THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE 



103 



stars may be sighted. It appears that 

 captains have been aware of these sys- 

 tematic errors and have learned how to 

 make allowance for them, but their 

 precise cause has not been known until 

 this work of the Carnegie. 



Another feature in which consider- 

 able interest attaches is the develop- 

 ment of the producer-gas engine for t he 

 purposes of auxiliary marine propul- 

 sion. The Carnegie is said to be the 

 first sea-going vessel equipped with 

 such a plant. Her engine is of 150 

 horse-power, sufficient to drive her six; 

 knots in calm weather and give her a 

 cruising radius of 2.000 miles with a 

 coal consumption of but 25 tons, or at 

 a cost of about $100. 



THE CONVOCATION WEEK MEET- 

 INGS AT BOSTON 

 The American Asociation for the 

 Advancement of Science and the na- 

 tional scientific societies affiliated with 

 it will meet at Boston, beginning on 

 December 27. There is good reason to 

 look forward to a meeting of unusual 

 interest, perhaps to the largest and 

 most important scientific gathering in 

 the history of the country. In the 

 summer of 1898 the American Asso- 

 ciation celebrated at Boston the fiftieth 

 anniversary of its foundation with 903 

 members in attendance, almost the 

 largest meeting up to that time, the 

 largest having also been held in Boston 

 — in 1880 — with an attendance of 997. 

 In 1898 the membership of the asso- 

 ciation w T as 1,729 ; it is now over 8,000. 

 In the meanwhile, beginning with the 

 Washington meeting of 1902-3, the 

 convocation week meetings have been 

 organized, and the national scientific 

 societies devoted to the natural and 

 exact sciences meet together during the 

 week following Christmas. The attend- 

 ance of scientific men at these meetings 

 has been in the neighborhood of two 

 thousand, and the number of scientific 

 papers presented has approached a 

 thousand. The meeting has become 

 more technical in character, and it 



seems that the interests of those not 

 professionally engaged in scientific 

 work have been somewhat neglected. 

 At the Boston meeting, however, it is 

 proposed to leave the special papers to 

 the special societies, while the associa- 

 tion and its twelve sections will present 

 programs of general interest. 



Dr. T. C. Chamberlin, of the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago, eminent as a geol- 

 ogist and for his seiwices to education, 

 will, as retiring president, give the 

 annual address on the evening of 

 Monday, December 27. The address 

 will be at the Sanders Theater, Har- 

 vard University, and will be followed 

 by a reception in Memorial Hall. The 

 vice-presidential addresses will be given 

 by Professor Keyser, of Columbia Uni- 

 versity; Professor Sumner, of Yale 

 University; Professor Herrick, of the 

 University of Chicago; Professor 

 Guthe, of the University of Michigan; 

 Professor Richards, of Columbia Uni- 

 versity; Professor Kahlenberg, of the 

 University of Wisconsin; Professor 

 Howell, of the Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity; Professor Swain, of Harvard 

 University ; Professors Dewey and 

 Woodworth, of Columbia University. 

 All these addresses should be of in- 

 terest to a wide audience, and each 

 section is expected to arrange a dis- 

 cussion or series of papers that will 

 not be technical in character. 



The special societies meeting at Bos- 

 ton cover practically the whole range 

 of the natural and exact sciences. The 

 American Society of Naturalists has 

 this year arranged a program devoted 

 to problems of experimental evolution, 

 which includes papers by the leading 

 workers in this subject. The address 

 of the president, Professor T. H. Mor- 

 gan, of Columbia University, is on 

 " Cause or Purpose in the Evolution 

 of Adaptations." The American Chem- 

 ical Society, which is the largest of the 

 special societies, must be divided into 

 numerous sections for the reading of 

 papers. There are, however, general 

 sessions, before one of which Dr. Whit- 



