SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS 261 



in line with the laboratory work which the Department of Agriculture 

 has been doing in testing the nutritive value of foods. 



The central hall and auditorium of the National Museum have been 

 turned over to the Bureau of War Risk Insurance, which is also occupy- 

 ing a part of the main floor of the Museum. It will be necessary, 

 therefore, to hold the scientific sessions of the National Academy this 

 year in the hall of the Smithsonian Institution. 



The spring meeting of the American Physical Society, which has 

 been held in Washington each year (excepting 1912) for the past 

 twelve years, has been transferred to New York this year on account 

 of the difficulty of obtaining accommodations in Washington. The 

 meeting will be held at Columbia University on Saturday, April 27, 

 1918. 



The annual conference of State Geologists was held in Washington 

 at the U. S. Geological Survey on April 3 and 4, 1918, A reception 

 to the geologists was given by the Geological Society of Washington 

 at the Interior Department on the night of Thursday, April 4. 



Dr. F. L. Ransome, of the Geological Survey, has recently returned 

 from an extended field investigation of the quicksilver resources of the 

 nation. 



The following persons have become members of the Academy since 

 the last issue of the Journal: Mr. Andrew Nelson Gaud ell, U. S. 

 National Museum, Washington, D. C.; Dr. Charles Wythe Cooke, 

 U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D. C; Mr, Harlan W. Fisk, 

 Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, Washington, D. C; Capt. Edward Elway Free, In- 

 spection Division of the Ordnance Department, War Department, 

 Washington, D. C; Mr. John B. Henderson, 16th St. and Florida 

 Ave., Washington, D. C; Dr. Charles Dwight Marsh, Bureau of 

 Animal Industry, Department of Agriculture, Washington, D. C; 

 Mr. P. L. RicKER, Bureau of Plant Industry, Department of Agricul- 

 ture, Washington, D. C. 



THE PETROLOGISTS' CLUB OF WASHINGTON 



The fiftieth meeting of the Petrologists' Club, held on February 

 19, 1918, at the home of Whitman Cross, seems a fitting occasion to 

 review briefly the work of the Club during its first eight years of exist- 

 ence, particularly as no report of its meetings and discussions has 

 heretofore been published. 



The Petrologists' Club of Washington was organized on January 

 25, 1910, by a small group of representatives from the Geological 

 Survey and the Geophysical Laboratory. The purpose of the organ- 

 izers was to provide for the discussion of petrologic problems from all 

 points of view, including those of the physicist and chemist as well as 

 those of the geologist and petrologist ; to make the discussion much more 

 informal than was felt to be possible in the public meetings of the 



