Journal of Applied Microscopy. 243 



The Meeting of the Affiliated Scientific Societies. 



The American Society of Naturalists, with its seven affiliated scientific socie- 

 ties, met in New York, at Columbia University, on December 28 and 29. The 

 American Chemical Society met at New York on December 27 and 28, and the 

 New York State Science Teachers' Association held its annual meeting at the 

 Teachers' College, which is now under the management of Columbia University, 

 December 29 and 30. 



The meetings were attended by investigators and teachers from all parts of 

 the country, and into the four days were crowded reports of investigations that 

 the professors had carried on between working hours, experiments to demonstrate 

 recent discoveries, and, among the teachers, discussions regarding the best way 

 to develop more scientists. 



In the intervals between meetings there were illustrated lectures, visits to the 

 American Museum of Natural History, and to the New York Botanical Garden, 

 receptions, and the annual dinner of the affiliated societies at the Hotel Savoy. 



At a downtown meeting of the chemists, experiments were performed with 

 liquid air, but as the gentleman declined to repeat the demonstrations at the 

 university, many were unable to see them. 



Among the interesting things on exhibition, was a collection of animal forms 

 taken in Egypt during a search for material on which to work out the development 

 of polypterus, and a live polypterus was also shown. It was announced that 

 specimens from the Egyptian collection would be given, on application, to 

 competent investigators for study. 



The American women's table at the Zoological station of Naples was 

 reported as being vacant. Applications for the table will be received by the 

 secretary. Dr. Ida H. Hyde, No. 1 Berkely St., Cambridge, Mass. 



Among so many meetings held at the same time, it was impossible to hear all 

 the papers that one might wish to in the different sections. 



Dr. H. S. Jennings reviewed his work on the " Laws of Chemotaxis in Para- 

 mcecium." The question as to which activities of animals are purposeful, and 

 which are merely mechanical responses to stimuli, has received considerable 

 attention, and this study of the paramoecium was made for the purpose of an- 

 swering that question as far as possible, for a one-celled organism. 



Different acids and alkalies were tried and the paramoecia were found to be 

 positively chemotactic toward weak solutions of acid, negatively chemotactic toward 

 weak alkaline solutions, and negative to strong solutions of either. All the protec- 

 tive movements of paramoecium depend upon negative chemotaxis. Positive 

 chemotaxis is inactive and exists only as the absence of negative chemotaxis. A 

 paramoecium will swim in all directions until it comes in contact with a negative 

 substance, which it will avoid, and when it has once entered a positive drop of 

 fluid it becomes negatively chemotactic to its surroundings. 



The negative reaction is always the same, the paramoecium, by turning toward 

 the aboral cilia, turns over and swims off, and these motions will be performed 

 even if they result in carrying the organism into the negative fluid instead of out 



