6o8 



NA TURE 



[October i8. 1894 



THE AFFILIATED SOCIETIES OF THE 

 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

 ADVA NCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 

 T N the general report of the Brooklyn meeting of the 

 American Associaiion for the Advancement of Science, 

 given in these columns on September 6, it was pointed out 

 that a marked feature of recent meetings has been the in- 

 creasing number of affiliated societies which hold meetings in 

 connection with the Associaiion. A useful purpose may be 

 served by recording che communication? made to these Societies. 

 The following papers were down in the programme of the 

 American Mathematical Society : — Theorems in the calculus 

 of enlargement, by Dr. En;ory McClintock ; on the expression 

 of the roots of algebraic equations by means of series, by Dr. 

 Emory McClintock ; elliptic functions and the Cartesian curve, 

 by Prof. Frank Morley ; concerning the definition by a system 



of functional properties of the function/{r) = ii^!-^^ by Prof. 



E. Hastings Moore; Bertrand's paradox and the non-Euclidean 

 geometry, by Prof. George Bruce Halsted ; analytical theory of 

 the errors of interpolated values from numerical tables, by Prof 

 R. S. Woodward ; upon the problem of the minimum sum of 

 the distances of a point from given points, by Prof V. Schlegel ; 

 on the fundamental laws of algebra, by Prof. Alexander Mac- 

 farlane ; about cube numbers whose sum is a cube number, 

 by Dr. Artemas Martin ; reduction of the resultant of a binary 

 quadric and m-ic by virtue of its semicombirant pioperty, by 

 Prof. Henry S. White. 



The Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education had 

 papers and discussions upon a number of interesting matters. 

 Promoters of technical education in Great liriiain will see. from 

 the following li-t of subjects, that the matter is considered from 

 many points of view in America. 



Among the subjects discussed were : — Entrance requirements 

 common to all engineering schools, by F. O. Marvin ; en- 

 gineering education and the State University, by W. M. S. 

 Aldrich ; text-books considered as such and not as works of 

 reference, by C. H. Benjamin ; graduate and post graduate 

 engineering degrees, by Palmer C. Rickelts, Geo. F. Swain, 

 and Robert H. Thurston; teachers and text books in mathe- 

 matics for engineering students, by Mansfield Merriman ; 

 teaching engineering specifications and the law of contracts, 

 by J. B. Johnson ; teaching mechanical drawing and lettering 

 in engineering schools, by J. J. Feather; early instruction in 

 physics and mechanics, by C. M. Woodward : some German 

 schools of engineering, by Storm Bull ; the organisation and 

 conduct of engineering laboratories and the equipment of the 

 laboratories at the Ma.ssachusetts Institute of 'I'echnology, by 

 Gaetano Lanza ; electrical engineering laboratories, by D. C. 

 Jackson. 



The Civil Engineering section of the Society had p^tpers and 

 discussions on ; — Minimum laboratory work and equipment 

 in a civil engineering couise, by Dwight Porter; a few mis- 

 lakes in the conduct of college field practice, by O. V. 1', 

 Stout ; the teaching of structural engineering, by liilgar Mar- 

 burg ; relation of practical lo theoretical woik in civil engin- 

 eering courses, by Olin II. Landrelh : the education of civil 

 engineers for railroad service, by C. Frank Allen. 



The subjects brought before the .Mechanical and Electrical 

 Enjineering section were : — Mechanical laboratory work at 

 Ames, Iowa, by G. W. Blssell ; amount and kind of shop- 

 work required in a mechanical engineering course, by C. \V. 

 Marx ; teaching machine design, by J. H. Barr. 



The programme of the Society for the Promotion of Agricul- 

 tural Science included the vi'alily of seeds of red clover and of 

 seeds of weeds, by W. J. Heal ; the Russian thistle in 

 Nebraska, by C. IC. Bcssey ; cllmaic in its relation lo rust, by 

 L. II. Pammel ; (I) a possible relation between blights and ex- 

 ceptional weather ; (2) notes upon field expeiiments, by B. D. 

 Halslcd ; crimson clover, some observations in reference to 

 methods and limes of seeding, by E. B. Voorhees ; the growth 

 of lettuce as affected by the physical | roperties of the soil, 

 by B. T. Galloway ; caniigrc, its cultivation and prepara- 

 tion for market, by F. A. Gulley ; the effect of different 

 fertiliser constituents up<m the composition and combustibility 

 of tobacco, by H. J. Patterson ; the oil of the black walnut, by 

 W. E. Stone ; nurseries as factors in the distribution of insect 

 puts, by J. B. Smith ; Bordeaux mixture as a remedy for flea 

 beetles on potatoes, by L. R. Jones ; an inquiry into the rela- 



NO. 1303, VOL. 50] 



tion existing between the Burrill disease of corn and the so- 

 called "cornstalk disease" of cattle, by V. A. Moore ; a simple 

 milk-sampling tube, by M, A. Scovell. 



The following papers were read before the Geological Society 

 of America ; — The nickel mine at Lancaster Gap, Pa., and the 

 pyrrhotite deposit at Anthony's No^e, on the Hudson, by J. !-". 

 Kemp ; a connection between the chemical and optical proper- 

 ties of amphiboles, by .Mfred C. Lane ; on a basic rock derived 

 from granite, by C. IL Smyth, jun. ; the process of segregation 

 as illustrated in the New Jersey Highlands, by Ralph S. Parr ; 

 alunogen and bauxite of New Mexico, with notes on the 

 geology of the Upper Gila region, by \\m. P. Blake ; a study 

 of the cherts of Missouri, by Edmund Oiis Ilovey; use of the 

 aneroid barometer in geological suiveying. by Charles W. 

 Rolfe ; plalycnemic man in New York, by Will H. Sherzer ; 

 oil and gas in Kansas, by Erasmus Haworth ; dislocations in 

 certain portions of the .Atlantic coastal plain strata and their 

 probable causes, by Arthur Hollick ; faults of the region be- 

 tween the Mohawk river and the Adirondack mountains, by 

 N. H. Darton ; reconstruction of the .\ntillean continent, by 

 J. W. Spencer ; evidences as lo the change of sealevel, hy 

 N. S. Slialer ; the extension of uniformitarianism to deforma- 

 tion, by W. J. McGee ; Tertiary and early Quaternary base- 

 levelling in Minnesota, Manitoba, and north-westward, by 

 Warren Upham ; departure of the ice-sheet from the Laurentian 

 lakes, by Warren Upham ; the druuilinoid hills near Cayuga, 

 N.Y., by Ralph S. Tarr ; drumlins in the vicinity of Genev.i, 

 N.Y. , by D. F. Lincoln : channels on drumlins, caused liy 

 erosion of glacial streams, by George H. Barton ; review of our 

 knowledge of the geology of the Californian coast ranges, by 

 Harold W. Fairbanks; the geological history of Missouri, by 

 .Vrthur Winslow ; the magnesian series of the North-western 

 .States, by C. W. Hall and F. W. Sardeson ; the stratigraphy of 

 the St. Louis and Warsaw formations in Southeastern Iowa, by 

 Charles H. Gordon ; the Permo-carboniferous and Permian 

 rocks of Kansas, by Charles S. Pro«ser ; the Trias and lura of 

 Shasta County, Californi.i, by James Perrin Smith ; cenozoic 

 history of a portion of the middle Atlantic slope, by N. II. 

 Darton. 



.•V number of papers were read before the Association of 

 Economic Enlomologists, and the president. Prof. L. 0. 

 Howard, d^livcred an address on "The Rise and Present 

 Status of Official Economic Entomology." 



Prominent among the Societies ihat met in connection with 

 the .American Association is the .'\merican Chemical .Socien 

 having a membership of nearly eight hundred. The followii 

 were among the papers rc.id : — Recent progicss in the detectmi! 

 of adulteration in lard, by II. W. \\ iley ; Ucuhuba fat, \>y 

 Joseph F. Geisler : oxidation of non-drying oils by air. by 

 Walter D. FieKl ; a new and rapid method of estimating the 

 total proteids in milk, by E. H. Hartley ; inspection of cotton 

 for use in gun-cotton manufacture, Chas. E. Munroe ; ferric 

 acid and the ferrates, by C. A. C). Rosell ; some points in 

 making molybdate of ammonia solutions for phosphorus 

 determinations, by Charles li. Dudley ; report on abbrevia- 

 tions of the names of metric icnus used by chemists, by \Vm. 

 II. Seaman. 



In the course of an interesting address delivered before the 

 American Association of .Stale Weather Services, M.ajor 

 H. H. C. Dunwoody, the acting chief of the National We.ither 

 Service, remarked that the three thousand voluntary observers 

 who lake observations of temperature and r.rinfall, and record 

 miscellaneous meteorological phenomena, render it possible lo 

 supply, through the Stale Weather Service, climalological in- 

 formation for almost any locality in the United Stales. Nearly 

 every county in the whole country is now provided with a 

 station equipped with instruments of the Government standards, 

 and if the woik of establishing new stations continues during 

 the next two years at the same rate as rluring the |)asl two 

 years, there will not be a couniy within the limits of .Vmcrica 

 that will not have a meteorological station. 



The weather crop service ol the National Bureau now un- 

 doubtedly ranks next in Importance to the work of making 

 forecasts. The system of gathering repoils upon which Ihc 

 weather crop bulletins are based has lieen so perfected in recent 

 years, Ihat lurther iniprovcnuni in some States can scarcely be 

 expected. The crop bulletins ol the Stales have been im- 

 proved, and arc now more complete than at any previous lime, 

 and the increased circulation Ihat these bnllclins has attained 

 amply attests their value. It is believed that there is no other 



