ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



45 



who were to confer with the British commit- 

 tee. It seems probable now that no such Con- 

 gress will for the present be organized. 



The proceedings were interrupted on the 

 6th and 7th ; and on Monday, the 8th, more 

 papers were read, and receptions were offered 

 the members of the Association by the Uni- 

 versity of Pennsylvania and the Woman's Med- 

 ical College. One of the notable papers of this 

 day was presented by Thomas Hampson, in Sec- 

 tion I, treating of the apprenticeship system, 

 and the possibility of substituting therefor 

 technical training by lectures or trade-schools. 

 On the next day the election of officers for 

 1885 took place, with the following result : 



President. Prof. H. A. Newton, of Yale. Vice- 

 Presidents. Section A: J. M. Van Vleck, of Middle- 

 town, Conn. ; Section B : Prof. C. F. Brackett, Prince- 

 ton College ; Section C : William E. Nichols, Boston ; 

 Section D: Prof.S. BurkittWebb, Cambridge ; Section 

 E : Prof. Edward Orton, Columbus, Ohio ; Section F : 

 Prof. B. G. Wilder, Cornell University ; Section G : 

 Prof. S. H. Gage, Cornell ; Section H : Prof. William 

 H. Ball, Washington ; Section I : Prof. Edward At- 

 kins, Boston. Permanent Secretary. Prof. F. W. 

 Putnam, of Cambridge (re-elected). General Secre- 

 tary. Charles SedgwicK Minot, Boston. Assistant 

 General Secretary. C. C. Abbott, Trenton. Secre- 

 taries of the Sections. Section A : E. W. Hvde, of 

 Cincinnati; Section B : Prof. A. A. Michaelson, of 

 Cleveland, Ohio ; Section C : Prof. F. P. Punning- 

 ton, University of Virginia ; Section D : C. J. Wood- 

 bury, Boston ; Section E : Prof. H. Carvill Lewis, 

 Philadelphia ; Section F : M. C. Fernald, Maine ; Sec- 

 tion G : W. H. Walmsley, Philadelphia ; Section II : 

 Chairman, Prof. Ball ; Secretary, Mrs. Erminnie A. 

 Smith, New Jersey; Section I: J. W. Chickering. 



This is the first time in the history of the 

 society that a woman has been elected an offi- 

 cer of a section. Mrs. Smith had attracted 

 much attention the week before at the Mont- 

 real meeting of the British Association, where 

 her paper on the Iroquois Indians had been 

 favorably received. The next place of meet- 

 ing was also chosen Bar Harbor, Maine, with 

 Ann Arbor, Mich., as a second choice, in the 

 discretion of the Secretary, if found more suit- 

 able. The general meeting closed with the 

 adoption of resolutions, prepared by Prof. 

 Trow bridge, asking Congress to provide at 

 once for the extension of geodetic and to- 

 pographic surveys over the whole country, 

 without regard to State boundaries. In the 

 Anthropological Section another paper on the 

 Omaha Indians was read by Mr. Frank La 

 Flesche, a full-blooded Omaha. In the same 

 section Prof. Edwards Morse read a paper en- 

 titled " An Interview with a Corean." It was 

 most interesting, and excited a great deal of 

 attention. The chair was occupied during its 

 reading by Prof. Kubuchu, of the University 

 of Tokio. On the following day various ex- 

 cursions to the West and North were arranged 

 for. One feature of the proceedings was a 

 paper, read in Section H, by Prof. Graham 

 Bell, on " The Evolution of a Race of Deaf- 

 Mutes in America." He asserted that con- 

 genital deafness was on the increase, and was 

 hereditary to the fourth generation in some 



cases. He advocated a mingling of the deaf 

 and dumb with the rest of the people. When 

 the last day of the session, Sept. llth, was 

 reached, only six of the nine sections were nn- 

 adjourned. Most of the papers were technical. 

 In the Section of Geology a paper of general 

 interest, by Prof. H. Carrington Bolton, of 

 Trinity College, and Prof. Alexis A. Julien, of 

 Columbia College, was read. Its subject was 

 " Musical Sand," a variety that produces a long, 

 musical sound, like the note of a violin, when 

 it is compressed. In the Chemical Section, 

 Prof. A. Vernon Harcourt spoke, by special 

 invitation, on "Minute Study of Chemical 

 Change " and on " A Lamp for producing Con- 

 stant Fire." 



Owing to the illness of Prof. Lesley, Prof. 

 Cope presided at the general meetings. By 

 one census, the number of members, with guests, 

 was put at 1,257, of whom 300 were foreign- 

 ers. Among other exercises of special inter- 

 est may be mentioned the following: Prof. 

 Young's introductory lecture on "Pending 

 Problems in Astronomy " ; Prof. Cope on 

 " Evolution and Origin of Life " ; Prof. J. B. 

 Martin, of England, on " The Future of the 

 United States " ; Prof. E. L. Nichols, of Law- 

 rence, Kansas, on " The Sensitiveness of the 

 Human Eye " ; and Prof. R. S. Ball, Astron- 

 omer Royal of Ireland, on "The Methods 

 of measuring Distances between the Stars." 

 Three hundred scientists came by special train 

 from Montreal, where the British Association 

 had just closed its meeting. 



Abstracts of the papers will be found printed 

 in the journal " Science," published in Boston. 



British. The fifty-fourth annual meeting of 

 the British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science was held in Montreal, Canada, from 

 Aug. 28 to Sept. 3, 1884. For the first time 

 in its history its annual meeting occurred out- 

 side of the British Islands. The society was 

 founded fifty-three years ago, by Sir David 

 Brewster, Sir Humphry Davy, Sir John Her- 

 shel, and other eminent scientists. To attend 

 the Montreal meeting 800 members crossed the 

 ocean. The sum of $10,000 was raised in the 

 city of Montreal to defray the expenses, and 

 300 members were received as guests in private 

 residences. The Council of the Association in- 

 vited the standing committees and fellows of 

 the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science to attend as honorary mem- 

 bers. The proceedings were opened with an 

 address from the Mayor and Corporation of 

 Montreal, and on the following day the Gov- 

 ernor-General, Lord Lansdowne, welcomed the 

 Association. 



The President - elect, Lord Rayleigh, Pro- 

 fessor of Experimental Physics in Cambridge 

 University, was introduced by Sir William 

 Thomson. Prof. Rayleigh's address on "Prog- 

 ress in Physics" has' attracted much attention. 

 The work of the society, which represented the 

 reading of 327papers, was divided among eight 

 sections. The eight sections, whose presidents 



