848 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



In Section F, Biology, Prof. S. H. 

 Gage, of Cornell University, set forth 

 The Comparative Physiology of Respi- 

 ration, in his address as vice-president. 

 Respiration, he said, is a mere mechani- 

 cal help to enable oxygen to permeate 

 living substance. Oxidation is not direct 

 in the living tissue, as in a burning can- 

 dle, but the tissue takes the oxygen and 

 makes it an integral part of itself as it 

 does carbon and other elements, and 

 when finally energy is freed the oxida- 

 tion occurs and carbon dioxide appears 

 as a waste product. An animated de- 

 bate in this section turned upon Weiss- 

 mann's criticisms of the Darwinian the- 

 ory that characteristics acquired dur- 

 ing the individual life are transmitted 

 to offspring. Prof. Manly Miles cited 

 Dr. Dallinger's experiments in support 

 of Darwin's view. These experiments, 

 conducted continuously for seven years, 

 had gradually brought micro-organisms, 

 extremely rapid in their rate of repro- 

 duction, to enduring a temperature of 

 158 Fahr. ; their normal temperature 

 having been 60. Prof. C. V. Riley re- 

 marked that most insects are born or- 

 phans; if they do not inherit character- 

 istics acquired through the experience of 

 their ancestors, how can they come into 

 the world so richly endowed in aptitude 

 and instinct, and what can so clearly 

 difference the instinct of one insect from 

 that of another ? In this section the 

 pressure of papers has of late years been 

 so excessive that it was decided to divide 

 the section in two: what in future will 

 be known as Section F will take zoology 

 for its field, and Section G (G being 

 hitherto an unappropriated letter) will 

 be devoted to botany. It is proposed 

 that during each annual meeting a day 

 shall be set apart for joint sessions, 

 when papers occupying ground common 

 to zoology and botany will be read and 

 discussed. 



In H, the Anthropological Section, 

 Mr. W. H. Holmes, as vice-president, 

 delivered an address on The Evolution 

 of ^Esthetics. Prof. F. W. Putnam out- 



lined the archfeological and ethnological 

 exhibits to be presented under his direc- 

 tion at Chicago next year. He has a 

 staff of some seventy explorers at work 

 gathering anthropometrical statistics 

 and collecting material. His reproduc- 

 tions of Indian settlements will repre- 

 sent aboriginal life in North, Central, 

 and South America. The Canadian 

 Government, through Prof. "William 

 Saunders, of Ottawa, will extend im- 

 portant co-operation ; the New York 

 State Commissioners for the World's 

 Fair will provide an Iroquois stockaded 

 village, with its characteristic long house 

 of bark. 



In the absence of Mr. S. Dana Hor- 

 ton, Section I, that of Economics and 

 Statistics, chose Prof. Lester F. Ward as 

 its vice-president. His thoughtful and 

 provocative address treated The Psy- 

 chological Basis of Social Economics. 

 Economists, he said, have laid undue 

 stress on the biological forces, the 

 strictly individualistic aims, to be ob- 

 served in human society. As intelli- 

 gence and sympathy increase, the effect 

 is that purely animal impulses are not 

 simply qualified, but often reversed ; 

 competition steadily gives place to an 

 ordered co-operation which, in the end, 

 is much more gainful to all concerned 

 than the first estate of universal con- 

 flict. The question as to what is best 

 to be done with the municipal services 

 which are in their nature monopolies, 

 received some elucidation at the hands 

 of Prof. E. W. Bemis, of the University 

 of Chicago. He brought down to date 

 his studies of municipal gas-works, 

 maintaining that they had yielded sub- 

 stantial benefits as contrasted with 

 works in corporate hands. Danville 

 and Alexandria, Va., and Wheeling, 

 W. Va., he said, operate their electric 

 lighting as well as their gas supply mu- 

 nicipally; and more than one hundred 

 towns and cities in the United States 

 own and manage electric-lighting plants. 



The Entomological Club, which met 

 concurrently with the A. A. A. S., 



