has been suggested that the negative results are due to the influence of the heavy stone walls of the building within which the apparatus was mounted. The interferometer has, therefore, been mounted on high ground near Cleveland, and covered in such a man- ner that there is nothing but glass in the direction of the expected drift. It was much more difficult to make observations in this location than in the building; satis- factory observations could only be made on a cloudy evening following a cloudy day, when the temperature changed very slowly. The temperature effects could never be en- tirely eliminated. The conclusion from many observations is that there was no in- dication of a drift of the ether through the interferometer. The expected drift would produce a displacement of the interference fringes of 1.53 wave-lengths; the above result is probably certain to one eightieth part of the whole. The Optical Analogue of Certain Electrical Experiments: Witu1AM B. CaARTMEL, Harvard University. The recent experiments of Messrs. Blake - and Fountain show that the amount of electric radiation transmitted by sheets of glass, may be increased by covering the 7 3 | 526 glass with regularly spaced strips of tin- foil, and this led the present writer to investigate the possibility of making a thin film of transparent substance more trans- parent by covering it with a much thinner film of metal. A film of dye was deposited upon one half of a plate of glass, and silver was de- posited on half the glass but in a direction at right angles to the dye film. One could thus compare silvered dye with silvered glass. The film of silver was so thin that it was impossible to see any difference be- tween the part of the glass that was silvered and the part that was not, but where the glass was covered with both silver and dye, less light was transmitted than when the glass was covered with dye alone. Similar effects were obtained with combined films of silver and selenium. The explanation is that the phase change at the top surface of the silvered dye film is different from that at the top surface of the bare dye film. The rays reflected from the back surface of the dye will therefore interfere in a different way with the ray reflected from the top surface, in the two eases, and for certain thicknesses of the dye film, the intensity of the light reflected from the film will be diminished by silver- ing, and there will be a correspondingly increased transmission. A Preliminary Communication concerning a New Fundamental Principle of the Kinetic Theory of Gases: p’AURIA, Philadelphia. In this paper the author proves that the square of the speed of an elastic sphere forced to oscillate between two elastic plates perpendicular to the direction of its motion while one of the plates approaches the other with speed which is very small compared with that of the sphere, varies inversely with the length of its free path. The author observes that in a medium com- SCIENCE (N.S. Von. XXV. No. 640 posed of numerous elastic spheres moving in all directions in a bounded space, each sphere can be considered as if moving with the mean square speed in a path equal to the mean free path of all the spheres; and, therefore, in accordance with his new theorem, in such a medium the mean square of the speed would vary inversely with the mean free path. Combining this result with the expres- sion for the mean free path, which, accord- ing to Clausius, varies inversely with the density of the medium and the square of the diameter of one of the spheres, and observing that the pressure of the medium upon unit area varies with its density and the mean square of the speed of the spheres, the author arrives at the equation pv? = constant, independent of thermo- dynamie considerations, in which p is the pressure per unit area and v the volume of unit quantity of the medium. Thus in a medium composed of elastic spheres in mo- tion in a bounded space, the pressure per unit area of the bounding surface would vary inversely with the square of the volume. If the above medium represents a gas, we must have also pv’ constant, in which y is the ratio of the specific heats, and therefore, y==2. According to Clau- sius and Maxwell, for such a gas the ratio of the specific heats would be 5/3, and this is too small to account for the ratio of the specific heats of mereury vapor found by Kundt and Warburg which ranges from 1.631 to 1.695, since the theory requires that this ratio should be considerabiy less than the theoretical value. The result y = 2 leads to the new funda- mental equation pv = E in which E repre- sents the energy of agitation of the gas, and the author shows that this equation accords with the principle of the conserva- tion of energy, and that, therefore, the equation pv=—2/3E, which results from i ~ \ 2 | Aprit 5, 1907] the investigations of Clausius and Max- well, can not be correct. On the Variation of the Heat of Mixture with Concentration and Temperature: B. M. CuarK. When two liquids are mixed, there is in general either an absorption or a genera- tion of heat, the amount of heat depending upon the relation of the liquids present, and upon the temperature at which mix- ture oceurs. The variation of the heat of mixture with temperature—for any one definite concen- tration—bears theoretically a simple rela- tion to the specific heats of the components of the mixture and the specific heat of the resultant mixture, and the present experi- ments were begun with a view to determin- ing experimentally the numerical value of this relation in the ease of some of the simpler solutions. Observations were made on the following liquids: Glycerin—Water, Glycerin—Ethylaleohol, Glycerin—Methylalcohol, Phenol—Water, Isobutylic Aleohol—Water, Anilin—Xylol, Anilin—Toluol. The values obtained for the heat of solu- tion at various temperatures show that for the liquids tested the thermodynamic rela- tion eQ/et = K — K’, holds within the limits of experimental error. The value 2Q/dt known as the temperature coefficient of the heat of mix- tures varies in some mixtures with the temperature. Anilin xylol, anilin-toluol gave evidence of a temperature coefficient equal to zero, = o. Numerical values and curves will be given in a paper to appear shortly. SCIENCE | 527 A Color Mixer: Apert B. Porter, Chicago. | The simplest means of mixing and matching colors is undoubtedly Maxwell’s color-top. It is, however, defective in that one can not continuously vary the positions of the slotted dises while seeking a color- match, but must usually stop the top many times, readjust the discs, and again set up the rotation, before a satisfactory match is secured. In the present instrument the slotted discs remain stationary while their image is rapidly rotated. This is effected by viewing the discs through a right-angled prism which rotated with its hypothenuse parallel to the axis of rotation and to the line of sight. As the slotted dises remain stationary, their angular exposure can be easily and continuously varied until the best possible color-match is secured. On the Nature of Optical Images: ALBERT B. Porter, Chicago. A consideration of the method by which light is propagated is sufficient to show that an ordinary optical image is merely a particular case of an interference pattern. This may be easily shown experimentally by using as an object a coarse, black-line grating illuminated by a parallel beam of monochromatic light passing through the grating and then through a convex lens. On the far side of the lens a system of sharply defined interference fringes is formed which can be seen with an eye-piece, or, intercepted on a screen, at any point over a considerable range along the axis. Somewhere in this system of fringes is the geometrical image of the grating, but it is visually quite indistinguishable from other sections of the fringe system. If the angle of incidence of the light falling on the grating is changed, the whole fringe sys- tem shifts to one side or the other except in the focal plane, where it remains sta- 4 | ‘ 8 & 4 4 ‘ ¢ q | | | | | q 3 x | 4 528 tionary. This shows that the foeal plane of the lens is merely the plane in which the interference fringes formed by light of all incidences coincide, and that the so-called geometrical image is really a superposition of coincident interference patterns; while the usual absence of a sharp image outside the focal plane is due to the more or less uniform illumination caused by the over- lapping of fringe systems formed by light coming from various points in the source. When the grating is illuminated by a parallel beam of white light the effects are similar, except that outside the focal plane the interference fringes are colored. This shows that the focal plane is also the plane of achromatic interference, 7. e., the plane in which the fringes due to light of various wave-lengths coincide. On the Conductivity of the Air caused by Certain Compounds during Tempera- ture-Change: Fanny Cook GATEs. Investigations on the conductivity of the air, caused by the presence of the sulphate of quinine under certain conditions, indi- eate that it accompanies hydration and dehydration, although phosphorescent ef- fects to which it may be directly due, ap- pear at the same time. The phenomenon is most easily observed during the cooling of the quinine from something over 100° C. to room temperature. Heretofore, the only other substance known to produce a similar effect is cin- chonine, which like quinine, hydrates and phosphoresces upon cooling. Both sub- stances are so complex in structure that the exact chemical changes to which they are subject are studied with difficulty. During the investigations described in the present paper, a large number of sub- stances were heated to about 150° C., and the conductivity of the surrounding gas was tested while they cooled. Of all the substances tested, none was found to give SCIENCE [N.S. Von. XXV. No. 640 so large an effect as that which results from the sulphate of quinine, but a very definite and marked conductivity was found to accompany the cooling of anthra- cene, and to a less degree that of grape- sugar and esculin. The Transmission of Réntgen Rays through Metallic Sheets: J. M. Apams. For some years after Réntgen’s dis- covery of the X-rays, it was a matter of doubt whether the absorption of the rays in metallic sheets was accompanied by the development of heat. To investigate this question by means of an instrument differ- ent from those already used for this pur- pose, a radiomicrometer was constructed. The metals forming the thermal couple were constantan and copper. At one of the junctions was placed a small disk of thin platinum to receive the rays, the other junction being shielded from them. The sensitiveness of this radiomicrometer was such that a radiation of 5.6 X 10° gm. eal. per see. per sq. em. of its sensitive surface produced a deflection of one scale division. Evidence of heat developed in the plati- num by the absorption of Réntgen rays in it was readily obtained. The necessity of making correction for the incomplete ab- sorption of the rays in the platinum of the instrument, together with the well-known fact that the character of Réntgen rays is changed by passage through substances, made it seem desirable to investigate the phenomena of the transmission of the rays through metallic sheets more fully than has been done heretofore. The general law of the absorption of the rays in a metal, viz., that each successive equal increment of thickness is less effect- ive as an absorbing medium than the one preceding it, was confirmed by experiments with the radiomicrometer. The dependence of the absorbing power of a given metallic sheet upon the intensity 4 Aprit 5, 1907] of the rays incident upon it was examined for sheets of silver, platinum, copper, tin, and aluminium, and in every case it was found that the effectiveness of a sheet as an absorbing medium is independent of the intensity of the incident rays. It was found that the effect of the sur- faces of metallic sheets upon transmission is small in the ease of copper and of alumi- nium. To show this, a laminated plate of the metal in question was prepared, equal in total thickness to another solid plate of the metal. These two plates were inter- posed in turn in the path of the rays, and produced equal reductions of the deflection of the radiomicrometer. The transmission of a beam of Réntgen rays through a metallic sheet has generally been supposed to render the beam more penetrating toward a second sheet of the same or of any other metal than the origi- nal beam was. Evidence of transformation of one sort of ray into another, in transmission through a metallie sheet, was sought, with a negative result. The Mutual Inductance of a Circle and a Coaxial Helix. The Lorenz Experiment and the Ayrton-Jones Absolute Electro- dynamometer: E. B. Rosa. The constant of the Lorenz apparatus for the absolute measurement of resistance and of the Ayrton-Jones electrodynamometer for the absolute measurement of current require the caleulation of the mutual in- duetance of a circle and a coaxial helix, the cirele in the first ease being the edge of the rotating dise and in the second case one end of the suspended coil, the helix being the fixed coil carrying the primary current. Jones obtained an expression for the mutual inductance in question which is a very tedious and difficult one to use in numerical calculations. Lorenz’s expres- sion is an algebraic series less difficult but SCIENCE 529 also less accurate than Jones’s. Using an expansion in zonal harmonies, I have ob- tained an impression in the form of an algebraic series, similar to Lorenz’s but more accurate, which is far more conve- nient to use than Jones’s and agreeing with the latter to less than one part in a million (in a particular numerical test) thus being amply accurate for the most refined experi- mental work. This expression is obtained on the assumption that the current is dis- tributed over the solenoid in a uniform current sheet, whereas Jones’s expression assumed the current flowing in a helix. Their agreement is a confirmation of the theorem that a spiral distribution of cur- rent is equivalent to a current sheet. Mutual Inductances for Laboratory Use: E. B. Rosa. The most accurate as well as the most convenient method of calibrating a ballistie galvanometer is by means of a mutual in- ductance, through the primary of which a measured current flows. Some _ labora- tories use a standard solenoid with a secondary wound within or without, cal- culating the mutual inductance of the pri- mary and secondary coils from their di- mensions. Such a solenoid made large enough and carefully enough to give the mutual inductance with fair precision is both bulky and expensive, and not very portable. Being of considerable length, its magnetic field often extends to a consider- able distance and may disturb other work. On the other hand, suitable primary and secondary coils may be wound on a thor- oughly seasoned wood spool (or a marble spool) only 10 to 12 em. in diameter and afford, when calibrated, an accurate and convenient mutual inductance for the eali- bration of galvanometers that is cheap, portable and reliable. Such inductances are so inexpensive and oceupy so little space that one can be left with its secondary in if 4 q | ( F 3 y z 530 circuit with the galvanometer, ready to be used for calibrating the latter at any time. They can be made in the laboratory at trifling cost and can be sent by mail or express to the Bureau of Standards and calibrated at very slight expense. Speci- fications for such coils will shortly be pub- lished by the bureau. The Mutual Inductance of Two Coazial Coils: E. B. Rosa. Absolute measurements of resistance have been made by Rowland, Glazebrook and others, using two coaxial coils the mutual inductance of which was computed from their dimensions. By the methods employed by Kohlrausch and Rayleigh the mean radius of such coils can be obtained with great precision by comparing them with larger coils wound with a single layer of wire, the mean radius of which may be determined with sufficient accuracy by direct measurement. The formule em- ployed by Rowland and Glazebrook in eal- culating the mutual inductances of their coils are both approximate, and do not. agree with one another closely unless the coils have very small sections or are rather far apart. Weinstein and Stefan both gave formule for use in ecaleulating the mutual inductance of such coils, but they do not agree with one another as accurately as is desirable for precision work. I have revised and corrected Weinstein’s formula and derived a new formula starting where Stefan began, these two formule agreeing very closely and proving more accurate than any of the others. These formule are sufficiently accurate for the most re- fined work in the absolute measurement of resistance. Remarkable Optical Properties of Carbo- rundum: Lewis E. JEWELL. Some transparent blue plates of car- borundum, found in 1904, gave by pre- SCIENCE (N.S. Von. XXV. No. 640 liminary measures with a microscope a very high value for the refractive index. Later, in material received from the Car- borundum Company of Niagara Falls, were found some transparent and _ colorless plates, some of which were fairly thick. The polarization of the plates was studied with the polariscope and one specimen of twinned crystals produced a well-defined, transparent, colorless prism where the plates were joined. - Measurements with the spectrometer were made and the refraction proved to be greater than that of the diamond, and the dispersion more than twice as great. Spectrograms were obtained of the light transmitted through the plates and a thick- ness of one thirtieth of a millimeter ab- sorbed practically all light having a wave- length less than 4,000 Angstrém units. Interference bands in the spectrum of light transmitted through their parallel plates gave greater values of the dispersion than the measurements with the spectrom- eter. Spectrograms have also been ob- tained of the light reflected from the sur- faces of the crystals and the reflective power, which is extremely high, differs very little in the visible and ultra-violet portions of the spectrum until a wave- length of about 2,400 is reached, beyond which there seems to be an absorption band. Very remarkable markings have been found upon some plates, the most remark- able of which take the form of spirals, some of which are hexagonal and others triangular, changing to hexagonal farther out. Most of the spirals are, however, circular; some of them are so close together and so regular as to form brilliant spectra, even to the sixth or eighth order; the lines in some cases are as close together as thirty or fifty thousand to the inch. Many of these markings are extremely beautiful. Sometimes there are two outer coatings Aprit 5, 1907] to the plates, the outer an oxidation product giving the brilliant surface colors which are due to a thin film. Sometimes there is another layer with an exceptionally brilliant silver-like surface. The Absorption of Some Solids for Light of Short Wave-length: THEoporE Ly- MAN. The grating spectroscope which the au- thor has used in his measurement of the hydrogen spectrum between 1,650 and 1,250 Angstrém units, though well adapted for the determination of wave- lengths, is not especially fitted for rapid work in other branches of the subject. A prism spectroscope would be preferable for many purposes on account of its short light path and the superior intensity of its spectrum. The first purpose, therefore, of the pres- ent research was a purely practical one, namely, to find some substance from which the prism and lenses of such an instrument might be constructed. White fluorite is the only known substance fitted for the purpose, and it was hoped that a less costly substitute might be discovered. In order to test rapidly the transparency of a great number of substances an in- strument of special type was constructed. In it the light from a discharge tube fell upon a coneave mirror and was thrown by it through a fluorite prism on to a screen coated with willimite. The whole appa- ratus was enclosed in an air-tight case which could be exhausted and filled with hydrogen. The specimens to be examined were introduced into this case in such a manner that eight of them could be inter- posed in succession between the mirror and source of light without opening the appa- ratus. The extent and intensity of the spectrum on the fluorescent screen was ob- served through a glass window. The substances examined were: Colored SCIENCE 531 fluorites, quartz, topaz, gypsum, celestite, rock salt; barite alum, colemanite, sugar (rock candy), borax adularia, calcite, chry- soberyl, sanidin, anagonite, and apophyl- lite. The results are: I. No substance shows so great trans- parency as white fluorite. II. The transparency of colored fluorites varies through a considerable range, but some light green specimens are nearly as good as the white variety. III. Colored fluorites may be deprived of their color by heating. The process does not materially alter their trans- parency. IV. Quartz in thicknesses of about 1 mm. is transparent to 41,500. The absorv- tion increases with such rapidity with the thickness that prisms and lenses would cut the spectrum off at about A 1,750 for all practical purposes. V. Of the remaining substanees Ceylon topaz is the best, being transparent to A 1,560. VI. Rock salt is transparent to A 1,750 only. Geometrical Theory of Radiating Surfaces with Discussion of Inght Tubes: Epwarp P. Hype. Theoretical photometry assumes two gen- eral laws of radiation. (1) The law of variation of the intensity of illumination of a surface in face in inverse proportion to the square of the distance of the surface from the luminous source is merely a state- ment of a geometrical property, if the rectilinear propagation of light is assumed. (2) Lambert’s law of variation of the in- tensity of a luminous surface in direct proportion to the cosine of the angle of emission is an empirical law based pri- marily on the observation that a uniformly bright sphere, when viewed at a distance, appears as a uniformly bright disk. It would seem to follow from Kirchhoff’s law i 4 t 9 a 532 that Lambert’s cosine law ean be true only for a black body, but no satisfactory ex- periments have been made, s» far as the writer knows, to test the law empirically in its application to glowing surfaces. These two laws, the inverse-square law and the cosine law, are applicable to the infinitesimal elements of a radiating sur- face, and large errors may result if they are assumed to apply to an extended source as a whole. Particularly is this so in the ease of the inverse-square law, which un- derlies the great majority of photometric measurements. In each of the above two cases the ex- pression is deduced for the illumination at different distances in a single plane or along a single line symmetrical with re- spect to the radiating surface. In the case of a uniformly bright strip of infinite length but of finite width it is not difficult to derive the expression which will give the illumination at any point in space. Instead of illumination, however, the more general term specific luminous flux is sub- stituted. At every point in space there is some definite direction in which the flux of luminous energy is a maximum. The quantity of luminous energy which in one second flows normally across a surface of unit area placed perpendicular to the direc- tion of maximum flux is defined as the specific luminous flux at the point. It isa vector quantity, and the component in any direction equals numerically the difference in illumination on the two sides of an in- finitely thin material sereen placed perpen- dicular to the direction. Two examples are given of the errors incident to assuming for a finite surface the inverse square law, which only applies to the elements of the surface; the above ease of an infinite strip is used to show the errors incident to assuming for the strip as a whole the cosine law, which is true only for the elements of surface of the strip. SCIENCE LN. S. Vor. XXV. Ne. 640 The value of ¢, at different distances in a direction normal to the strip at its middle point, and in a direction making an angle of 45° with the normal at the middle point, are calculated. For any definite distance the former multiplied by cos 45° would equal the latter if the cosine law, which has been assumed for the elements of sur- face, applied to the surface as a whole. The difference between the two values gives the errors for the distance used, and by plotting the errors for different distances a curve of deviation from the cosine law is obtained. On the Magnetic Properties of Heusler’s Alloys: J. C. McLENNAN. In this paper the author describes some experiments made during the past year by Messrs. Dawes, MeTaggart and Robertson, and Mr. L. B. Johnston, on the magneto- striction and permeability of Heusler’s alloys of varying composition. From measurements on both phenomena the alloys are shown to be in an exceedingly unstable condition when freshly made, and from observed changes in their magnetic behavior the conclusion is drawn that pro- found modifications are made in their structure through the lapse of time as well as by their being subjected to changes in temperature and to repeated magnetiza- tions and demagnetizations. In connection with the phenomenon of magnetostriction the gradual shortening observed by Austin with rods of the alloys subjected to long-continued high magnetic fields is shown to disappear. when the rods have reached a stable condition after being repeatedly magnetized. In a series of rods containing the same amount of manganese with varying amounts of aluminium the greatest elonga- tion was observed with rods in which the manganese and aluminium were present in the ratio of their atomic weights. ‘ Aprit 5, 1907] The paper concludes by emphasizing the suggestion made by Hill that possibly the magnetic properties of these alloys at room temperatures are largely determined by the temperatures from which they have been ceoled, and that by suitably heating samples of the alloys to different tempera- tures and then chilling them their magnetic properties at these temperatures may be ascertained, just as the structures of other alloys at different temperatures have been investigated in this way by Neville and Heyeock. On the Magnetic Susceptibilities of Miz- tures of Salt Solutions: J. C. MCLENNAN and C. S. Wrieur. In this paper the authors give some measurements on the magnetic susceptibili- ties of solutions of manganese, aluminium, and copper sulphates in water, and several mixtures of these solutions made with the object of obtaining information which might be of service in explaining the be- havior of the magnetic alloys, recently dis- covered by Heusler. The method followed in measuring the susceptibilities is that suggested by Kelvin, in which a glass cell of the solution investigated is placed in a strong magnetic field and the susceptibility deduced from the pull exerted on the solu- tion by the field. The magnetic susceptibility of water was found to be — 7.33 K 10-7. Measure- ments on a series of salt solutions gave the following molecular susceptibilities : Ms Manganese sulphate MnSO, + .01491 Copper sulphate CuSO, + .00153 Aluminium sulphate Al,(SO,); — .00018 Aluminium nitrate Al,(NO,), + .00002 Aluminium chloride Al,(Cl), — .00005 A set of measurements on solutions of manganese sulphate of different concentra- tions showed that the molecular suscepti- bility of the salt was independent of the concentration. SCIENCE 533 On Magnetic Shielding: A. P. Wits. Assuming the results of a previous paper, giving the ‘shielding ratio’ for a set of three concentric spherical iron shells and for a similar set of cylindrical shells, the following problem was discussed: Given the innermost and outermost radii of the system in each case, what values should the remaining four radii have in order that the shielding shall be a maximum? Start- ing with the expression giving the ‘shield- ing ratio’ (the ratio of field impressed to field within innermost shell), derived in the paper referred to above, the conditions for a maximum of the expression, under the conditions imposed, are examined; and it is found that approximately the best con- ditions are obtained when the radii of the shells are in geometrical progression. This holds for both spherical and cylindrical systems. Models IUustrating the Motion of a Violin String: Harvey N. Davis. The function u(x, ¢) which gives the dis- placement, at the time ¢, of a point x units from one end of a violin string, can be represented graphically by a surface with the x, ¢ plane as a base-plane. If the units were properly chosen, this graph would be the surface which the string would gener- ate if, while it vibrated, it were also carried along in a direction perpendicular to the plane of its vibration; and in any ease, a section of such a surface parallel to the x axis represents, usually on a magni- fied scale, the configuration of the string at some corresponding time, t—t,, while one parallel to the ¢ axis represents the dis- placement of a corresponding point, —=v~,, as a function of the time. Five surfaces of this kind, modeled in three dimensions, were shown, represent- ing, one the general Helmholtzian solution and the other the motion of a string bowed at points 1/5, 2/5, 2/7 and 3/8 of its length ‘= ‘ = ai | | 534 from one end. These particular cases were chosen because, besides being typical, they have some interest in connection with Young’s and Krigar-Menzal’s observations on the absence or dominance of certain overtones when a string is bowed at or near one of their nodes. The Motion of a Violin String wnder Light Bowing: Harvey N. Davis. This paper discusses the influence which the pressure of the bow upon the string has on the resulting vibration form. For each bowing speed there is, for compara- tively great pressure, a considerable range within which the only effect of a change in the pressure is a slight corresponding change in the position of equilibrium about which the string vibrates, the vibration form being always that described by Helm- holtz and others, and the amplitude re- maining the same. For smaller pressures both the amplitude and the vibration form change with the pressure. In particular, if the pressure is below a certain critical value, determined partly by the materials and condition of the apparatus and partly by the bowing speed, no vibrations can be maintained. For pressures slightly greater than this critical pressure there are no overtones, the time graph of the displace- ment of the point under the bow being the sine curve tangent at its point of greatest slope to a line representing the speed of the bow. As the pressure is increased beyond this value, the bowing speed remaining con- stant, the mode of vibration goes over con- tinuously into the Helmholtzian form. On Distributions of Nuclei and Ions in Dust-free Air: Barus. I have recently found it desirable to gather my data together for comparison. There is, in fact, a serious discrepancy be- tween Mr. C. T. R. Wilson’s results and mine when reduced to the same scale. Mr. SCIENCE (N.S. Von. XXV. No. 640 Wilson’s supersaturations for negative ions and cloud are distinctly higher, which cer- tainly can not mean that my fog chamber is in these regions inferior to his own. Thus in moderately ionized dust-free air my condensations begin at a drop of about 18.5 em. from 76 em. as compared with 20.5 in Wilson’s apparatus; similarly my fogs begin at the drop 20.3, Wilson’s at 27.7. Furthermore, at low ionization even the vapor nuclei of dust-free wet air become efficient in the presence of ions. It seems impossible, therefore, that any positive ions should fail of capture. The question is to be asked why I catch the negative ions, etc., at an apparently much lower supersatura- tion than C. T. R. Wilson. I have enter- tained doubts whether the inertia of the piston in his apparatus is initially quite negligible; whether in any apparatus the computed adiabatic temperatures were ac- tually reached. Nobody has proved it, and the case is worse for tubes. Moreover, in every apparatus there must be a limit at which the smaller nuclei of a graded system ean no longer be caught in the presence of the larger nuclei. But I do not believe that the real discrepancy will be found in any of these misgivings. It seems to me to be inherent in this; in Wilson’s appa- ratus the results are given from the ob- served volume ratio v,/v of adiabatic ex- pansion; in my method the results follow from the observed pressure ratio p/p,. It seems questionable whether the customary constants by which one passes from one group of data to the other are really ap- plicable, to wet air at very low tempera- tures. Moreover, when the exhaust cock in my apparatus is opened for t=0 .25 5 1 2.5 5 sec. The isothermal pressures of the fog cham- ber (cet. par.) read Pa (57.8) 53.2 52.7 52.0 51.5 50.9 50.4 cm., ¢ ‘ Aprit 5, 1907] so that in the first quarter second of open- ing the final isothermal pressure p, (cham- bers communicating) is already reached to more than 60 per cent., and my smallest fog chamber holds over 6 liters. One nat- urally asks whether the importance of this in its bearing on the measurements of the ratio of specific heats k/c, has ever been adequately appreciated. Fluorescence Absorption: E. L. NicHo1rs and Ernest Merritt, Cornell University. Energy Necessary to Ionize a Molecule by Impact of Negative Electrons: BERGEN Davis, Columbia University. The Transformation into an Electric Cur- rent of Radiation Incident on a Moving Surface: BerGeN Davis, Columbia Uni- versity. The Standard Cell: F. A. Wourr and C. E. Waters, Bureau of Standards. The Equilibrium of Mercurous Sulphate and Mercury and Cadmium Sulphate: F. A. Wourr and C. E. Waters, Bureau of Standards. The Distribution of Energy emitted by a Right Vibrator: C. R. Fountain. The Constants in Gas-viscosity: WILLARD J. FisHer, Cornell University. Production of Radium by Actinium: Brr- TRAM BoLTwoop. Production of Radium from Actinium: E. RUTHERFORD. The Influence of Electrical Fields upon Spectral Lines: G. F. Hutu, Dartmouth College. Helion, a New Incandescent Lamp Fila- ment: H. C. Parker and W. G. CLARK. The Magnetic Rotation of Sodium Vapor at the D lines: R. W. Woon. Flourescence Spectra of Mercury Vapor: R. W. Woon. SCIENCE 535 Hydraulic Analogy of the Welsbach Man- tle and other Radiators: R. W. Woon. The Shielding of a Highly Sensitwe Galvanometer: E. F. Nicnous and §S. R. WILLIAMS. On the Temperature of the Mercury Are: CHARLES T. KNIPP. A Study of the Reversible Pendulum: C. SHEDD and A. BIRcHBY. Wave-metrical Measurements with Wire- less Telegraph Circuits: G. W. Pierce. The Electrical Properties of Carborundum: G. W. PreRce. Dayton C. MILLER, Secretary of Section B SCIENTIFIC BOOKS Qualitative Analysis as a Laboratory Basis for the Study of General Inorganic Chem- istry. By Witu1am Concer Moraan, Ph.D. (Yale), Assistant Professor of Chemistry in the University of California. New York, The Macmillan Company; London, Mac- millan & Co., Ltd. 1906. Pp. xiv-+ 351. That the last word as to the best method of teaching chemistry has not yet been spoken is evidenced by the number of new text-books in general and analytical chemistry. Such a mul- tiplicity of new books may be from a financial standpoint unsatisfactory to authors and pub- lishers, but it reveals an activity and healthy independence on the part of teachers of chem- istry. Most if not all these books are written, not to sell, but to bring out the writer’s views for his own classes. The latest book on qualitative analysis is that by Dr. Morgan, and is to some extent along new lines. Most teachers of chemistry in colleges are confronted with a difficulty arising from the chemistry of fitting schools. Comparatively few students present them- selves for entrance to college well grounded in general chemistry, especially as viewed from the modern physical chemical standpoint, and yet these men are too advanced to be put in a class which is open to beginners. They have 536 often studied much descriptive chemistry, but are not ready for analytical chemistry as or- dinarily taught. Confronted by this difficulty at the University of California, Dr. Morgan has prepared this book, in which “ the scheme of qualitative analysis is made to serve as a means of correlating the apparently independ- ent experiments of general chemistry.” It is intended primarily for those, “ the exigencies of whose vocational courses render it imprac- ticable” for them “to devote more than one year to general inorganic chemistry and to qualitative analysis as well.” The author well says in the preface: “Instruction in science should endeavor to equip the student with principles rather than facts, and, what is of still greater import, it should train him in the use of these principles and in the application of them in explaining the phenomena of gen- eral experience.” The book is divided into four parts: Gen- eral, Descriptive, Analytical, Appendix. Part I. is an outline in sixty pages of the principles of chemistry from the standpoint of physical chemistry, presupposing a knowledge on the part of the student, of general chemistry as taught in schools. The topics Dissociation, Equilibrium and Mass Action, Hydrolysis, Repression of Ionization, Solute and Solvent, and Oxidation and Reduction, are treated with satisfactory clearness, and the judicious use of black-letter for important topics and italics for important principles should greatly assist the student. The abandonment of the sign of equations and substitution therefor of the arrow to indicate the general direction of the reaction is a recent innovation, and has much to commend it, and may save the stu- dent from having later to reverse the early acquired notion that a single equation ex- presses quantitatively all that takes place in a reaction. It serves also to emphasize the im- portant conception of equilibrium. Part II. comprises about half the book. At first sight, this part, which is a study of the reactions of the elements, would seem to fol- low the plan of many older text-books on qualitative analysis, which weary the student with a mass of test-tube reactions, before he SCIENCE LN. S. Vor. XXV. No. 640 comes to any application of their use.- In this book we have rather a systematic study of the elements in the order of their occurrence in the periodic table, with special reference to their ions. The method of treatment may be illustrated by the topic Arsenic. This opens with a brief description of the element; then follows its oxidation and solution; the exist- ence of arsenic ions; its reduction; the Betten- dorf, Marsh and Reinsch tests; the relation of the arsenious kathion to the hydroxyl, car- bonate, sulfid, sulfate and chlorid anions; arsenic compounds; arsenious acid and arsen- ites; salts of thioarsenious acid; arsenic acid and the reactions of its ion with barium, silver, magnesium and molybdate ions; salts of the thioarsenic acids. One great advantage of this method of study is that the student gains a comprehensive view of the element in all its compounds, and that the sequence of elements according to the periodic table shows him the relation the element bears to its neighbors. Further, those compounds and reactions chosen as illustrations are the ones he meets in analytical chemistry. This divi- sion of the book, as far as I can recall, at- tempts something unique; how it will work practically in other hands than the author’s remains to be seen, but it reads as if it would prove successful. Part IIL, on qualitative analysis, opens with solution and preliminary examination of solids. Then follow tables for separations of bases, each with a full discussion conveniently arranged below and on the opposite page. The analysis of acids is similarly arranged with the discussions opposite the tests. Mention should be made of two or three commendable procedures in the course of analysis. In the basic analysis the detection and removal of interfering substances in the filtrate from the hydrogen sulfid precipitate are excellently treated; aluminum, chromium and iron are precipitated as basic acetates, and the chrom- ium oxidized with sodium peroxid; cobalt is removed from the nickel-cobalt solution by po- tassium ferricyanid in the presence of am- monia and a little alum solution, to assist in collecting the cobalt ferricyanid for filtration; | > Aprit 5, 1907] the nickel is recognized in the filtrate by add- ing a little piece of solid caustic soda. In the acid analysis the acids are classified by the character of their barium and silver salts, and their most characteristic reactions well dis- cussed. Part IV., the appendix, contains the prepa- ration of reagents, specific gravity and solu- bility tables, and considerable physical data. In the strength of reagents, it is gratifying to see that another convert has been added to the comparatively few teachers who have adopted the Reddrop system of normal reagents. The great advantage of the system is that the stu- dent knows the strength of the reagents he is using, and soon comes to avoid the use of great excess. Unconsciously he becomes familiar with the elements of volumetric analysis. The strengths recommended by the author differ a little from those originally sug- gested by Reddrop. For dilute acids and alka- lies, 4. NV solutions are used, and for salts N/2 generally. The ordinary reagents are N. In this laboratory 5N for acids, 5/2 N for alka- lies, and N/5 for most salts have been found convenient. The press work of the book is excellent and typographical errors are very few. There is a complete index. Jas. Lewis Howe WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY, LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES Tue March number (volume 13, number 6) of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical Society contains the following articles: Report of the Thirteenth Annual Meeting of the American Mathematical Society, by F. N. Cole; Report of the December Meeting of the Chicago Section, by H. E. Slaught; ‘ The De- composition of Modular Systems Connected with the Doubly Generalized Fermat The- orem,’ by E. H. Moore; ‘ Systems of Extremals in the Caleulus of Variations,’ by Edward Kasner; ‘A Necessary Condition for an Ex- tremum of a Double Integral,’ by Max Mason; Shorter Notices; Nielsen’s Hand- buch der Theorie der Gammafunktion, by SCIENCE 537 Virgil Snyder; Jouffret’s Mélanges de Géomé- trie 4 Quatre Dimensions, by Peter Field; Lanner’s Neuere Darstellungen der Grund- probleme der reinen Mathematik im Bereiche der Mittelschule, by D. E. Smith; Reform- vorschlige fiir den mathematischen und natur- wissenschaftlichen Unterricht, entworfen von der Unterrichtskommission der Gesellschaft deutscher Naturforscher und Aerzte (Zweiter Teil), by J. W. A. Young; de Peslouan’s N. H. Abel, sa Vie et son Oeceuvre, by Florian Cajori; ‘ Notes’; ‘New Publications.’ The April number contains: Report of the February Meeting of the American Mathe- matical Society, by F. N. Cole; ‘The Con- struction of a Field of Extermals about a Given Point,’ by G. A. Bliss; ‘Some Par- ticular Solutions in thé Problem of n Bodies,’ by W. R. Longley; ‘On the Matrices of Pe- riod a Power of p in Jordan’s Linear Con- gruence Groups, Modulo p¢, by Arthur Ranum; ‘On the Construction of an Integral of Lagrange’s Equations in the Caleulus of Variations, by D. C. Gillespie; ‘ Algebraic Numbers and Forms’ (Review of Bachmann’s Allgemeine Arithmetik der Zahlenkérper and Konig’s Einleitung in die allgemeine Theorie der Algebraischen Gréssen), by L. E. Dick- son; ‘ Notes’; ‘ New Publications.’ SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, NEW YORK SECTION Tue fifth regular meeting of the session of 1906-07 was held at the Chemists’ Club, 108 W. 55th Street, on March 8. Pursuant to the amendment to the by-laws of the section adopted February 8, the an- nual election of officers, to assume their duties at the close of the June meeting following, was held with the following result: Chairman—H. C. Sherman. Vice-Chairman—F. J. Pond. Secretary and Treasurer—C, M. Joyce. Eazecutive Committee—Virgil Coblentz, G. C. Stone, C. H. Kiessig, Durand Woodman. The chairman called attention to the great loss to the society occasioned by the untimely death of its honorary member, Henri Moissan, b ¥ t “ _ j b 7 3 ] t | é i | we ‘ 538 and Dr. C. A. Doremus presented an obituary notice. Professor S. C. Prescott, of the biological department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, spoke ‘On the Utilization of Micro-organisms in Industrial Processes.’ This wide subject could only be considered very briefly during the short time available and the lecture was devoted to an outline of the advances made in the fermentation, milk and canning industries through the technical application of the science of biology. A historical sketch was given of Pasteur’s studies of the diseases of wine and beer and how these finally led to the use of pure yeast cultures, in the brewing industry. The ad- vantages of the further use of pure cultures in wine making were pointed out and their appli- cation in the manufacture of other fermenta- tion products such as spirits, vinegar, lactic and butyric acid was suggested. Plates were shown which indicated in a striking manner the vastly increased purity of milk brought about by the use of proper sanitary precautions in the barns of the small farmer where much can be accomplished by intelligent inspection. In the food-preserving industries, great ad- vances have been made by isolating the germs producing decay and finding experimentally what treatment will destroy them. For ex- ample, the use of superheated steam in steriliz- ing cans of corn before sealing will accom- plish the result in ten minutes instead of the four hours required when boiling water was used, whereas the latter readily sterilizes preparations of fruits. The use of such knowledge as this has brought about a con- siderable improvement in the quality of the finished products. The inoculation of soils with nitrogen- fixing bacteria was discussed, and some very favorable results obtained in experiment sta- tions were described. The bad showing made with the use of cultures sent out by the De- partment of Agriculture was attributed to their becoming partly, and at times com- pletely, sterile during the drying process pre- paratory to shipping. Professor Prescott showed numerous slides SCIENCE [N. 8. Von. XXV. No. 640 to illustrate the different subjects discussed and his lecture was much appreciated by a large attendance. C. M. Joyce, Secretary SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY, NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES At the monthly meeting of the academy on January 7, Dr. E. O. Hovey presented notes on a recent visit to the voleanoes of Toluca, Colima and Popocatepetl in Mexico, illus- trated by a series of lantern slides. The sec- tion then proceeded to an examination, in ad- joining rooms, of the exhibits of geology, paleontology and mineralogy in the New York Academy of Science’s exhibition, under the guidance of committeemen in charge of the exhibits. At the monthly meeting, February 11, Dr. John M. Clarke, state geologist of New York, gave an informal description of the geography of the Atlantic Devonian, with lantern illus- trations. Professor James F. Kemp also offered notes on mineral localities visited dur- ing the summer of 1906 in Canada and Mexico, and exhibited a collection of speci- mens of minerals and ores. At the monthly meeting, March 4, the session was devoted to a description of Letch- worth Park (Glen Iris), the new State Reser- vation on the Genesee River, New York, recently presented to the state of New York by Mr. William Pryor Letchworth. Professor A. W. Grabau first described the geology and scenery of the Upper Genesee falls and gorges. In the first part of the paper the speaker discussed studies made by him for some years on the drainage systems of central New York in preglacial time. It was pointed out that all the characteristics of the ancient valleys indicate a southward drainage in late Tertiary time. In all cases where the valleys are trace- able they unite southward into trunk streams, a condition wholly inexplicable on the sup- position that these valleys were formed by northward-flowing streams. This is readily seen by an inspection of the topographic sheets as well as of the magnificent geologic sheets LBB Aprit 5, 1907] of this section recently published by the state survey. Where the connection is broken, this can generally be shown to be due to drift deposits. The following drainage systems were tenta- tively outlined, the outline being presented as a report of progress rather than as a final settlement in any one case. On the west, the Wyoming (Warsaw) valley probably had the Dale valley, now occupied in part by the Little Tonawanda, as a western branch, joining it north of Warsaw. The Warsaw valley is still believed to have been continuous with the Upper Genesee valley, above Portageville, by way of Glen Iris, as outlined by the speaker in 1894 and earlier. The valley of Silver Lake joined the Warsaw valley somewhere near Silver Springs. A narrower valley, now occupied by the Genesee from Gibsonville to St. Helena, is continued by a buried gorge from that place to Portage- ville, where it joins with the Warsaw-Glen Iris valley and another valley from the north- west, to continue southward in the large valley now occupied by the Upper Genesee. The Canasseraga valley, now occupied in part by the Genesee, was cut by an inde- pendent stream. This is the largest valley of the region and was that of the master stream. The Nunda-Cashaqua valley, generally held ‘to have been the former path of the Genesee, is probably only an inner-lowland type of valley, carved on the contact between Portage shales and Chemung sandstones. It may have been in part a tributary of the Genesee at Portage- ville. The Canasseraga, above the junction of the Cashaqua, is as broad and flat-bottomed as below that point, and was certainly con- tinuous throughout, being carved by a single stream, the Tertiary Canasseraga, as sug- gested nearly fifteen years ago by the speaker. This river, flowing southward, received as a tributary the Conesus, the valley of which is broad and open to Scottsburg. Hemlock and Canadice rivers joined southward, receiving another branch near Springwater, the united series joining the Canasseraga by way of Way- land. Honeoye and Canandaigua rivers, joined near Naples having another eastern branch in West River. Originally this series may have SCIENCE 539 drained southward by way of Cohocton, but may later have been captured by a branch of the Canasseraga. This proposition, however, needs careful study. Another branch of this system seems to have been the Flint, the valley of which, traceable for twenty miles or more, points toward the Cohocton outlet. Another system is represented by the two branches of Keuka Lake, which have other branches uniting with them southward. Other systems are represented by the valleys of the more eastern lakes. So far as the study has proceeded, these valleys could only have been formed by a southward drainage, as out- lined in Bulletin 45, New York State Museum. The remainder of the paper consisted of a description of the gorges and falls about Port- age, illustrated with lantern slides. The suc- cessive stages in the development of the lower falls received special attention. Dr. George F. Kunz then presented a plan of development of the park as a means for scientific education. Both papers were illus- trated with series of beautiful lantern slides. Auexis A. JULIEN, Secretary of Section THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB THE meeting of December 11, 1906 was called to order at 8:15 o’clock p.m., at the American Museum of Natural History, with President Rusby in the chair. Eight persons were present. The scientific program was as follows: ‘Some Hawthorns of the Vicinity of New York City’: Mr. W. W. Eaateston. Species and variations of Crategus growing within the vicinity of New York City were described and illustrated by herbarium speci- mens. ‘Centers of Distribution of Coastal Plain Plants’: Rotanp M. Harper. One of the most familiar phenomena of plant distribution is that neighboring areas of equal extent often differ considerably in the number of species they contain. And it usually happens that a region with a rich flora (if a large enough area be taken into consideration) contains a considerable num- : > is 4 4 7 ; q a ] 540 ber of endemic species, also that many species which are not endemie grow more abundantly or vigorously in such places than in other parts of their ranges. A well-known example of a center of dis- tribution is the southern Appalachian region, which has the greatest variety of trees to be found anywhere in temperate eastern North America, most of which grow larger there than anywhere else, and many species are now con- fined to that region, though some of them were doubtless more widely distributed in pre- historic times. Isolated islands and moun- tain peaks in all parts of the world are also noted for their endemic species. Our Atlantic coastal plain (shown on map which was exhibited), though in some respects a unit, contains several fairly well defined centers of distribution. Beginning at the northern end, the first center to be considered is the so-called ‘ pine-barrens’ of New Jersey. From the available literature if would seem that the following species are either confined to that region or else are much commoner in New Jersey than in adjoining states. Schizea pusilla, Sporobolus compressus, Di- chromena colorata, Rhynchospora pallida, R. Knieskernii, R. Torreyana, Xyris fimbriata, X. flexuosa (torta of most authors), Erio- caulon Parkeri, Juncus Cesariensis, Abama Americana, Helonias bullata, Xerophyllum asphodeloides, Oceanoros leimanthoides, To- fieldia racemosa, Uvularia sessilifolia nitida, Aletris aurea, Lophiola aurea, Gyrotheca tine- toria, Pogonia divaricata, Arenaria Carolin- iana, Drosera filiformis, Corema Conradii, Ilex glabra, Hypericum adpressum, Rhezxia aristosa, Dendrium buzxifolium, Pyzxidanthera barbulata, Gentiana Porphyrio, Sclerolepis uniflora, Chrysopsis falcata, Coreopsis rosea. Most of these are monocotyledons, and there are more species of Melanthacew in the list than of any other one family. The next well-marked coastal plain center seems to be in the southern corner of North Carolina. The following species are rarely if ever seen more than 100 miles from Wilmington. Tofieldia glabra, Hypoxis micrantha, SCIENCE [N.S. Von. XXV. No. 640 Dionea muscipula, Kalmia cuneata, Coreopsis falcata, Leptopoda Curtisii. The following species of wider distribution seem to be more abundant within about 50 miles of Wilmington than they are at a dis- tance of 100 to 200 miles in either direction. Selaginella acanthonota, Pinus palustris, P. serotina, Aristida stricta, Campulosus aroma- ticus, Dichromena latifolia, Zygadenus glaber- rimus, Lilium Catesbei, Smilax laurifolia, Habenaria blephariglottis, Nymphea sagitti- folia, Amorpha herbacea, Polygala lutea, P. ramosa, Gordonia Lasianthus, Cyrilla racemi- flora, Clethra alnifolia, Vaccinium crassi- folium, Sabbatia lanceolata, Carphephorus bellidifolius, Aster squarrosus, Marshallia graminifolia. By far the greatest center of pine-barren plants or perhaps an aggregation of two or more sub-centers, is in Georgia and northern Florida. Probably three fourths if not nine tenths of all pine-barren species can be found in Georgia, at least a dozen are confined to that state, and many more to Georgia and Florida together. In the Altamaha Grit region (the middle third of the coastal plain) of Georgia there are nearly 150 species on sand-hills, about the same in dry pine-barrens, 200 in moist pine-barrens, and 75 in pine- barren ponds. These numbers are undoubtedly larger than for the same habitats in any other state unless it is Florida. In subtropical Florida there are, of course, many plants not found farther north, but practically all of these center in the tropics, and are therefore outside of the region under consideration. Going westward from Florida we find in the vicinity of Mobile and Pensacola a center comparable with that in southern North Caro- lina. To this belong Myrica inodora, Sar- racenia Drummondii, Drosera filiformis Tracyi, Pitcheria galactioides, and perhaps Carphephorus Pseudo-Liatris. Chamecyparis thyoides and Sarracenia purpurea, which are as common within fifty miles of Mobile Bay as they are in New England, seem to be en- tirely wanting at twice that distance, and do not appear again within two or three hundred miles, as far as known. Aprit 5, 1907) Pine-barrens extend as far west as Texas, and there ought to be some species of pine- barren plants confined to Louisiana and Texas, but too little is known of the flora of those parts as yet. Plants of muddy swamps seem from all ac- counts to be most numerous in the Mississippi embayment of the coastal plain, from about the mouth of the Ohio River southward. Characteristic species of this region, most of them woody plants, are: Taxodium distichum, Echinodorus radicans, Arundinaria macrosperma, Hymenocallis occi- dentalis, Leitneria Floridana, Hicoria Pecan, H. aquatica, Quercus Michauzrii, Q. lyrata, Planera aquatica, Celtis occidentalis, Brun- nichia cirrhosa, Platanus occidentalis, Cra- tegus viridis, CO. apiifolia, Amorpha fruticosa, llex decidua, Acer saccharinum (dasycarpum), Berchemia scandens, Nyssa uniflora, Bumelia lyctoides, Adelia acuminata, Trachelospermum difforme, Asclepias perennis, Gonolobus levis, Vincetoxicum gonocarpos, Bignonia cruciglia, Tecoma radicans, Conoclinium celestinum, Mikania scandens, Eupatorium serotinum. Most of these are not wholly confined to the coastal plain, but they are more common there than elsewhere, and few if any of them ever ascend more than 1,000 feet above sea-level. Going eastward in the coastal plain they be- come perceptibly scarcer. There are fewer of them in Georgia than in Alabama, still fewer in the Carolinas, and only about half of them reach Virginia, though there is nothing in the climate to hinder them, as far as known. In contrast to these five or six evident cen- ters a few of the regions with poorer flora may be mentioned. The coastal plain of Delaware, Maryland and Virginia seems to lack many of the species common to New Jersey and the southern pine- barrens, though some of them will probably be reported when those parts are better ex- plored. South Carolina too seems to be a rather uninteresting state floristically, and there are perhaps no good species confined to it. The upper fourth of the coastal plain of Georgia (i. e., that part outside of the pine- barrens) has quite a diversified topography and vegetation, but practically all the plants SCIENCE 541 growing there range either northward to the mountains or coastward to the pine-barrens. A part of the Cretaceous and Eocene regions of the coastal plain from western Alabama through northern Mississippi and West Ten- nessee to Kentucky is remarkable for the paucity of its flora. It is entirely outside of the pine-barrens, and nearly all of its species seem to be common and widely distributed. The same remarks will probably apply to the coastal plain of Arkansas. The ultimate reason why so many species are found in some parts of the coastal plain and so few in others is still obscure, and per- haps each center will require a different ex- planation. But the importance of locating these centers is obvious; for any one who wishes merely to collect as many species as possible will save time by confining his opera- tions to the vicinity of known centers, and the possibilities of discovering new species are greater there than in the poorer regions. When the species belonging to each center are more accurately listed it may then be possible to discover their significance. C. Stuart Gacer, Secretary DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE INHERITANCE OF THE BELT IN HAMPSHIRE SWINE Tue Hampshires are a breed of black and white hogs, the white being confined to a belt around the body at the shoulders, sometimes occurring also on the hind feet and the tip of the tail. The breed has recently risen to prominence in the middle west. Its origin is somewhat obscure. Hogs of this peculiar coloring are seen occasionally throughout the south, north to the Ohio River, and even be- yond. The white belt in hogs the breeding of which is left to chance behaves in a very erratic manner, usually occurring in only a small proportion of any herd. Even amongst registered Hampshires about 10 per cent. of the progeny is without the belt. Breeders have endeavored to eliminate the ‘ blacks,’ 7. e., hogs lacking the belt, but are not yet able to avoid them. The writer recently undertook to col- lect data from breeders with a view to an- alyzing the belt character, and thus learning | 3 | | | | | 4 ¥ 542 the laws governing its inheritance. The effort has apparently been completely successful. The case is one of exceeding interest, and proves to be a complex case of Mendelian inheritance. There is some probability that it is a case of reversion to a very ancient type related to the Indian tapir, which is somewhat similarly colored. At first it was suspected that the belt was due to a simple Mendelian character. According to the testimony of breeders, when two belted hogs produce black progeny there is a distinct tendency for one fourth of the litter to be black. Also, when a belted animal is bred to a black, two cases are evident: first, the litter may all be belted; second, in some cases there is a distinct tend- ency for half the litter to be belted and half black. - Thus far, we seem to be dealing with a simple character pair. But all breeders agree that black bred to black does not always produce black. In fact, litters of this breed- ing may be all belted. Professor Castle accounts for the agouti color in guinea pigs by supposing a third inde- pendent character which governs the arrange- ment of the red pigment in the hair, so that the black and red pigments together, under the influence of this third character, produce the agouti color. We can fully explain the peculiarities of the inheritance of the belt character in Hampshire swine by a somewhat similar assumption. In this case, however, this third character, which governs the distri- bution of white and black over the body, is a compound character of two factors. Repre- senting the two factors by F and G, and the two colors by W and B, the allelomorphic formula of a pure belted individual is FF, GG, WW, BB. The individuals lacking the belt have white fore feet, so that W and B are present throughout the breed. We may, therefore, omit W and B in our formule. If either F or G is entirely absent the belt fails to appear. Representing the absence of either F or G@ by O, the following nine types are possible, and doubtless occur in the breed: TABLE I. a. FFGG, producing gametes F@. b. FFGO, producing gametes FG, FO. SCIENCE [N.S. Vor. AXV. No. 640 . FOGG, producing gametes FG, OG. . FOGO, producing gametes FG, FO, OG, 00. FFOO, producing gametes FO. . FOOO, producing gametes FO, 00. . OOGG, producing gametes O@. . OOGO, producing gametes OG, O00. 0000, producing gametes OO. AS Types a, b, c and d are belted; the others are not. Table II. shows the proportion of ‘ blacks’ in the progeny of all the possible conjugations of these nine types. TABLE Il. Percentage of Blacks in the Various Conjugations. b 25 0 25 50 50 0 25 50 c 25 25 0 25 50 50 50 d 43+ 50 62+ 50 62+ 75 e 00 100 O 50 100 f 100 50 25 100 g 100 100 100 h 100 100 i 100 Table II. may be divided into three sections, as shown by the division lines. The first sec- tion shows the results that follow when belted hogs of all types are bred together. Of the ten possible types of’ breeding in this division five result in no blacks, four give 25 per cent. blacks, and one 43-++ per cent. Breeders have already recognized all these except the last, which occurs in only one out of ten possible cases. In the second section of the table are found the results from breeding belted hogs on blacks. Of the twenty cases seven give all belts; eight give 50 per cent. blacks; two give 25 per cent. blacks; two 62+ per cent; and one gives 75 per cent. blacks. The results which occur most commonly have both been recognized by breeders, namely, cases giving 100 per cent. belts, and those giving 50 per cent. blacks. The remaining cases occur so seldom that they have not been recognized. The third section of the table displays the results from breeding black on black. Of the fifteen cases, eleven give blacks only, two give 50 per cent. blacks, one gives 25 per cent. Aprit 5, 1907] blacks and one gives 100 per cent. belts! These results are in accord with the experience of breeders, and explain this experience com- pletely. How shall the breeder proceed to eliminate the undesirable blacks? If a single dominant unit character were to be bred pure, the way to do this would be to discard both parents when black pigs occur. This would rapidly reduce the number of black pigs produced. But here we desire to perpetuate two dominant characters. The desired result will ultimately be secured by discarding both parents of all black pigs farrowed, but very slowly; for heterozygotes are not always revealed by breeding them together. For instance, types b and ¢ bred together produce only belted pigs. Neither can we test out the heterozygotes by breeding to blacks, for in many cases this type of breeding gives only belts. We can, how- ever, determine whether an individual is homo- zygous by breeding to a breed which possesses neither of the factors F and G. Only type a thus bred will give all belts. But here a diffi- culty arises. One or the other of these fac- tors is present in at least four other breeds. This is demonstrated by the fact that when Tamworths are crossed on Chester whites, and when Duroc-Jerseys are crossed on Yorkshires, the belt sometimes appears in part or all the progeny. It is not yet known whether Berk- shires and Poland Chinas possess either of these factors. The presence of the factors F and G in four of our standard breeds accounts fully for the occasional oceurrence of ‘listed’ (belted) hogs in swine of mixed breding, a not uncom- mon occurrence in sections where mixed breeding is common. The fact that some breeds possess the factor F and others the factor G, unsuspected until revealed by the numerous breed crosses made by Mr. Q. I. Simpson, hints at the possibility that at some remote time the ancestors of our domesticated swine were belted after the man- ner of the related Indian tapir, and that the belt disappeared by the gradual weakening of factor F in some cases and of factor G in others. In America, where our swine trace to breeds from all parts of the world, these SCIENCE 543 factors have been brought together again, re- newing this striking belt character. It is sug- gested that the Tamworths and Yorkshires probably carry the same factor, these breeds both coming from England. Chester whites and Duroc-Jerscys originated in America, and possibly inherited the other factor from the Chinese hog, which entered into most of our early breeds. It is entirely possible that the belt character is more complex than here indicated. How- ever, the difference between belted and black Hampshires evidently relates to two factors only. The distribution of black and white in Berk- shires and Poland Chinas is evidently gov- erned in a manner similar to that above as- sumed for Hampshires, though it is not known how many factors are concerned. These two breeds are black with white ‘points.’ Until recently Poland Chinas were black and white spotted. The presence of a few animals in the breed having the black color with white points furnished the factor or factors that ultimately gave the breed its present color type. It is suggested that the arrangement of color on all spotted animals may be governed in some such manner as that here indicated. The presence of several factors having this relation to color distribution, and scattered promiscuously through a spotted breed, would account for observed facts. The tendency for color spots to appear in definite places, as black on the rump in swine having most of the body white, a very persistent tendency, the localization of spots on fox terriers, and the strong tendency for red hairs to appear about the ears of white cattle, all point in this di- rection. W. J. Spmiman U. 8. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE WING VEINS OF INSECTS An adequate reply correcting all the mis- statements occurring in the review’ in Sct- ENCE of February 8, of my article on wing veins would be beyond the limits of space available for this article, and I shall have to t Pp. 219-229. 3 3 4 4 4 | t 544 be content with the general disclaimer, that it is in the main a criticism of views on vena- tion originating with the reviewer and not held by myself. Probably a combination of the effects of views strongly opposed to those of the author and a very cursory reading of the work re- viewed have brought about the confusion re- sulting in thus attributing to the author much that he has never believed and in giving to the whole presentation a distortion that makes the theory almost unrecognizable. Had he read more carefully he would not have failed to have seen, for instance, that the three series under which heads winged insects were discussed, were not presented as natural groups (p. 219), nor that the argument favor- ing the essential identity of tracheated and non-tracheated veins is the conclusion of the argument against the tracheal origin of veins (p. 220), nor have given what I considered as a possible though unwarranted view as being the basis of the system of independents (p. 221), nor the small table at the end of the chapter on Lepidoptera as the objective point of the whole work (p. 222), nor a score of other equally evident blunders. I desire, however, at this time to criticize the argument offered by the reviewer: “ The very presence of trachee,” he writes, “ between the two membranes of the wing when they are fusing sufficiently accounts for the pri- mary location of the veins” (p. 220). The membranes fuse only after the emergence of the insect and the expansion of the wing. The cuticular differentiation of vein and mem- brane either in the wing of an existing insect or in the organ from which the wing was pro- duced in the ancestor of winged insects, is dependent upon changes in the epithelial cells before the deposition of chitin preceding the final molt, and not at the time of the fusing of the membranes. This is simply the way differences of external structure of any part of the body are brought about, not during the molting process, but usually before or possibly rarely during the process of the cuticle deposi- tion which precedes the molt. Possibly it may be supposed that he inad- vertently used the word ‘membranes’ but in- SCIENCE (N.S. Vou. XXV. No. 640 tended to mean the epithelial lining of the wing pad or of the organ which was the precursor of the wing, since in former articles he has described these cell layers as fus- ing. They usually simply touch, however, and often come into no definite organic union. The vein cavities also are so much larger than the trachee that it is very hard to see how their presence could have been any determin- ing factor. It is not as though the trachee mechanically held the epithelial layers apart. Furthermore, why should a longitudinal vein require the presence of a trachea to warn off the approaching epithelial cells, but the cross- veins from the beginning remain capable of looking out for themselves ? These later suggestions, however, do not represent that author’s present point of view, for he is evidently laboring under the delusion that the wing, unlike any other part of the insect’s body, expands at the molting time devoid of cuticle and the cells perform this function only after expanding, for he speaks of the ‘differentiation of veins from mem- brane, by the accumulation of cells about the vein cavities, and the stretching out of those that lie between’ (p. 221). Now as long as the wing remains in the wing pad the veins occupy a very disproportionately large space and the cells of the membrane are correspond- ingly crowded—and in no conceivable sense can they be spoken of as stretching except under the assumption that the wings first ex- pand before these cells are exhausted in cuticle production. This absolute failure to appreciate the facts in the ontogeny of the wing, which must also have been true in whatsoever organ the wing may be supposed to originate, this funda- mental misconception is accountable, I believe, for that author clinging so strenuously to the really unsupportable theory of the tracheal origin of veins. ©. W. Woopwortn UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY, March 1, 1907 DELAYING THE BLOSSOMING OF PEACH TREES BY ETHERIZATION As a means of avoiding late spring frosts, the writer finds that the season of blossoming Aprit 5, 1907] of peach trees may he delayed by injecting with saturated solutions of ether in water from an inverted bottle supported above. Etherization should be begun just a few days before the buds begin to open. In the writer’s experiments blossoming was delayed eleven days. The trees were not injured by the treatment. Ripening was retarded by two or three days, but the fruit was materially in- creased in size. Leafy shoots set in bottles of solutions are far more sensitive to the effect of ether than is the leafless tree, one half of one per cent. causing transpiration almost to cease in less than twenty-four hours. Opening flower buds are more sensitive still, being overcome by one tenth of one per cent. of ether. V. A. EXPERIMENT STATION FarRM, PHE@NIX, ARIZONA AN ILLINOIS STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCES Tue time seems ripe for the formation of a State Academy of Sciences in Illinois, which may aid scientific work throughout the state by banding together the leaders in the various departments of science, by stimulating stu- dents in the more isolated communities, and by forming a center for all scientific interests. The demand for such an organization is great and the opportunity promising. It is hoped that every leader and every worker in science in the state will help the cause by becoming charter members. Will those interested write to the under- signed suggesting the best time for the first meeting. A. R. Croox Museum or NatuRAaL History, SPRINGFIELD, ILL. THE UNIVERSITY OF MAINE AND THE STATE LEGISLATURE To tHe Eprror or Science: There appeared in Science for March 29, 1907, the reprint of an article in the Boston Evening Transcript regarding the University of Maine, which con- tained a few misstatements that should be corrected: First. The committee appointed by the legislature presented a majority report favor- SCIENCE 545 ing the discontinuance of the liberal arts course, not retaining it as stated by the J’ran- script. The minority report recommended its retention. Second. The vote in the senate was 17 to 13 in favor of discontinuing the liberal arts course instead of retaining it as reported by the Transcript. As the house favored retaining the liberal arts course by a vote of 123 to 12 the result is a deadlock between the two bodies and no knowledge of a settlement has reached the writer at this date. On several occasions during the discussion before the legislative committee the leaders of the opposition to the University of Maine resorted to personal abuse of the president of the university; on one occasion he being ac- cused of being ‘a freebooter, with an ignoble desire to be president of a university.’ Such a method of procedure by the opposition cer- tainly does not tend to increase the respect of the people of the state of Maine for the op- posing institutions and for their representa- tives. Such political methods should be be- neath the dignity of the representatives of Maine’s oldest educational institution, and we hope will receive the censure of its alumni. P. L. R. We are informed that the senate of the State of Maine passed on March 25, the appro- priation for the University of Maine without withdrawing the right to confer the degree of bachelor of arts.—Ebiror. THE ASSOCIATED PRESS AND NEWSPAPER SCIENCE To THE Eprror or Science: My attention is directed to a communication signed “C. A.” in your issue of March 22. I am certainly amazed that so reputable a paper as ScIENCE should lend itself to such a statement with- out the slightest investigation. The story respecting Matteucci and the Marchette’s comet appeared originally in the London Daily Mail and was cabled to the New York Sun on February 22. It was denied in the New York Sun on February 25. The Associated Press never at any time cabled it to this country or anywhere else. | | ‘ | 546 Of course you may have some ulterior pur- pose for publishing such a falsehood respect- ing this organization, but I give you the op- portunity to make a correction, assuring you at the same time that I should have more respect for you and your paper if before pub- lishing a falsehood of this sort you would make some effort to ascertain the truth. Sincerely yours, Metvitte E. Stone, General Manager We regret having published a communica- tion attributing to the Associated Press the story concerning Marchette’s comet. We are glad, however, to find that the Associated Press guards so carefully its reprtation for accuracy in its scientific news.—Eprror. SPECIAL ARTICLES THE FIRST SPECIES RULE FOR DETERMINING TYPES OF GENERA—HOW IT WORKS IN ORNITHOLOGY As a further contribution to the discussion of methods of fixing types of genera in zoology, an exposition of how the first species rule works when applied in ornithology may be of interest to other zoologists. It is evident to every one familiar with the intricacies of nomenclature that the uniform enforcement of this rule would result in eliminating many generic names that have become, through a long period of nearly uni- versal and unquestioned use, almost house- hold words in the current literature of zoology, or in their transference to wholly new and more or less repellant associations. So fre- quently would this happen in the case of Linnzan genera that the promoters of the first species rule are obliged to make, as one of their first conditions for its adoption, an exemption clause for Linnean genera. It can readily be seen that such an exemption clause would work charmingly in the case of North American birds, and many American ornith- ologists may be persuaded to swallow the sugar-coated pill thus so thoughtfully pre- pared for them; but it is hardly probable that such action would be followed by ornitholo- gists at large, and quite improbable that it SCIENCE (N.S. Vor. XXV. No. 640 would meet with approval in other depart- ments of zoology. But no way has been sug- gested for saving many other genera, equally as well established and as universally current, As an illustration of how the first species rule would work when applied without re- striction, a few Linnzan genera may be cited. Of the seventy-five valid Linnean bird genera, fourteen are fortunately monotypic, and the type of some thirty-four others is by common consent (in nearly all cases by elimination) the first species. This leaves about one third of the total number with the currently ac- cepted type some other than the first, ranging from the second to the thirty-fourth. To take the first species in these cases would create nomenclatural chaos. For example, the type of the genus Fringilla would te Dolichonyz oryzivorus, the bobolink, a bird of a different family, thus transferring the family name Fringillide fror: the finches to a wholly dif- ferent group, rendering a new name necessary for the finch family; the type of the genus Psittacus would be Ara macao, a large long- tailed American species instead of the familiar gray parrot of Africa, and involving also the transference of the family name as well; the type of Anas would be Cygnus cygnus, a swan instead of a duck; the type of Scolopax would be an ibis instead of a snipe; and so on through the list. The same confusion would result in the case of mammals, fishes and reptiles, and doubtless in other classes. As, however, Linnzan genera are tabooed in this connection, non-Linnean genera will be con- sidered later on in this communication. In Mr. Stone’s second paper on this subject’ he states that in my reply’ to his former article’ I relied ‘mainly upon general state- **The First Species Rule versus Elimination,’ Science, N. S., Vol. XXV., No. 630, pp. 147-151, January 25, 1907. ?“ The ‘ Elimination’ and ‘ First Species’ Meth- ods of Fixing the Types of Genera,” Science, N. S., Vol. XXIV., No. 624, pp. 773-779, December 14, 1906. *“ The Relative Merits of the ‘ Elimination’ and ‘First Species’ Method in Fixing Types of Genera —with Special Reference to Ornithology,” Sct- ENcE, N. S., Vol. XXIV., No. 618, pp. 560-565, November 2, 1906. | Aprit 5, 1907] ments’ and did not prove any of his ‘ facts or figures to be inaccurate.’ Such facts and figures are of a kind one is not apt to carry ‘around in one’s vest pocket, or to have pigeon- holed ready for immediate use. Mr. Stone had the advantage of six months or more for preparation, and presented what seemed to be —and to many really was—a convincing array of statistics. From my general knowledge of the subject I felt confident that both his statistics and conclusions were misleading. I was so strongly convinced of this that I determined at once to make a thorough exami- nation of the case, primarily for my own satisfaction as to the real truth of the matter. After three months or more of pretty continuous application to the subject, I am glad of the oecasion Mr. Stone’s second article affords to make public the results. But first a few words in reference to some of the ‘points’ he has endeavored to make in his rejoinder. 1. In regard to his attempt to explain away his original statement that “ Elimination has never been practised in Europe and does not seem to be understood there,” it seems a pretty small loophole of escape, in the face of Dr. Bather’s reply* to this phase of his paper, to say (see foot-note to p. 148) that he meant ‘simply that they did not interpret the method in the way Americans have done.’ He cites the case of Passerina and Sarcorhamphus as the ‘sort of name shifting’ he ‘ claimed to be not understood abroad’; and says further, that where a first reviser had failed to fix the type on the first species “subsequent authors have frequently ignored them and have selected the first species as the type.” This is unfor- tunately true of Mr. Stone and his first species Tule associates, but is not true as a general statement of how things have been done in the past, either in Europe or in America. It would be easy to fill columns of Science with evidence in disproof of such an assumption. 2. It would take up too much space to reply in detail to the many points wherein he seems to have misunderstood or placed a ‘‘ Elimination in Fixing Genotypes,’ by Dr. F. A. Bather, Scrence, N. S., Vol. XXIV., No. 625, pp. 809, 810, December 21, 1906. SCIENCE 547 forced construction upon my statements; yet one or two points may be referred to as an illustration of the hopelessness of attempting to diffuse light where light is not desired. If he is unable to see that I have already shown that the first species method is not always so simple in application as he has claimed, and is able to exclaim with sincerity: “Surely to ascertain the first species mentioned by an author in describing a new genus we have only to look at his original description! ” and with the intention of implying that this is all there is to do under any circumstances in determin- ing types by the first species rule, reiteration of evidence already given, and the presentation of other like evidence, seem a useless waste of effort. Fixing types implies the determina- tion of the validity of genera, as this is the whole purpose of the work. It is one thing to look up a genus and see what is its first species, and another thing to determine whether this first species has not already been the first species of some other genus. This was the import of my remarks and illustrations, and they were open to no other construction. 3. Mr. Stone says, on p. 149, that “if the types of two or more genera happen to be the same by elimination the later genera become pure synonyms of the earliest”; which is quite true; but it has no bearing on the point at issue, which is that a later genus must be- come a synonym of any earlier one that has the same first species, no matter how different may be their constituents as a whole, while by elimination a heterotypic genus can be re- stricted so that the name, instead of being reduced to synonymy, may be conserved for some part of its original constituency. As an illustration we may take the genera Limosa Brisson, 1760, and Actitis Illiger, 1811. As originally constituted, Limosa contained 8 species, representing 3 modern genera; Actitis contained 4 species, representing 4 modern genera. Of these 12 species, only two were common to both genera. The first species was the same in both, namely, Scolopax limosa Linn., which by tautonomy is the type of Limosa, and by first species rule is also type of Actitis. By elimination the type of Actitis is Tringa hypoleucos Linn., the fourth and 548 last species. Actitis is currently recognized as a valid genus, with Tringa hypoleucos as type, but Mr. Stone, without hesitation, would relegate the name Actitis to synonymy and bring in some other name for the genus com- monly known as Actitis. 4. Mr. Stone says his “chief objection to the method (i. e., elimination) is that it will give different results in the hands of different workers owing to the almost infinite variety of ways in which it may be applied.” In the opening sentence of his second paper, Mr. Stone says that the ‘extravagant statements of the probable revolution that would be thus occasioned by the adoption of the first species rule in our nomenclature’ are what led to his preparing a ‘statement of the matter based on fact and not on theory.’ If anything more ‘extravagant’ than his repeated assertions about the ‘ diversity of results’ from elimina- tion and ‘ the almost infinite variety of ways’ in which it is conducted have found their way into this controversy I have yet to be apprized of them. He proceeds to illustrate this infinity of ways by citing two methods which he assumes to be in current use, one of them with two subdivisions, making in all, we will say, four ways of conducting elimination. There is always a common sense way of doing things and other ways. He says: (a) Some remove only the species which has been made the type of a subsequent genus at the date at which the genus was established. (b) Others remove along with the type any other strictly congeneric species, and here again there are two practises accordiag as we interpret congeneric to mean congeneric from the standpoint of the author of the genus, or congeneric from the standpoint of the eliminator. I am glad that Mr. Stone has put these several ‘methods’ on record, for it throws great light upon his possible points of view of elimination, and also goes far toward ex- plaining how his ‘facts and figures’ were compiled. I may here say, at the outset, that I first became aware that there was any such method as his method ‘a’ only some six months ago through correspondence with Mr. Stone, or that any one could take ‘ congeneric’ in this connection from any other standpoint SCIENCE. [N.S. Vou. XXV. No. 640 than that of the eliminator! To me both of these propositions are unthinkable, for I do not see how any results—at least, any rational results—can be obtained if “ we interpret con- generic to mean congeneric from the stand- point of the author of the genus.” The sug- gestion is on its face an absurdity, as it would permit of no elimination whatever; and we must credit the author of a genus with put- ting an assemblage of species into a single genus which he knew were only in part con- generic and in part really belonged somewhere else. Of course, an author often states that certain species are referred to a given genus provisionally, or are given as doubtfully be- longing to it. In all such cases the rules of our standard codes prohibit the taking of any such doubtfully referred species as the type of a genus. 5. In criticizing my treatment of the genus Vultur and the genera into which it became subsequently divided Mr. Stone says: “I fail to see why we have to ascertain the types of the involved genera when we eliminate Vul- tur.” In determining the type of Vultur, or of any other heterotypic genus, each of its specific components must be traced to its final generic resting-place. It is thus necessary to determine first the types of all the genera to which species of Vultur were successively re- moved. As the involved genera were also good illustrations of the working of the two methods of determining types, each was taken up in historic sequence, bringing out the fact that the status of neither Sarcorhamphus nor Gypagus could be determined by looking at the description of the genus to see what was the first species; in other words, that a knowl- edge of the literature was necessary to get correct results in nomenclature even under the first species rule. Mr. Stone, in his criticisms, has properly enough taken advantage of a pure blunder on my part in the elimination of Sarcorhamphus —an incomprehensible slip which, through haste in preparing the paper for an occasion other than its publication in Science, I over- looked and failed to observe in revising the proof. This warrants his statement that I have really, in this case, “interpreted ‘ con- } | Aprit 5, 1907] generic’ to mean congeneric from the stand- point of the original author, and not from that of the eliminator.” Nothing, however, was further from my thought or intention, for I do not admit the possibility of such an interpretation of the term ‘congeneric’ in connection with its use in elimination. It was an ‘unconscious’ slip, which most of us have now and then to regret. In reality Sarco- rhamphus, by the method of elimination is a synonym of Vultur, as it is by the first species rule. If I had put the case in my usual manner of formulating elimination cases, it could not have happened. It leaves, however, the eases of Vultur and all of the other in- volved genera without change. They may be more clearly restated as follows: Genus Vultur, 1758 6 noncongeneric species, representing 6 modern genera and two modern families, as follows: . gryphus, type of Gryphus Duméril, 1854. . harpyia, type of Harpyia Illiger, 1816. papa, type of Gypagus Vieillot, 1816. aura, type of Cathartes Illiger, 1811. barbatus, type of Gypaétus Storr, 1784. percnopterus, type of Neophron Savigny, 1808. Type, by elimination, Vultur gryphus Linn., the last species to become the type of a later genus. Genus Sarcorhamphus, 1806 3 noncongeneric species: 1. gryphus, type of Gryphus Duméril, 1854. 2. papa, type of Gypagus Vieillot, 1816. 3. auricularis, type of Otogyps Gray, 1841. Type, by elimination, Vultur gryphus Linn. Sarcorhamphus is thus a synonym of Vultur. Genus Cathartes, 1811 2 noncongeneric species: 1. papa, type of Gypagus, 1816. 2. aura. Type, by elimination, Vultur aura Linn. Genus Gypagus, 1816. 2 noneongeneric species: l. papa. 2. gryphus, type of Gryphus Duméril, 1854. Type, by elimination, Vultur papa Linn. 6. Mr. Stone emphasizes the difficulties of elimination by calling attention to two genera I have overlooked, namely, “ Rhinogryphus, SCIENCE 549 1874, and Torgos, 1828, which, respectively, antedate @/nops and Otogyps,” but which, he adds, fortunately do not alter the results of my eliminations. Space for a few words must be taken to place these ‘sins of omission’ in their true light. As to Torgos, he fails to give the author or place of publication. Torgos is not in ‘Scudder’s Nomenclator Zoologicus’ (1882-1884), nor in Waterhouse’s ‘Index Generum Avium’ (1889), nor in Richmond’s “ List of Generic Terms proposed for Birds during the years 1890 to 1900, in- clusive, to which are added Names omitted by Waterhouse in his ‘ Index Generum Avium,’ ”” nor does it appear to have been before cited since its original publication. It is one of the recent discoveries of overlooked names that have rewarded the commendable zeal of some persistent name-hunter who has not yet im- parted to the public the latest results of his labors.’ As to Rhinogryphus and @nops, they were both published in the same year, and for the incidental use I made of @nops it did not occur to me to find out which has priority, as neither is at present in current use. At this point (p. 150), Mr. Stone devotes a paragraph to what might have happened ‘if’ the dates of certain genera had been earlier than they really were. He raises the hypo- thetical possibility that “the discovery of two overlooked genera would not only replace two current genera by reason of priority, but would by elimination alter the types of three other genera. With the types fixed by the first species rule the only effect of the resur- rection of the old names would be their sub- * Proc. U. 8. Nat. Mus., XXIV., pp. 663-729, May 2, 1902. *Since writing the above I have discovered by accident the place and manner of publication of Torgos, which it seems worth while to make public. It oceurs in Jsis von Oken, Bd. XXTI, Heft 11, p. 1143, Nov., 1828, in a paper by Kaup entitled, ‘ Ueber Hyaena, Uromastix, Corythaeolus, Acontias, von Kaup.’ Under the ‘Gattung Hyena Cuv.’ is the remark: “ Diese Gattung repriisentiert die Gattung Torgos (Vultur auricularis) mihi.” So here is Torgos, a monotypic genus, with Vultur auricularis Daudin as type, in a paper devoted mainly to reptiles, in a journal with a nonalpha- betic ‘Inhalt’ and no index. } 550 stitution for the two current names having the same types.” In reply to this it is only necessary to recall that in the case of Vultur two overlooked names did not in the least affect my elimination of types. Furthermore, Mr. Stone knows, and I and some others know, that since the publication of the last supple- ment to the A. O. U. Check-List in 1904, it has been found that more than thirty of the current generic names of North American birds will have to be replaced by others solely on the ground of priority, or will be carried back to other authors and to earlier dates, without affecting the type of any of the genera involved. We can imagine almost anything. But such hypothetical speculations are hardly to be looked for from one who especially deprecates ‘ extravagant statements,’ and relies so emphatically upon ‘facts and figures.’ 7. In regard to the ‘action of revisers,’ it must be noted that there are all sorts of revisers, who in times past have revised in all sorts of ways, even to designating as types of genera species not originally contained in them, and even transferring names to groups wholly different from those for which they were originally proposed. This was pretty commonly practised prior to about 1850; yet where genera were restricted and a type properly designated, that is, in conformity to the requirements of modern codes of nomen- clature, it is of advantage to accept them, and often a distinct aid in settling complicated eases, like the large genera of early authors. If a reviser selects his type in contravention of generally accepted rules his work is not of course entitled to recognition. 8. In this connection, Mr. Stone refers to the fixing of ‘the types of the genera Cathartes, Sarcorhamphus and Gypagus by Mr. Ridgway in 1874, and independently by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe in the same year,’ and adds that it is interesting to note (foot-note, p. 150) that both authors “in each instance selected the first species as the type and one would be inclined to suspect that they were following, consciously or unconsciously, the first species rule.” But Mr. Stone fails to give us the subsequent history of this piece of SCIENCE (N.S. Vou. XXV. No. 640 work. Ten years later Mr. Ridgway and Dr. Stejneger, to whose excellent work in fixing the types of the North American genera of birds in the A. O. U. Check-List we are so greatly indebted, reversed the work of Mr. Ridgway in 1874, making aura the type of Cathartes and papa the type of Gypagus, as they have since stood in Mr. Ridgway’s ‘Manual of North American Birds,’ as well as in the Check-List. Dr. Sharpe in 1902, in his invaluable ‘ Hand-List of Birds,’ reversed his position of 1874, making aura the type of Cathartes and citing both Rhinogryphus and (Enops as synonyms of Cathartes, giving also generic recognition to Gypagus with papa as its type. Thus my recent independent deter- mination of the types and the use of these genera is in harmony with current usage by the best authorities on both sides of the At- lantic. If Ridgway and Sharpe determined the types of these genera by the first species rule in 1874, they have done otherwise since. Evidently when Mr. Stone cited this case he really had seen ‘too many Vultures’ to clearly discern the present nomenclatural con- ditions of the group—conditions which were evidently not reached by the strict application of the first species rule. 9. Mr. Stone quotes an eminent zoologist as saying that “elimination is absolutely dead and ought not to be revived in any code or thought of in any connection.” It is a suggestive ‘coincidence’ that another zoolo- gist, especially eminent in invertebrate zo- ology and a recognized authority in several classes of animals, has expressed to me the same sentiments in practically the same language about the first species rule! 10. Great emphasis is placed by Mr. Stone upon the fact that the first species has so often become the type, even where the type has been determined by elimination. I have stated that this has often resulted by ‘ coin- cidence’ rather than from a conscious reser- vation of the first species in the process of subdividing polytypie genera. There is abun- dant evidence that such is the case, but space can not here be taken to cite examples in detail. In the case of Brisson’s genera the type, by — ’ Aprit 5, 1907] tautonomy, is nearly always the first species. . In the case of Stephens’s numerous bird genera, a species is generally figured to illus- trate the genus, and this species nearly always heads his list. Naturally, in subdividing these heterogeneous groups, the illustrated species is taken as the type. In other in- stances it frequently happens that where an author proposes a genus to which he refers several species, all the species except the first were already the types, or congeneric with the types, of other genera. Sometimes the diag- nosis shows that the author based his genus primarily on the first species, and subsequent revisers, in dismembering the group, have had the good sense to restrict the original genus to this species. In the non-monotypic Lin- nean genera the currently recognized type in 44 per cent. of these genera is some other than the first species. These facts suffice to show that the type may be quite often the first species by ‘ coincidence,’ or without the conscious application of the first species rule. 11. In place of ‘ general statements’ a few facts and figures may now be presented re- specting the comparative number of name changes rendered necessary through the strict application, respectively, of the ‘ elimination’ and the ‘first species’ rules in bringing the nomenclature of the genera of the Check- List of North American Birds to a proper standard of accuracy. Mr. Stone stated in his first paper’ that the number of changes would be practically the same under each, namely, fifteen by elimination and sixteen by the first species rule. As said above, I have spent a large part of the last three months in determining the types of the genera and subgenera of the Check-List by both elimina- tion and the first species rule. The Check- List was taken as it was left by the publica- tion of the last ‘Supplement’ in July, 1904. The changes later found necessary by the Check-List Committee, being as yet not officially published, are not considered. Also, in order to show just how much truth there is in the allegations that no two eliminators ever reach the same results, owing to the "Scrence, N. 8., Vol. XXIV., p. 562. SCIENCE 551 ‘almost infinite variety of ways’ in which elimination may be applied, I have eliminated from the same basis as the original A. O. U. Committee in preparing the first edition of the Check-List, and their successors in pre- paring the second edition and its subsequent supplements; that is, I have taken the genera at the dates and from the same sources as they took them, even in the few cases where later investigation has shown that they origi- nated earlier and with a different constitu- ency. These later discoveries are considered, however, in making up the statements for comparison with Mr. Stone’s statistics, with a view to treating both phases of the subject with perfect fairness. (a) First as to the difference in results reached by different eliminators. I disclaim any knowledge of just how Mr. Ridgway and Dr. Stejneger reached their surprisingly ac- curate results. I followed my own method, strictly and consistently, and did not check up my results with the Check-List till my work was finished. The total number of errors of elimination in the Check-List suf- ficiently serious to affect generic nomen- clature is 3, which result in changing the names of 2 genera and 1 subgenus. One additional change, affecting two genera, is due to the application of the principle of tauton- omy, a rule not formulated till many years after the publication of the Check-List, and this change of names is thus not chargeable to the A. O. U. Check-List Committee as an error of elimination. The type in five other genera is transferred from one species to another strictly congeneric with it, in three of the five cases through the application of the rule of tautonomy, but in none of these five cases is a generic name affected. There are thus, all told, five errors of elimination, only three of which affect the names of species. As bearing on the question of alleged di- versity of results through elimination it may be noted that my results not only agree closely with the Check-List, but also in every case with Mr. Ridgway’s recent eliminations in ‘Birds of North and Middle America’ (Vols. I.-ITI., 1901-1904), and also almost invariably with those of the British Museum ‘ Catalogue p \ 552 of Birds,’ so far as the genera in these several works are strictly comparable. (b) As to the changes necessary to correct properly the generic nomenclature of the Check-List. Here it is necessary to take note of recent discoveries of overlooked names, and of names transferred to earlier dates, as this was doubtless Mr. Stone’s basis. This is seemingly quite a different question from that of actual errors in the Check-List elimina- tions. Although there are some thirty of these discoveries, it is surprising to find that not any of them affect the types of genera as determined by elimination. The changes necessary on the basis of elimi- nation are as follows: Podiceps (subgenus) becomes nameless. Cyclorrhynchus becomes Phaleris. Phaleris (subgenus) becomes nameless. Ceophleeus becomes Phlaotomus, (c) As to the results of the strict applica- tion of the first species rule. The changes that would surely follow such action are as follows: Colymbus becomes Podiceps. Podiceps (subgenus) becomes nameless. Phaleris (subgenus) becomes nameless. Cyclorrhynchus becomes Phaleris. Dysporus (subgenus) becomes nameless. Aiz becomes nameless,’ Erionetta (subgenus) becomes nameless. Melanitta (subgenus) becomes nameless. Actitis becomes T'ringoides. Bonasa becomes nameless. Tympanuchus becomes Bonasa, Cathartes becomes Rhinogryphus. Gypagus becomes Cathartes. Conurus becomes Conuropsis. Aphelocoma becomes Cyanurus. Acanthis becomes A’giothus. Spinus becomes nameless. Passerina becomes Plectrophenaa. Cyanospiza becomes Passerina, Poecetes becomes Zonotrichia. Zonotrichia becomes nameless. Summary.—According to Mr. Stone, the Check-List contains 124 composite genera for *That is, if A. sponsa and A. galericulata are considered as noncongeneric, as is done by various late authorities. SCIENCE (N.S. Vou. XXV. No. 640 which no type was designated by the founder, and of which the type has been fixed by ‘ elimination.’ The strict application of elimination in- volves 3 changes of names, of which 2 are generic, affecting the names of 2 species, and 1 is subgeneric, and hence does not affect the names of species. Mr. Stone’s estimate was 12 genera and 3 subgenera—an estimate over 500 per cent. greater than the reality. The strict application of the ‘ first species rule’ involves 16 changes of generic names not otherwise necessary, which affect 33 species and 18 subspecies, and 5 subgeneric names, making 21 changes in all. Mr. Stone’s estimate was 16 changes, an under-estimate of nearly 33 per cent. The ratio of the required changes by elimination is as 1 to 41 by first species rule as 1 to 8, or 5 times as many by the first species rule as by elimination. A number of other genera that would be relegated to synonymy by the first species rule are saved only by the rule of tautonomy. Seven other lamentable changes in the names of numerously represented genera of American birds come under the spirit of the first species rule and partly under its scope, although urged on the basis of priority, in disregard of a hitherto almost universally recognized principle of nomenclature—the designation of types by the founder of the genus. It has been customary in selecting types to consult the intent of the author, and to accept his types even if only inferentially designated. In 1827, Swainson published two papers on birds, one a list of a collection of birds from Mexico, the other describing many new genera; this more general paper was sent to the Zoological Journal for publication long before the other was sent to the Philosophical Magazine, which latter, however, was un- fortunately published a few months before the other. In the Zoological Journal paper were described five new genera represented in the Mexican collection reported upon in the Phi- losophical Magazine. In referring species to these unpublished genera he made a cross- reference to Zoological Journal, No. 10, where they were not only described but had their Aprit 5, 1907] types explicitly designated; and these types had been accepted by all subsequent authors, down to 1904, or for over 75 years, when it was proposed to take the first species asso- ciated with the generic name as the type, instead of the type designated by the author a few months later in the same year. In each case the generic name is transferred to a wholly different group, and different names, some of them new, have to be substituted for the groups long known under the displaced names. These names are: Ammodramus, changed to Coturniculus. Coturniculus, renamed Ammospiza. Euetheia, changed to Tiaris. Tiaris, renamed Charitospiza. Helminthophila, changed to Vermivora. Dendrornis, changed to Xiphorhynchus. Xiphorhynchus, renamed Xiphornis. These changes affect 18 species and 10 sub- species of North American birds, and about 30 species and subspecies of Mexican and South American birds. The revised A. O. U. Code (as yet un- published) has a rule to the effect that an author may designate the type of a new genus in any part of the work or paper in which the genus was originally proposed, and (by in- ference) not elsewhere. But it has happened many times in the past that an author has designated the type of his own genus in some subsequent work, and such designation has been respected as valid. It hence seems de- sirable to add to the new A. O. U. rule the following provision, namely: The type of a genus designated by its author in a publica- tion subsequent to the one in which the genus was originally proposed may be taken as its type provided that the species thus designated as type was one of the original species and had not in the meantime been made the type of some other genus. This would prevent the ruthless overturn of such long established names as those mentioned above. 12. In conclusion, a word on the subject of methods of elimination. I fail to see in elimi- nation but a single principle, the rule of priority. As Dr. Stiles has well said:’ “If *“The ‘First Species Rule’ vs. the ‘Law of Priority’ in Determining the Types of Genera,” SCIENCE. 553 this principle is just when applied to generic names, why is it not equally just when applied to the generic types?” I also fail to see how there can be more than one way of applying the rule, or anything difficult or abstruse in it, beyond a proper knowledge of the litera- ture of the subject. Experts evidently do reach the same results; those who try to apply the principle without thoughtful considera- tion of how to do it naturally meet with trouble. As said before, it is unfortunate that there has been so rarely a definite state- ment of the process, which should have long since been set forth in the codes of nomen- clature for the guidance of the inexperienced. The statement of the method given in an earlier number of Sorence (Vol. XXIV., p. 777) covers the whole matter. Where trouble arises it is not from any obscurities of the method but comes from the taxonomic side, the doubts that arise in relation to the validity or value of groups that have been set aside as genera or subgenera. But this would arise equally under any method of determin- ing types. The convenience of the first species rule is its only asset; every other consideration, as emphasized by Dr. Stiles (1. c.), scores against it. It ignores all types hitherto established under any other method, in the case of genera whose types are not determinable by one of the three universally accepted rules. As Dr. Stiles has well said, when a “type is once designated, by any method whatever, so long as the species selected was an original species, valid from the original author’s point of view, and unreservedly classified in his genus, why reopen the question?” As a matter of fact, the A. O. U. Committee in preparing the Check-List established the types of such genera of North American birds as had not had types previously properly designated, and why now reopen the cases except for cause? The proposal of a new rule, obviously dis- astrous to the stability of nomenclature, is certainly not a sufficient cause. Dr. Stiles makes reference to the rule laid down by Linnzus himself for the determina- Sorence, N. S., Vol. XXV., No. 630, pp. 145-147, January 25, 1907. f 4 4 554 tion of the types of his own genera. It is my opinion that Linnzus’s rules were fol- lowed to a larger extent by his disciples and immediate followers than we are wont to recognize. But the types of Linnewan genera in ornithology are not now a source of trouble. With the exception of two or three, of which Vultur is one, they have long been settled in a way to meet general approval. I do not apprehend that Dr. Stiles meant to suggest that any of these cases should be reopened if it is found that they were not settled in accordance with Linnzus’s own rule. Indeed, his later remarks (quoted above) seem to pre- clude such a suggestion. In stating the results of my determination of types by the two methods, as given above, it is impracticable to show the steps by which they were reached; I shall, however, publish soon elsewhere not only the basis of these results, but a complete list of all the North American genera and subgenera, with their types by both methods, where the results differ; and also showing each step in the process of elimination for all the genera to which elimination is applicable. J. A. ALLEN AMERICAN MUSEUM OF NATURAL History, New YORK CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY AND CLIMATOLOGY CUMULUS CLOUDS OVER THE SAN FRANCISCO FIRE MENTION was recently made in these notes of an observation recorded in Nature of cumulus clouds which formed ove~ the fire succeeding the San Francisco earthcuake of last year. Attention was at the time called to the fact that this was the first, and only, mention of such clouds which seems to have found its way into print. The publication of that comment in Scrence brought to the com- piler of the notes a letter from Professor George D. Louderback, of the University of California, with reference to the clouds ob- served by him on the same occasion. As the matter is of some general interest, Professor Louderback’s letter is here inserted, with the permission of the writer. From your review of Mr. Van Norden’s descrip- tion of a cumulus cloud over San Francisco at SCIENCE [N.S. Vou. XXV. No. 640 the time of the great fire, and your noting that it is the only reference to that phenomenon you had seen, I have concluded that you may be interested in a corroborative observation of mine on the same occasion. I was in Nevada at the time of the earth- quake, and as my parents and other near rela- tives lived in San Francisco I took the first train for that city, but on arriving at the Oakland pier the morning of the nineteenth I found that no one was permitted to cross by the ferries in that di- rection. I spent several hours on the water front looking for a launch that would take me over, and then had a slow trip across the bay and arrived in San Francisco about five o’clock in the after- noon. The form of the rising column of smoke im- pressed me very strongly, and I have made a num- ber of efforts since to find some one who might have taken an expressive picture of it, but so far, without success. The dark smoke rising from a large area of the city rather quickly gathered it- self together and rose to a great height as a tall column with a low conical base. At the top it spread out in a practically horizontal layer and drifted slowly to the northwest, in which direction its limit was beyond the range of vision. In fact, the first visible indication that I had of the fire was this drifting smoke cloud beyond the coast mountains seen from the train at Benecia (north of San Francisco), and looking west along the gap of Karquinez Straits. This horizontal cloud extended a very short dis- tance to the south of the main column—probably not greater than the thickness of the column. Rising above its upper surface and directly over the vertical shaft of smoke was the cumulus cloud, its upper surface forming four or five beautifully regular and pure white domes. Not only was it differentiated from the rest of the visible floating material by its form and position, but distinctly by its color and luster, and I decided that the cumulus cloud was of pure water particles, un- contaminated with the smoke particles that gave their character to the horizontal stratum. I watched it, at intervals, tor several hours and noticed but little change. It reminded me very strongly of the photographs I have seen of vol- canoes in eruption, and especially suggested the stone pine of Vesuvius. Even the form of the voleanic mountain was presented to the eye in the conical spreading base of the smoke column. As we approached the city the lowering sun was veiled by the cylinder of smoke, and later by the lower layers, and produced the most striking and weird absorption effects. It became a deep fiery a | S Aprit 5, 1907) red, sometimes mixed with various shades of brown and added, if possible, to the tension and horror of the scene. On reaching the city, it was found to be per- vaded with a sultry heat even several blocks from the fire. There was no breeze blowing—not a breath of air except the indraught and eddy cur- rents produced by the conflagration. This is an unusual condition for San Francisco and lasted, I am told, through the first two days of the fire. 1 know that a light breeze from the west or south of west sprang up late in the night of the nine- teenth and was just enough to throw the balance in favor of the fire-fighters who stopped the prog- ress of the flames in the ‘ western addition’ and the ‘mission’ districts. R. DeC. Warp THE SHALER MEMORIAL FUND At the last meeting of the corporation of Harvard University the treasurer presented the following communication specifying the terms governing the Shaler Memorial Fund, the receipt of a part of which was reported at the meeting of January 14, 1907: More than 760 alumni of Harvard Uni- versity unite in giving to the president and fellows of Harvard College the sum of thirty thousand five hundred dollars ($30,500) to establish a Shaler Memorial Fund in com- memoration of the long services of Professor Nathaniel Southgate Shaler and of the great affection in which he was held by his many students and friends. The subscribers to this fund have left the designation of its use to the undersigned com- mittee; and the committee, after consideration of various projects, concludes that the me- morial object of the fund will be best attained —first, by setting aside a sum with which the corporation shall procure a memorial tablet to be put in the geological section of the uni- versity museum, or some other suitable place as may be designated by the corporation; and second, by using the income of the balance of the fund for the benefit of the division of geology, in support of original research and in the publication of the results of research, under the following conditions: The researches here contemplated are to be undertaken by persons nominated by the com- mittee of the division of geology and ap- SCIENCE 555 pointed by the corporation, whether officers or students of Harvard University or not. The subject and the locality or field of research are to be approved by the division committee, preference being given to studies of an ad- vanced and original character. The sums of money allotted from the income for research are to be determined by the division com- mittee, with the approval of the corporation. The money appropriated for such work from the income of the fund shall be in addition to the salary that would be otherwise paid to the person or persons undertaking it; and any work or journey thus supported in whole or in part shall be carried on under the name ‘Shaler Memorial Research’ or ‘Shaler Me- morial Expedition.’ The publications here contemplated are to include the results of original research carried on with the income of the fund, or inde- pendently of such aid; but the results must in all cases receive the approval of the division committee as to subject and presentation— though not necessarily as to the conclusions stated—before they are accepted for publica- tion. All publications thus approved, whether ap- pearing in independent volumes or in some established journal, shall bear the general title, ‘Shaler Memorial Series.’ The allot- ment of money for publication shall be deter- mined in the same way as for research. Beneficiaries under the fund, either as to research or publication, may be invited by the division committee to give one or more public lectures in Cambridge on the results of their studies, under the general title ‘Shaler Me- morial Lectures,’ but no additional payment is to be made for these lectures. The income of the fund may be allowed to accumulate in case an investigation, expedi- tion, or publication of considerable magni- tude is contemplated by the division com- mittee; but it is not desired that such accumu- lation shall continue beyond a _ reasonable period of time. In addition to any future subscriptions that may be added to the fund, such part of the income as shall constitute one per cent. of the principal may be annually added to the prin- ; i 556 cipal; but action in this regard is left to the discretion of the corporation. It is wished that the fund shall be ad- ministered in accordance with the conditions indicated above, so long as the objects there stated shall be regarded as desirable by the committee of the division of geology; but if the time should come when such objects are no longer held by them to be desirable, the income may be applied to such other objects as the corporation may determine; providing only that it shall be administered as a me- morial of Nathaniel Southgate Shaler. Ropert WInNsor, W. M. Davis, Epwarp W. ATKINSON. Whereupon it was voted that the Shaler Memorial Fund be gratefully accepted upon the terms and for the uses stated in the fore- going communication, and that the president and fellows hereby record their satisfaction in the possession of such an enduring and fruitful memorial of Professor Shaler. THE INLAND WATERWAYS COMMISSION Presipent Roosevett has appointed an In- land Waterways Commission whose work will not only be of great importance for public welfare, but is also of considerable scientific interest. The objects of the president in ap- pointing the commission are clearly stated in his letter to those whom he has asked to act upon it. It is as follows: Numerous commercial organizations of the Mis- sissippi Valley have presented petitions asking that I appoint a commission to prepare and report a comprehensive plan for the improvement and control of the river systems of the United States. I have decided to comply with these requests by appointing an Inland Waterways Commission, and I have asked the following gentlemen to act upon it. I shall be much gratified if you will consent to serve. Hon. Theo. E. Burton, chairman, Senator Francis G. Newlands, Senator William Warner, Hon, John H. Bankhead, General Alexander Mackenzie, Dr. W J McGee, Mr. F. H. Newell, Mr. Gifford Pinchot, SCIENCE (N.S. Vou. XXV. No. 640 Hon. Herbert Knox Smith. In creating this commission I am influenced by broad considerations of national policy. The con- trol of our navigable waterways lies with the federal government, and carries with it corre- sponding responsibilities and obligations. The en- ergy of our people has hitherto been largely di- rected toward industrial development connected with field and forest and with coal and iron, and some of these sources of material and power are already largely depleted; while our inland water- ways as a whole have thus far received scant at- tention. It is becoming clear that our streams should be considered and conserved as great nat- ural resources. Works designed to control our waterways have thus far usually been undertaken for a single purpose, such as the improvement of navigation, the development of power, the irriga- tion of arid lands, the protection of lowlands from floods, or to supply water for domestic and manu- facturing purposes. While the rights of the people to these and similar uses of water must be re- spected, the time has come for merging local pro- jects and uses of the inland waters in a compre- hensive plan designed for the benefit of the entire country. Such a plan should consider and include all the uses to which streams may be put, and should bring together and coordinate the points of view of all users of water. The task involved in the full and orderly development and control of the river systems of the United States is a great one, yet it is certainly not too great for us to approach. ‘Che results which it seems to promise are even greater. It is common knowledge that the railroads of the United States are no longer able to move crops and manufactures rapidly enough to secure the prompt transaction of the business of the nation, and there is small prospect of immediate relief. Representative railroad men point out that the products of the northern interior states have doubled in ten years, while the railroad facilities have increased but one eighth, and it is becoming obvious that no development of the railroads pos- sible in the near future will suffice to keep trans- portation abreast of production. There appears to be but one remedy—the development of a comple- mentary system of transportation by water. The present congestion affects chiefly the people of the Mississippi Valley, and they demand relief. When the congestion of whieh.they complain is relieved, the whole nation will sha@fe-the good results. While rivers are natwrabigfesources of the first rank, they are liable to become destructive agen- cies as well, endangering life and property, and Aprit 5, 1907] some of our most notable engineering enterprises have growr out of efforts to control them. It was computed by Generals Humphreys and Abbott half a century ago that the Mississippi alone sweeps into its lower reaches and the Gulf 400,000,000 - tons of floating sediment each year (about twice the amount of material to be excavated in opening the Panama Canal), besides an enormous but un- measured amount of earth-salts and soil-matter carried in solution. This vast load not only causes its channels to clog and flood the lowlands of the lower river, but renders the flow capricious and difficult to control. Furthermore, the greater part of the sediment and soil-matter is the most fertile material of the fields and pastures drained by the smaller and larger tributaries. Any plan for util- izing our inland waterways should consider floods and their control by forests and other means; the protection of bottomlands from injury by over- flows and uplands from loss by soil-wash; the physics of sediment-charged waters and the phys- ical or other ways of purifying them; the con- struction of dams and locks, not only to facilitate navigation but to control the character and move- ment of the waters; and should look to the full use and control of our running waters and the complete artificialization of our waterways for the benefit of our people as a whole. It is not possible properly to frame so large a plan as this for the control of our rivers without taking account of the orderly development of other natural resources. Therefore, I ask that the In- land Waterways Commission shall consider the relations of the streams to the use of all the great permanent natural resources and their conserva- tion for the making and maintenance of prosperous homes. Any plan for utilizing our inland waterways, to be feasible, should recognize the means for ex- ecuting it already in existence, both in the federal departments of War, Interior, Agriculture and Commerce and Labor, and in the states and their subdivisions; and it must not involve unduly bur- densome expenditures from the national treasury. The cost will necessarily be large in proportion to the magnitude of the benefits to be conferred, but it will be small in comparison with the $17,000,- 000,000 of capital now invested in steam railways in the United States—an amount that would have seemed enormous and incredible half a century ago, Yet the investment has been a constant souree of profit to the people and without it our industrial progress would have been impossible. The questions which will come before the Inland Waterways Commission must necessarily relate to SCIENCE 557 every part of the United States and affect every interest within its borders. Its plans should be considered in the light of the widest knowledge of the country and its people, and from the most diverse points of view. Accordingly, when its work is sufficiently advanced, I shall add to the commission certain consulting members, with whom I shall ask that its recommendations shall be fully discussea before they are sumitted to me. The reports of the commission should include both a general statement of the problem and recom- mendations as to the manner and means of at- tacking it. SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS THE bodies of Berthelot and his wife were entombed in state in the Panthéon on March 25 in the presence of President Falliéres, the cabinet ministers, the diplomatic corps, mem- bers of the French Academy, judges, deputies, senators and deputations from learned socie- ties. M. Briand, minister of education made an address. Every school in France was closed as a sign of mourning. THE portrait-group of Drs. Halsted, Kelly, Osler and Welch, of the Medical School of the Johns Hopkins University, painted by Mr. John 8. Sargent, R.A., was unveiled on the evening of January 19, 1907, in McCoy Hall. The painting was hung at the south end of the hall, where the wall had been appropriately draped. The portrait-group was presented to the university by Miss Garrett and accepted on behalf of the trustees by President Remsen. The Sargent portrait of Miss Garrett was hung in the panel to the left. Dr. Welch gave an account of some of the experiences of the sitters, and Mr. Royal Cortissoz, of the New York Tribune, spoke of Sargent as an artist. At the New York meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a silver loving cup was presented to Professor W. F. Ganong by Professor G. F. Atkinson on behalf of the former members of the So- ciety of Plant Morphology and Physiology, as a token of appreciation of Professor Ganong’s long and efficient services as executive officer of that society. Art the fourth International Mathematical Congress to be held at Rome from April 6 to 11, 1908, lectures have been arranged by Pro- \ | 558 fessors G. Darboux, A. R. Forsyth, D. Hilbert, F. Klein, H. A. Lorentz, G. Mittag Leffler, S. Newcomb, E. Picard and H. Poincaré. Proressor Georce T. Lapp, who recently retired from the active duties of the chair of philosophy at Yale University, has gone from Japan to Korea, at the invitation of Marquis Ito, in the interest of the educational develop- ment of the country. Ar the close of the year Dr. George Fred- erick Wright, professor of the harmony of science and revelation at Oberlin, will become professor emeritus, retiring under the provi- sion of the Carnegie Foundation. Tue Prussian ministry of education has appointed Professor Felix Adler as Theodore Roosevelt professor in the University of Berlin for the year 1908-09, upon the nomina- tion of the trustees of Columbia University, where he holds the chair of political and social ethics. Dr. C. S. SHerrineton, professor of physi- ology at Liverpool University, has been elected a foreign corresponding member of the Bel- gian Royal Academy of Medicine. Dr. P. Cuatmers secretary of the London Zoological Society, and Mrs. - Mitchell arrived in New York on March 30. Mr. W. T. Horne has been appointed head of the department of plant pathology in the Central Agricultural Station of Cuba. Mr. W. H. Power, C.B., F.R.S., medical in- spector of the Local Government Board, has been appointed chairman of the Royal Com- mission on Tuberculosis, in succession to the late Sir Michael Foster. Dr. W. A. Ketierman, of the Ohio State University, and students, Condit and Imaly, who accompanied him, have just returned from Guatemala where the winter was spent in botanical exploration. He reports excellent success in getting interesting, rare and new plants, especially of parasitic fungi. More- over, he has planned a regular ‘ Peripatetic School of Tropical Botany’ for the successive winters beginning at the next holidays. This has been submitted to the State University authorities for approval. A very limited number of students would be accepted. SCIENCE [N. 8. Vor. XXV. No. 640 Proressor R. Metpoua, F.R.S., gave the presidential address before the Chemical So- ciety, London, on March 22, his subject being ‘The position and prospects of chemical re- search in Great Britain.” The anniversary dinner was held in the evening, when ad- dresses were made by Lord Rayleigh, Sir Wil- liam Ramsay, Professor Ray Lankester and Lord Kelvin. Tue Institution of Civil Engineers held its annual dinner in London on March 13, with Sir Alexander B. W. Kennedy in the chair. Addresses were made by Lord Kelvin, Sir Arthur Riicker and Lord Tweedmouth. At the annual meeting of the Michigan Academy of Sciences, held at Ann Arbor during the past week, Professor William H. Hobbs delivered by invitation the public ad- dress, his subject being ‘ Earthquakes viewed in a New Light.’ Proressor Atrrep ©. Lawson, of the Uni- versity of California, chairman of the Cali- fornia earthquake commission, gave an illus- trated lecture on ‘ The California Earthquake’ before the Geographical Society of Philadel- phia on April 3. Proressor GiuMan A, Drew, of the Univer- sity of Maine, lectured before the Portland Society of Natural History on March 18, on ‘ Animal Adaptation.’ On April 2, Professor John W. Harshberger, of the University of Pennsylvania, delivered a free public lecture on ‘ The Scientific Applica- tion of Ecology in the Wet and Dry Cultiva- tion of Plants,’ illustrated by lantern slides and specimens, in the lecture hall of the Acad- emy of Natural Sciences. Tue Friday evening meetings of the Royal Institution will be resumed on April 12, at 9 p.m., when Professor A. H. Church will give a discourse on ‘Conservation of Historic Buildings and Frescoes.’ Succeeding dis- courses will probably be given by Professor ©. E. Sherrington, James Swinburne, Esq., Sir James Orichton-Browne, Signor Come, Gia- como Boni, Professor G. Chrystal (assisted by E. W. Wedderburn, Esq.), Professor F. A. Fleming, A. H. Savage Landor, Esq., Professor Sir James Dewar and others. To these meet- Apri 5, 1907] SCIENCE. 559 ings members and their friends only are ad- mitted. Proressor Ernst vON BeraMann, the emi- nent German surgeon, died on March 25, after an operation for appendicitis. The seventieth birthday of Professor von Bergmann was widely celebrated on December 16 of last year. Tue Washington Evening Star states that at a meeting of the Washington Society of Engineers at the Hubbard Memorial Hall on March 26 it was announced that a plan was under way for the erection in Washington of a permanent home for the various scientific societies of the national capital. A letter was read from the Washington Academy of Sci- ences, which, through its building committee, invited the cooperation of the Washington Society of Engineers and like associations. The society by a unanimous vote decided to become a party to the movement, and an- nounced that it would pay a yearly rental of $800 for a portion of the building. It was stated that an endowment fund of $100,000 is necessary for the maintenance of the building, which sum, it is expected, will be subscribed by the various societies interested. THe Goldsmiths Company has given $50,- 000 to be used at the Rothamsted Experiment Station for investigations on soils. Tue library of Oberlin College has recently received a valuable addition through the be- quest of the late Professor Albert Allen Wright of his zoological and geological books. Tue Loubat prizes, awarded every five years by Columbia University, will be given for all works which have appeared between January 1, 1903, and January 1, 1908, which treat of the history, geography or numismatics of North America prior to 1776. The value of the first prize is not less than $1,000, and that of the second prize not less than $400, and the work of all persons, whether citizens of the United States or of any other country, will be considered. THe Harvard Officers’ Fund Association held its annual meeting on March 15. The objects of the association are indicated by the following extracts from the articles adopted in 1894: “-This association shall be known as the Harvard Officers’ Fund Association. Its members shall be limited to those persons whose names are entered as officers of govern- ment or instruction in the annual catalogue of the university at the time their first sub- scription is made. The minimum amount of the annual subscription of each member shall be $5. The funds of the association, so far as they may be derived from annual subscrip- tions or from interest thereon, shall be used by the trustees at their discretion in providing relief, ordinarily of a temporary nature, for the families of any deceased officers or for any officers distressed by illness or by other cal- amity.” The Geographical Journal states that Dr. Rudolf Péch, who, as assistant physician to the Austrian Plague Expedition in 1897 and 1902, made a name for himself by his malaria researches in West Africa, has in 1904-6, with the aid of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in Vienna, prosecuted anthropological jour- neys in New Guinea, and has also with like purpose visited New South Wales, the Solo- mon Islands and Bismarck archipelago. In these two years he has traveled along three quarters of the coast of the island of New Guinea. At five spots he stopped for some length of time, and thence wandered into re- gions of the interior, still in part wholly un- known. The material brought home with him includes 300 measurements of living persons, 15 skeletons, 80 skulls, many anatomical preparations, 1,500 photographs, more than 8,000 feet of cinematograph films (taken by bioscopic camera), representing dances and scenes of village life. Included in the collec- tion are also 90 plates for the phonographic archives of the academy, with a view to the study of the language, songs and music of the natives, and 2,000 ethnological objects. Itin- eraries of the hitherto unknown regions were kept and altitudes noted in them. We learn from Nature that Lieutenant Boyd Alexander, who, with his brother Captain Claud Alexander, Captain G. B. Gosling, Mr. P. A. Talbot (surveyor), and a Portuguese collector, left England in the spring of 1904 on an exploring expedition i ; i 4 560 across Africa, has returned to London. Cap- tain Claud Alexander died at Naifoni in No- vember, 1904, and Captain Gosling in the Ubangi-Welle region of June, 1906. Much valuable work has been accomplished. A care- ful triangulation has been carried out from Ibi, in Nigeria, to Lake Chad, and the lake itself traversed in various directions. Part of the course of the Shari was explored; from thence the Ubangi was reached, and the ex- pedition made its way northward to the little- known region where many of the Bahr-el- Ghazal tributaries rise, and down the Yei to the Nile. The expedition has been particu- larly successful in collecting specimens in natural history, including skulls, bones and skins of the okapi. THE visiting committee of the division of geology of Harvard University has provided the geological department with the funds necessary to erect a seismograph in the Uni- versity Museum. A Bash-Omori seismograph with two 100-kilogram conical pendulums, one swung in the meridian and the other east and west, will shortly be placed on a suitable foundation in the basement of the geological section. This type of instrument records earth vibrations on smoked paper carried on revolving drums operated by clock-work. One of the same general type, which has been set up in the State Museum at Albany, N. Y., for more than a year, on a clay foundation like that underlying the Harvard Station, gave complete records of the San Francisco, Val- paraiso and the great Indian earthquakes. The Harvard Station will pay particular at- tention to New England earthquakes and to the geological examination of the recent fault- lines along which it is suspected many his- torically recorded small shocks have arisen. UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS Ar a meeting of the General Education Board, held in New York City on March 26, the sum of $625,000 was conditionally appro- priated as follows: Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Me., $50,000 to- ward $250,000. SCIENCE LN. S. Vor. XXV. No. 640 Colorado College, Colorado Springs, Col., toward $500,000. Millsaps College, Jackson, Miss., $25,000 toward $100,000. Yale University, New Haven, Conn., $300,000 toward $2,000,000. Princeton University, Princeton, N. J., $200,000 toward $2,000,000. Ir is reported that the suggestion to send 500 or 1,000 American teachers next year to study the educational system of Great Britain has met with such a response that it is prac- tically certain now the pilgrimage will be made. It is understood that Mr. Alfred Moseley will make the same arrangements for the trip to England and return as he did for the British teachers—a rate of $25 for the round trip. Dr. Nicholas Murray Butler, president of Columbia University, and City Superintendent Maxwell, of the New York city schools, are the American committee. Barnett Smiru, Px.D. (Pennsylvania), has been appointed assistant professor in the geo- logical department of Syracuse University. Miss Ipa Wuiresinz, B.A. (Vassar, 1904), has been appointed assistant in astronomy in Wellesley College. In the faculty of medicine of McGill Uni- versity, Drs. F. G. Finley, H. A. Lafleur, and C. F. Martin have been made professors of medicine and clinical medicine. These pro- motions follow the death of Dr. James Stewart, who was for many years head of the department. Lorp Curzon was elected chancellor of Ox- ford University on March 14. The votes were: Lord Curzon, 1,101; Lord Rosebery, 440. Tue council of the University of Liverpool has elected Mr. John Edmond Salvin-Moore to the chair of experimental and pathological cytology, recently established by the Liverpool Cancer Research Committee. Mr. CO. G. Hewirt, has been appointed to the newly-established lectureship of economic zoology in the University of Manchester, and Mr. H. Heap has been appointed assistant lecturer in sanitary chemistry. Tue King of Spain has created a chair of automobilism at the School of Arts and Sci- ences at Madrid.