Record. xxxvii 



may be stored in both forms simultaneously. In the first case, that 

 is, single energy circuits, the dissipation of energy is gradual; in 

 the second case the dissipation of energy takes place by means of 

 an oscillating current. 



There was then discussed the question of the oscillating currents 

 that may be produced in a transmission line, and it was shown that 

 the oscillation may give rise to excessive and dangerous voltages and 

 currents which must be guarded against to prevent a breakdown. 

 Following this, the speaker discussed the conditions obtained in a 

 transformer at the moment of switching such a device on to a live 

 circuit, and it was shown that a transient condition existed for a short 

 period during which very excessive currents might be produced in the 

 transformer windings. 



Finally, the short circuit conditions in large alternating current 

 generators were described, showing that dangerous rises of voltage 

 accompanied by a rush of current could occur, and the measures em- 

 ployed to prevent this condition were explained. 



Dr. Chas. H. Turner gave an illustrated account of 

 ''Results of Recent Experiments on the Homing of 



Ants." 



On account of the remarkable complexity of their behavior ants 

 have been studied by many investigators. For convenience these 

 students may be divided into four groups. 



The first school, of which Bethe is the most noted member, claims 

 that ants are mere machines that respond to certain stimuli, always 

 with the fixed actions or set of actions. The most complex activities 

 of ants are but unconscious mechanical responses to diverse stim- 

 uli. In other words the life of these creatures is a round of mechan- 

 ical responses to tropisms. For them there is no content of con- 

 sciousness. Heliotropism, galvanotropism, stereotropism, polarized 

 trails, etc., explain all of their behavior. They do not learn. All re- 

 flexes may not be possible at birth, because the physical mechanism 

 is not yet perfected; but, once the mechanism has responded, there- 

 after under the same conditions, it always responds to the same stim- 

 ulus in the same manner. 



The second school, to which may be assigned Pieron, admits that 

 reflex actions, some of which are connate and some of which are de- 

 ferred, do not fully explain the habits of ants. According to it, the 

 so-called instincts of these creatures are decidedly plastic. They 

 profit by experience; but not by associating present sensations with 

 revived sensations, nor by inference, nor by any of the higher forms 

 of rational thought, but by what Morgan, Thorndike and others have 

 called the method of trial and error. 



The third school, to which belong Emery, Forel, Lubbock, Was- 

 mann and others, holds that ants have elementary feelings, elemen- 

 tary ideas, and even what the English have called association of 

 ideas, but that they do not have rational thoughts and emotions. 



