36 



IOWA ACADEMr OF SCIENCES. 



About two months ago I sent a circular letter to the members of the Academy, 

 requesting information concerning their work during the past year. The response: 

 was quite general and gratifying, although several have not been heard from. 

 This fact will explain the greater part of the discrepancies in the following resume. 



But one of our mathematicians has been heard from. Prof. L. G. Weld, of the 

 State University, has completed a work in "The Theory of Determinants," which is 

 about to be issued. Competent reviewers have given it the highest praise. The 

 subject is one involving discussion of mathematical principles of the most 

 advanced order. Prof. Weld has also nearly completed a definitive determina- 

 tion of our latitude by means of a combined .zenith and transit instrument fur- 

 nished by the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey; probable error of result 

 not > Ih of arc. 



Our chemists have carried on their hazardous occupation without loss of life. 



Prof. A. A. Bennett, has published Part I of a text-book on Inorganic Chem- 

 istry, and is now working on Part II; the whole work will embrace some seven 

 hundred printed pages. 



Prof. Floi/d Davis has published a work entitled An Elementartj Hand Book 

 on Potable Water, published by Silon, Burdette &, Co., Boston, and has, in the 

 course of preparation, a work on Water Anah/sis, Chemical, Microscopical and 

 Biological. He has also been working on a basis for Sanitary Analysis of Water. 



Prof. W. S. Hendrixon has been carrying on investigations in chloe-nitro- 

 iolnicline. He has prepared six of these bodies, including their acid derivations, 

 and determined their constitution. 



Prof. G. E. Patrick has published conjointly with F. A. Leighton and D. B. 

 Bisbee a series of experiments on "Sweet versus Sour Cream Butter."' He 

 doubtless has published other papers during the year, of which I have obtained nO' 

 list. The ranks of our geologists have been thinned by the removal of Profs. 

 Haivorth and Todd, but the remainder have been working all the harder. 



Dr. S. Calvin, State Geologist, has published the following papers:^ -'Report on 

 Some Fossils Collected in the Northwest Territories, Canada, by naturalii-ts from 

 the University of Iowa; illustrated, giving a description of Pentamerus dicussntus 

 Whitearos. "Two Unique Spirifers from the Devonian Strata of Iowa;" illus- 

 trated; a description of Spirifera tirbana Calvin, and Spirifera machridii Cal- 

 vin. "A Geological Reconnoissance in Buchanan county, Iowa," in which a rec- 

 tified section of Devonian strata is presented, in which seven strata are represented. 

 "Notes on a Collection of Fossils from the Lower Magnesian Limestone from 

 Northeastern Iowa," in which the following new species are described: Strapnr- 

 ollus claytonensis, Straparollus pristiniformis, Raphistorna multivolvatum, Rap- 

 historna pancivolvatum and Ci/steceras luthii. 



Dr. Calvin has also published numerous reviews and editorials in the American 

 Geologist,. besides organizing and getting under way the Geological Survey of 

 Iowa. 



Dr. Charles R. Kei/es has completed and sent to press during the past year his re- 

 port for the Missouri Geological Survey on the Paleontology of Missouri, embracing 

 about 600 royal octavo printed pages and over sixty plates— 600-700 figures, and 

 large colored geological map of the State; also a report for the U. S. Geological 

 Survey on the Granites of Maryland including about 100 pages of text and fifteen 

 full paged plates— some of them colored. For the forthcoming annual report of the 



iBulletin No. IS, Iowa Agricultural Experiment Station. 



2Bulletin from the Laboratories of Natural History of the State University of Iowa 

 Vol. II, No. 2. 



