THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



381 



Trelease, Birge, Forbes and Cattell were 

 the speakers, considered the interrela- 

 tions of our scientific societies. There 

 was a consensus of opinion that we 

 should develop local centers for scien- 

 tific meetings, but must have also na- 

 tional societies, and that these should 

 be united in a great association repre- 

 senting the whole country and all the 

 societies. The practical outcome was 

 the decision of all the societies to meet 

 next winter in Washington. 



With the American Society of Natu- 

 ralists met at Chicago the national 

 scientific societies devoted to morphol- 

 ogy, physiology, anatomy, bacteriology, 

 psychology and anthropology. The 

 American Chemical Society met at the 

 same time at Philadelphia with an at- 

 tendance of over two himdredand a full 

 program. The Society now contains 

 over 2,000 members, and is perhaps the 

 strongest and best organized of our 

 special scientific societies. It conducts 

 an excellent journal, has numerous 

 local branches which hold frequent 

 meetings, and is affiliated with the 

 American Association. At the recent 

 meeting Professor F. W. Clarke gave 

 the presidential address, dealing with 

 the outlook for chemistry in the future 

 \'iewed in the light of the past, and Pro- 

 fessor C. F. Chandler lectured on the 

 electrochemical industries of Niagara 

 Falls. The Geological Society of Amer- 

 ica also met during convocation week, 

 the place being Rochester, N. Y., and 

 the time December 21 to January 2. 

 The president, Dr. Charles D. Waleott, 

 gave an address on 'The Outlook of 

 the Geologist in America,' and the pro- 

 gram contained the titles of some thirty 

 papers. The Astronomical and Astro- 

 physical Society of America met at 

 Washington, while the American Mathe- 

 matical and Physical Societies and the 

 Society for Plant Morphology and 

 Physiology of the Eastern States met 

 in New York. All these societies will 

 meet next winter with the American 

 Association for the Advancement of 

 Science at Washington during convoca- 



tion week, where there will be a con- 

 gress of American scientific men sur- 

 passing in size and importance all its 

 predecessors. 



WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY. 



As all our readers know from the 

 daily papers, Mr. Marconi has succeeded 

 in transmitting wireless signals across 

 the Atlantic from Cornwall, England, 

 to St. John's, Newfoundland. The elec- 

 trical waves were received at St. John's 

 by a long wire suspended by a kite and 

 by means of a telephone, presumably 

 through the mediation of a coherer. A 

 detailed description of Mr. Marconi's 

 latest apparatus has not been pub- 

 lished. However, some results obtained 

 by him several months ago show that 

 his apparatus has been improved in its 

 selective action, and this latest achieve- 

 ment shows that little remains to be 

 done in the way of increase of power. 

 Nevertheless there seem to be decided 

 limitations to the utilization of vsdre- 

 less telegraphy; it is at present much 

 slower than the standard Morse appa- 

 ratus using a wire, the receiving oper- 

 ator cannot interrupt the sender but 

 must wait patiently until the message 

 is finished, there is no assurance of 

 secrecy, and but one system can be 

 operated at a time within the limits of 

 its range. 



A map of the world showing all cable 

 connections is a very complicated affair, 

 and the supplanting of these cables by 

 wireless apparatus is out of the ques- 

 tion, at least until the Marconi sys- 

 tem is evolved into something very dif- 

 ferent from what it now is. The facts 

 may be made clear by an acoustical 

 analogy. The ordinary confusions of 

 sounds in a stock exchange is bad 

 enough, but if the manifold and char- 

 acteristic shadings of voice were re- 

 duced to a monotony of mere clicks and 

 if the resolving or selective power of 

 the listener's ear were at the same time 

 reduced many thousands of times the 

 confusion would become hopeless in- 

 deed. The loudness of each speaker 



