634 



NATURh 



[February 3, 19 16 



M. 67 (colour indices measured by Shapley) appears 

 to be almost entirely made up of g stars, and contains 

 neither h nor m classes, reminding us forcibly of the 

 frequent association of the corresppnding spectral 

 types among the isolated stars. 



Very significantly, in neither case does colour or 

 magnitude vary with condensation. On the other 

 hand, colour and magnitude are found to be connected, 

 showing a marked relationship in the case of N.G.C. 

 1647, less pronounced in M. 67. 



////•: COLUMBUS MEETING OF THE 

 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



THE sixty-eighth annual meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science was 

 held at Columbus, Ohio, Trom December 27, 1915, to 

 January i, under the presidency of Dr. W. W. Camp- 

 bell, director of the Lick Observatory of the University 

 of California. In spite of the fact that the second 

 Pan-American Scientific Congress was held at the 

 same time in Washington, D.C., there was an attend- 

 ance of something more than eight hundred, and the 

 meeting was unusually successful. 



The address of the retiring president, Dr. C. W. 

 Eliot, on the subject, "The Fruits, Prospects, 

 and Lessons of Recent Biological Science," has 

 already been printed in Nature (January 27, 

 p. 605). Addresses of presidents of sections 

 were given as follows : — (A) H. S. White, " Ponce- 

 let Polygons"; (B) A. Zeleny, "The Depend- 

 ence of Progress in Science upon the Development of 

 Instruments"; (F) F. R. Lillie, "The History of the 

 Fertilisation Problem"; (G), G. P. Clinton, "Botany 

 in Relation to American Agriculture"; (H) C. Wissler, 

 " Psychological and Historical Interpretations of Cul- 

 ture " ; (I) E. E. Rittenhouse, " Upbuilding American 

 Vitality : the Need for a Scientific Investigation " ; 

 (K) R. M. Pearce, "The Work and Opportunities of a 

 University Department for Research in Medicine " ; 

 (L) P. H. Hanus, "City School Superintendents' 

 Reports"; (M) L. H. Bailey, "The Forthcoming 

 Situation in Agricultural Work." 



One of the most interesting functions of the meet- 

 ings was a public lecture complimentary to the citizens 

 of Columbus by Dr. D. W. Johnson, professor of 

 physiography at Columbia University, on " Surface 

 Features of Europe as a Factor in the War." Dr. 

 Johnson indicated the strategic reasons for the move- 

 ments in the great war which have been dependent 

 upon the character of the country involved, and threw 

 a new light on the subject to those who have been 

 puzzled especially by the operations in the eastern war 

 zone. Other public lectures were delivered by Dr. 

 R. F. Bacon, of the Mellon Institute of Pittsburgh, on 

 "The Industrial Fellowships of the Mellon Institute: 

 Five Years' Progress in a System of Industrial Ser- 

 vice"; Dr. F. K. Cameron, of the Bureau of Soils, 

 Washington, "The Fertiliser Resources of the United 

 States." 



An important symposium on the topic, "The Basis 

 of Individuality in Organisms," was held by Section F 

 and the American Society of Zoologists. 



Section K conducted a symposium on the topic, 

 "Foods and Feeding," in the course of which Prof. 

 H. B. Armsby spoke of the "Energy Content of the 

 Diet"; Prof. Ruth Wheeler on the "Effect of the 

 Proteid Constituents of the Diet on Growth"; Prof. 

 E. B. Forbes, "The Mineral Nutrients in Practical 

 Human Dietetics"; Prof. Carl Voegtlin, "Vita- 

 mines " ; Dr. C. F. Langworthy, " Food Selection for 

 Rational and Economical Living." 



The new section of Agriculture, Section M, con- 

 ducted a symposium on the topic, "The Relation of 



NO. 2414, VOL. 96] 



Science to Meat Production," in which President W. O. 

 Thompson (Ohio State University), President H. J. 

 Waters (Kansas State Agricultural College), Prof. 

 L. D. Hall (Office of Markets, U.S. Department of 

 Agriculture), Prof. H. W. Mumford (University of 

 Illinois), and Dr. A. R. Ward (Bureau of Animal 

 Industry, U.S. Department of Agriculture) took part. 



The following affiliated societies met with the 

 American Association for the Advancement of 

 Science : — American Association of Economic Ento- 

 mologists, American Mathematical Society, American 

 Microscopical Society, American Nature-Study Society, 

 American Physical Society, American Phytopatho- 

 logical Society, American Society of Naturalists, Asso- 

 ciation of Official Seed Analysts of North America, 

 Botanical Society of America ; Entomological Society of 

 America, Society for Horticultural Science, Southern 

 Society for Philosophy and Psychology, Students and 

 Collectors of Ohio Archaeology ; Wilson Ornithological 

 Club. 



New York was chosen as the meeting place for 

 Convocation Week of 1916-17. 



Dr. C. R. Van Hise, president of the University of 

 Wisconsin, a distinguished geologist, was elected pre- 

 sident of the association for the next year. The vice- 

 presidents — that is, presidents of sections — elected were 

 as follows : — Mathematics, L. P. Eisenhart, Princeton 

 University ; Physics, H. A. Bumstead, Yale Univer- 

 sity; Engineering, E. L. Corthell, Brown University, 

 Providence, R.I. ; Geology and Geography, R. D. 

 Salisbury, University of Chicago; Zoology, G. H. 

 Parker, Harvard University; Botany, T. j. Burrill, 

 University of Illinois; Anthropolgy and Psychology, 

 F. W. Hodge, chief of the Bureau of Ethnology, 

 Washington, D.C. ; Social and Economic Science, 

 Louis I. Dublin, New York; Education, L. P. Ayres, 

 of the Russell Sage Foundation, New York; Agricul- 

 ture, W. H. Jordan, director of the New York State 

 Experiment Station, Geneva, N.Y. 



The general committee reaffirmed the recently 

 adopted policy of the association in regard to the 

 planning of future meetings, establishing a five years' 

 schedule, largely for the benefit of the affiliated 

 societies in making their plans for the future. 



Members of the association who attended the last 

 Columbus meeting in 1899 were greatly- impressed by 

 the growth of the Ohio State University during the 

 intervening years, a growth, however, which is char- 

 acteristic of a number of the great State universities 

 in the United States. At the time of the 1899 meeting 

 there were only one thousand students at this Univer- 

 sity, and at the time of the present meeting there are 

 more than five thousand. Very many new buildings 

 have been erected in the interim, and the equipment of 

 all is modern and most excellent. 



PARIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: 



PROPOSED PRIZES AND GRANTS. 



Prizes Proposed for 19 17. 



Mathematics. — The Francoeur prize (1000 francs) 

 will be awarded to the author of discoveries or works 

 useful to the progress of pure or applied mathematics ; 

 the Bordin prize (3000 francs), for an improvement 

 in some important point of the arithmetical theory of 

 non-quadratic forms ; the Poncelet prize (2000 francs), 

 to the French or foreign author of the most important 

 work in applied mathematics published in the course 

 of the preceding ten years ; the Vaillant prize (4000 

 francs), the question set for 19 17 is to determine and 

 study all surfaces which can in two different ways be 

 formed by the displacement of an invariable curve. 



Mechanics. — The Montyon prize (700 francs), for 

 inventing or improving instruments useful to the pro- 



