THE PRO GEE SS OF SCIENCE 



619 



fected, and this irrespective of whether 

 it is the male or the female that has 

 been given alcohol. If these experi- 

 ments are confirmed, it appears that 

 the paternal germ cells may be atfeeted 

 so as to be incapable of producing nor- 

 mal offspring. Dr. Eouse gave an ac- 

 count of his successful attempts to 

 isolate the active agent which produces 

 sarcoma in chickens, which may prove a 

 step forward in the explanation of the 

 cause of cancer. Dr. Vaughan ex- 

 plained how he had split up the protein 

 molecule and obtained a highly poison- 

 ous body, Dr. Eussell the methods he 

 had used to produce immunity to ty- 

 phoid fever, and Dr. Carrel the experi- 

 ments by which he had kept the heart 

 muscle alive outside the body. Papers 

 on botany were presented by Professor 

 Farlow and Dr. Trelease; on paleontol- 

 ogy, by Professor Scott and Dr. Wal- 

 cott; on exploration and discovery by 

 Professor Bingham and General Greely. 

 The papers in the exact sciences were 

 as important as those in the natural 

 sciences, and were fully as interesting, 

 in spite of the greater difficulty of 

 presenting such subjects before a gen- 

 eral audience. Professor Wood gave 

 the evening lecture before the recep- 

 tion, his subject being "The study of 

 nature by invisible light." The lec- 

 ture was elaborately illustrated and in- 

 cluded his curious and beautiful photo- 

 graphs taken with ultra-red light. In 

 a more technical paper. Professor Wood 

 showed the selective reflection of gas 

 molecules, which he has photographed. 

 Professor Webster described his method 

 of measuring the sound transmitted 

 through walls; Professor Magie, the 

 thermal relations of solutions; Dr. Day, 

 the measurement of temperatures up to 

 750 degrees C, and Dr. Bauer, the re- 

 sults of the magnetic observations made 

 on the yacht Carnegie. In astronomy, 

 there was a symposium on stellar spec- 

 troscopy. Dr. Campbell explained the 

 work which has been done, largely at 

 the Lick Observatory, on radial veloc- 

 ity; Dr. Pickering, the important woik 

 of the Harvard Observatory on photo- 



I graphing the spectra of the stars. 

 Papers of equal importance in chem- 

 istry and in other sciences were pre- 

 sented. Altogether they represent a 

 group of contributions to science which 

 will compare favorably with any that 



I could at the present time be presented 

 before any society in any country. 



THE FOBEIGN-BOBN POPULA- 

 TION OF NEW YORK CITY 



The Census Bureau has given out 

 a preliminary statement of the distri- 

 bution of the foreign-born population 

 of New York in 1910. The numbers 

 are about 2,700,000 in the state and 

 about 1,900,000 in the city of New 

 York, approaching in the latter case 

 one half of the total population, and 

 far exceeding this, if the native chil- 

 dren born to foreign parents are in- 

 cluded. In both New England and the 



I middle states considerably more than 

 half the population is of foreign 



\ parentage and the proportion is in- 

 creasing with great rapidity. The dis- 

 tribution of the foreign-born population 

 is of special interest. It is well known 



i that the Eussians, Italians and Aus- 



] trians have been increasing far more 

 rapidly than the Germans and Irish, 

 but the actual figures are truly sur- 

 prising. In 1850 forty-three per cent, 

 of the foreign-born • population of the 

 United States was Irish, fourteen per 

 cent. English, three per cent. Scotch, 

 twenty-six per cent. German, seven per 

 cent. Canadian, leaving only seven per 

 cent, from all other nations. In 1900 

 the percentage of Germans had re- 

 mained about the same, the percentage 

 of Irish had decreased by about six- 

 teen, and the influx from Eussia, Italy 

 and Austria Hungary had become no- 

 ticeable. In the figures now given out 

 for New York City, we find that there 

 are 45,000 fewer Germans and 22,500 

 fewer Irish than there were ten years 

 ago. On the other hand, the Italian 

 population shows an increase of nearly 

 200,000, being now 340,000. New York 

 C-ty is now an Italian city nearly as 



