610 
NATURE 
[JANUARY 29, I914 
Let S be an element of the sustaining surface, 
a its angle of attack, s its distance from the 
plane of symmetry. Then the lifting power of 
the surface is proportional to =Ssinacosa, 
while the tendency to bank up at the outer side 
in rounding curves is proportional to a co- 
efficient which I call L,, and is proportional to 
—23Sz%sinacosa, being negative in the or- 
dinary case where an aéroplane tends to rise 
excessively on the outer side when rounding 
corners. Now the principle of the “negative 
wing tip,” as Dunne calls it, is represented sym- 
bolically by the fact that by making a positive 
when ¢ is small, and a negative when z is large, 
you can make 
3S sina cos a positive, 
>Sz? sin a cos a zero or negative, 
thus giving lift and yet neutralising or reversing 
the banking action. 
There is much to be said for Mr. Dunne’s 
remark: ‘Finally I must remind you that all 
my work has been done by practical experiments. 
It is not the experimental facts which are in 
question, but the theory which I have evolved 
to cover these facts, which theory I submit to 
this learned Society for criticisms. But the facts 
are unquestioned. The aéroplane does do these 
things, and if the theory does not, give warranty 
for the practice, then it is the theory which is 
wrong.” G. H. Bryan. 
THE ATLANTA MEETING OF THE 
AMERICAN ASSOCIATION. 
HE sixty-fifth meeting of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
was held at Atlanta, Georgia, during the week 
December 29, 1913, to January 3, 1914, under the 
presidency of Dr. E. B. Wilson, of Columbia 
University. It was the first meeting which the 
association has held in the Southern States since 
the New Orleans meeting of 1905, and was marked 
by an important series of papers relating in- 
directly to the industrial advance in the south, to 
health conditions existing among its people, and 
to its geological and other resources. The attend- 
ance was not large, only about 4oo members and 
fellows registering. : 
Nine of the national societies affiliated with the 
American association met at the same time and 
place, as follows :— ; 
Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of America, 
Botanical Society of. America, American Association 
of Economic Entomologists, Entomological Society of 
America, American Microscopical Society, American 
Physical Society, American Phytopathological Associa- 
tion, School Garden Assotiation of America, Southern 
Society for Philosophy and Psychology. 
The address of the retiring president, Prof. 
E. C. Pickering, Director of the Harvard College 
Observatory, was on the subject “The Study of 
the Stars.” 
The addresses of the vice-presidents, or chair- 
men of sections, were as follows :— 
NO. 2309, VOL. 92| 
| subject of Pellagra. 
A, ‘‘The Influence of Fourier’s Series upon the 
Development of Mathematics,” E. B. Van Vleck, 
University of Wisconsin; B, ‘The Methods of 
Science: To What Do They Apply?” A. G. Web- 
ster, Clark University ; C (on account of the absence of 
Vice-President Miller the address was omitted); D, 
“Safety and the Prevention of Waste in Mining and 
Metallurgical Operations,” J. A. Holmes, Bureau of © 
Mines; E, ‘‘ Pleistocene History of Missouri River,” . 
J. E. Todd, University of Kansas; F, “‘ The Story of 
Human Lineage,” W. A. Locy; G, ‘‘The Evolution 
of a Botanical Problem,” D. S. Johnson, Johns Hopkins 
University ; H (the address was omitted on account of 
the absence of Vice-President Fewkes); I, ‘‘The De- 
velopment of our Foreign Trade,” J. H. Hammond, 
New York; K, ‘‘The Physiological Instruction of 
Medical Students,” J. J. R. Macleod, Western Reserve 
University (read by title); L, “Science, Education, 
and Democracy,” J. McKeen Cattell, Columbia Uni- 
versity. 
Two public lectures complimentary to the 
citizens of Atlanta were given—the first by Dr. 
C. W. Stiles, of the U.S. Public Health 
Service, on the subject “The Health of the 
Mother in the South.” In this address, in which 
some very remarkable facts were told in a very 
plain way, the speaker urged in a most emphatic 
manner the segregation of the races in the south, 
an idea which has heretofore received little atten- 
tion in the United States, although British sani- 
tarians in the tropical British colonies have 
appreciated its importance for some years. 
The second public lecture was by Prof. C. E. 
Munroe, of the George Washington University, 
on the subject ‘‘The Explosive Resources of the © 
Confederacy during the War and Now: A 
Chapter in Chemical History.” Prof. Munroe, — 
one of the American authorities on explosives, 
and for a long time Professor of Chemistry at 
the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, 
dwelt upon the extraordinary activity of the south, 
isolated as it was from other countries by the 
blockading vessels of the northern fleet, in 
developing such resources as they were known to 
possess, and in manufacturing irom them the 
enormous quantity of explosives which were used 
by the large southern army during its four years’ 
struggle for independence. 
The papers read before Section E (geology and 
geography) were devoted practically entirely to 
the geology of .the Southern States, and the — 
council of the association has made a grant to — 
secure the publication of these papers in a single 
volume. : 
An important symposium was held under the 
auspices of Sections D and I, on highway policies 
and engineering, and other joint meetings were 
held between the Section of Zoology and the 
American Entomological Society, and between the 
Section of Botany and the American Phyto- 
pathological Association. Under the Botanical 
Society of America was held a symposium on 
temperature effects. 
Probably the most important symposium of the 
meeting was held under the auspices of Section K 
(physiology and experimental medicine), on the 
The subject was opened by 
