40 



ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



P.M., on the evening of the same day, Prestan's 

 death-warrant was signed, and at midday of 

 the 18th he was executed. On account of the 

 political disturbances, an additional tax was 

 levied upon the merchants, making a double 

 contribution for the year. 



ASSOCIATIONS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF 

 i SCIENCE. American. The thirty-fifth annual 

 meeting began Aug. 18, 1886, at 10 A.M., in 

 the hall of the High-School in Buffalo, N. Y. 

 The chair was resigned by Prof. H. A. New- 

 ton, former President, to Prof. Morse, of Sa- 

 lem, Mass., the President-elect. The following 

 is the list of officers for the meeting : President, 

 Edward S. Morse, Salem, Mass. Vice-Presi- 

 dents of Sections : Section A. Mathematics and 

 Astronomy, J. W. Gibbs, New Haven, Conn. 



B. Physics, 0. F. Brackett, Princeton, N. J. 



C. Chemistry, H. W. Wiley, Washington, D. 0. 

 D. Mechanical Science, O. Chanute, Kansas 

 City, Mo. E. Geology and Geography, T. 0. 

 Chamberlain, Washington, D. 0. F. Biology, 

 H. C. Bowditch, Boston, Mass. H. Anthro- 

 pology, Horatio Hale, Clinton, Can. I. Eco- 

 nomic Science and Statistics, Joseph Cuin- 

 mings, Evanston, 111. 



The meeting was attended by 442 members, 

 and 142 new members were elected; 263 pa- 

 pers were read in the different sections. Sev- 

 eral excursions were provided for by the local 

 committee. The Botanical and Entomological 

 Clubs of the Association also held meetings dur- 

 ing the convention. 



| Prof. C. F. Braokett, of Princeton College, 

 Vice-President of the Physical Section, spoke 

 of the seat of electromotive force in the voltaic 

 cell. The question whether the current was 

 due to chemical changes, or to contact of dis- 

 similar substances, was considered, but no sat- 

 isfactory conclusion was reached. 



The Vice-President of the Mechanical Science 

 Section, O. Chanute, Esq., of Kansas City, de- 

 voted his address to the progress of mechani- 

 cal science. He alluded to the slow progress 

 of the steam-engine from the time of Hiero to 

 the days of Watt, and to the latter's improve- 

 ments, that made it nearly twelve times as 

 economical. He traced Watt's success to his in- 

 tercourse with scientific men in Glasgow Uni- 

 versity. He also traced the rapid development 

 of the artificial ice industry, in a practical sense, 

 all included in the past sixteen years. 



The vice-president's address in the Anthro- 

 pological Section was given by Horatio Hale, 

 " On the Origin of Language and Antiquity of 

 Speaking Man." It was based on the language- 

 making instincts of children, instances being 

 given of children's languages, new and peculiar 

 to the two individuals using them. From the 

 structure of ancient skulls an attempt was made 

 to prove that language was a recent and in- 

 tegral acquisition by man, and the theory was 

 broached that it came at once perfect and ready 

 for use. Dr. Daniel G. Brinton, of Philadel- 

 phia, read a paper on the Maya and Mexican 

 dialects. Mr. T. 0. Mendenhall read a curious 



and interesting one on the characteristic curves 

 of composition. Using the numbers of letters 

 in words as abscissa?, and the frequency of oc- 

 currence of words of each length as ordinates, 

 he constructed curves from different authors' 

 works. From 10,000 words a regular curve 

 could be obtained. Mrs. Nuttall Pinart spoke 

 of Mexican inscriptions, and created much in- 

 terest by her treatment of the subject from a 

 phonetic standpoint. 



The Biological Section was addressed by its 

 vice-president, Dr. H. P. Bowditch, of Boston, 

 on " What is Nerve-Force ? " It is not elec- 

 trical, as it is too slow in transmission, and 

 the nerves are not insulated. The chemical 

 and the kinectic theories were spoken of, and 

 the latter was favored. 



In the Geological Section the interest cen- 

 tered in the excursions to and papers on the 

 Niagara gorge. The conclusions reached in 

 one paper, read by Mr. Woodward, amount in 

 general to this: that the gorge was due to the 

 action of the falls for about 7,000 years, and 

 that its rate of recession averages about 2 T 4 7 

 feet per annum. Mr. A. A. Julian read a pa- 

 per on " The Examination of Building-Stones 

 for Absorption, Freezing, and Fire." Papers 

 were also read by Dr. New berry, Prof. Clay- 

 pole, and others. 



In the Chemical Section a committee from 

 the Washington Chemical Society, consisting 

 of Dr. A. C. Peale, W. H. Seaman, and C. H. 

 White, suggested the adoption of a uniform 

 scheme for presenting the results of water- 

 analysis. No final action was taken, the sub- 

 ject being referred to a special committee. 

 Miss Helen S. de S. Abbott read a paper on 

 " The Proximate Composition of a Honduras 

 Bark, Chichipati." In it she found a new col- 

 oring-matter, which she named chichipatin. 

 Prof. H. Carrington Bolton presented a report 

 on " Indexing Chemical Literature." Mr. C. 

 F. Mayberry read a paper on " The Products 

 of the Cowles Smelting-Furnace." One of its 

 products, an alloy of 10 per cent, aluminium 

 and 90 per cent, iron, is used in making " mitis 

 castings," as a vehicle for adding a small per- 

 centage of aluminium to iron. Another com- 

 pound, of silicon, aluminium, and copper, was 

 described, resinous in color, and decomposing 

 water at 100. Prof. V. C. Vaughan spoke 

 of tyrotoxicon, the poisonous substance some- 

 times present in cheese, and perhaps also in 

 ice-cream. 



In the Physical Section, Prof. John A. Bra- 

 shear described an apparatus for making the 

 sides of glass plates parallel the gravity paral- 

 lelometer. The two surfaces of a plate about 

 one quarter of an inch thick could be made 

 so parallel that, if extended, they would not 

 come together for five miles, Prof. W. A. 

 Rogers described a combined yard and meter, 

 to be used by the Department of Standards of 

 the British Board of Trade. The last deter- 

 mination of the meter was given as 39'37012 

 inches. Prof. J. N. Sanborn read an interest- 



