PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY AND AFFILIATED 



SOCIETIES 



THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The 98th meeting of the Washington Academy of Sciences, a joint 

 meeting with the Biological Society, was held on Thursday, March 11, 

 1915, at 8.30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the New National Museum. 

 Mr. Wilfred H. Osgood, of the Field Museum of Natural History, 

 gave a lecture on Fur seals and other animals on the Priblof Islands. 



Mr. Osgood was engaged in a special investigation of the fur seal 

 question for the Department of Commerce during the summer ' of 



1914, and therefore had had unusual opportunities to become well 

 informed on this subject, which he discussed from both the biological 

 and economic standpoints. The life history of the seal and other ani- 

 mals that inhabit or frequent the Priblofs was explained and made 

 especially vivid by numerous lantern slides and by motion pictures. 



The 99th meeting of the Academy was held Thursday, March 18, 



1915, at 4.45 p.m., in the Auditorium of the New National Museum. 

 Dr. Arthur L. Day, Director of the Geophysical Laboratory of the 

 Carnegie Institution, gave an illustrated lecture on The volcano Kilauea 

 in action. Dr. Day explained that the somewhat hazardous and un- 

 comfortable trip into the crater was made for the purpose of studying 

 the processes, chemical and physical, that take place in active volcanoes. 

 By the accidental formation of a lava dome over active molten lava a 

 rare opportunity was offered, and fully utihzed, for collecting a con- 

 siderable quantity of volcanic gases before there had been any opportun- 

 ity for contamination with the atmosphere. These had been studied 

 in detail and, among other important results, the presence of consider- 

 able quantities of water vapor definitely confirmed. 



The 100th meeting of the Academy was held Thursday, March 25, 

 1915, at 4.45 p.m. in the Auditorium of the New National Museum. 

 Dr. N. A. Cobb, of the Bureau of Plant Industry, gave an illustrated 

 lecture on Nematodes, their relations to mankind and to agriculture. 

 It was explained that nematodes are amost universal in distribution; 

 that they abound in every soil, swarm in the depths of the ocean, prey 

 on all vegetation, infest animals of every species and man of every race. 

 If forests and cities should disappear, leaving behind only their nema- 

 todes, it would be quite possible for the scientist, judging by the num- 

 bers and the species involved, accurately to locate not only every one 

 of the lost cities and every vanished forest, but even in great measure, 



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