June, 1912.] Meetings of Biological Club. 549 



MEETINGS OF THE BIOLOGICAL CLUB. 



Orton Hall, February 12, 1912. 



The Biological Club met at 7:30 p. m. with the president, 

 W. M. Barrows, presiding. The program of the evening consisted 

 of an interesting and instructive lecture, "Among the White 

 Mountains" by J. C. Hambleton. 



For several years Mr. Hambleton has had charge of a boys' 

 cam]3 located in southwestern New Hampshire near the Connect- 

 icut River. During the course of his lecture a goodly number of 

 fine lantern slides were shown. The lecture was particularly 

 valuable in showing the many interesting physiographic, geological, 

 floral and aesthetic features of the region around the camp; and 

 particularly those incident to a trip in the White Mountains and 

 the climbing of Mt. Washington. 



Professors Schaffner and Osbom gave brief reports of a few of 

 the more interesting papers presented at the Washington meeting 

 of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 



Dr. R. J. vSeymour and Mr. Charles F. Stiles were elected to 

 membership. 



Ortox Hall, March 4, 1912. 



The Club was called to order at 7:45 p. m. by the president. 

 The first subject of the evening was by Prof. C. J. West on "The 

 Law of Probability. ' ' Prof. West spoke of the necessity of 

 mathematical knowledge on the part of the biologist who is doing 

 statistical work. While this w^ork does not require very difficult 

 matheinatics it does require great care to avoid errors. 



The development of statistical work was shown from its 

 beginning in solving the problems of the gambler to its present 

 status. Since a finite number of measurements is never absolutely 

 correct this science is now used in all the more delicate experi- 

 mental sciences as a corrector of our erroneous senses. By this 

 means also a set of constants may be made to stand for a great 

 series of unintelligible data. Prof. West explained the develop- 

 ment of a number of the formulae as those for the law of mortality, 

 the law of probability and the probable error. 



J. L. King read an interesting paper on "The Life of Galton. " 

 Galton was one of the earliest scientists to use the statistical 

 methods. 



R. D. Whitmarsh was elected to membership. 



