NoreiiBEB 19, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



725 



grafted ovaries from a black guinea pig and 

 bred to a white male. He states that no evi- 

 dence of foster mother influence was exhibited. 

 Indeed no such evidence was to be expected, 

 for (1) the markings of such hybrids are not 

 uniform, and (2) the mating was not suitable 

 for bringing out such influence. Had the 

 operated pig been bred to a male of the same 

 strain as the pig from which the engrafted 

 ovary was obtained, then in view of my own 

 results on fowls,^ and Magnus's results on a 

 rabbit," characteristics in the offspring indica- 

 tive of such influence might have been ob- 

 tained. C. C. Guthrie 

 Physiological L^vboeatoky, 

 Uni\'ebsity of Pittsbubgh, 

 October 9, 1909 



ASTRONOMICAL A.V/) A8TR0PHTSICAL 

 SOCIETY OF AMERICA 



The American Astronomical and Astrophysical 

 Society held its tenth annual meeting at the 

 Yerkcs Observatory, Williams Bay, Wis., on Aug- 

 ust 19, 20 and 21. The meeting was remarkable 

 for the large attendance and for the number and 

 character of the papers presented. Besides a 

 number of guests there were present iliss Calvert, 

 Miss Bigelow, Mrs. Fleming, Miss Furness, Miss 

 LeaWtt, Miss Young, Messrs. Adams, Aitken, Bar- 

 nard, Barrett, Brown, Buchanan, Burnham, Cogs- 

 hall, Comstock, Curtiss, Eichelberger, Fisher, Fox, 

 Flint, Frost, Gaertner, Hamilton, Hammond, 

 Humphreys, Hussey, Jordan, Laves, Lee. Mac- 

 Millan, Mellish, Morehouse, Moulton, Parkhurst, 

 Payne, Peters, E. C. Pickering, Petitdidier, Petraj- 

 kis, Plaskett, J. Poor, Roe, Schlesinger, Slocum, 

 Stebbins, Stetson, St. John, Stone, Thaw, Upde- 

 graff, D. T. Wilson and H. C. Wilson. 



President Pickering, after welcoming the society 

 to Williams Bay, referred to the loss during the 

 last year of two of its oldest members. He said 

 in part : " Professor Newcomb, president of our 

 society for six years, always took tlie greatest 

 interest in its growth and welfare. It rarely 

 happens that a man is really distinguished in 

 more than one department of science. We all 

 know his preeminence in astronomy. He used to 

 say, ' I am not a mathematician,' yet the Mathe- 

 matical Society in the strongest terms proclaimed 



° Journal of Experimental Zoology, Vol. 5, p. 

 563, June, 1908. 

 ' Loc. cit. 



him as their most eminent member. Our attitude 

 should not be that of grief at his loss, but rather 

 rejoicing tliat he enjoyed many years of usefulness 

 after the age when most men's work is done; he 

 lived to see the great works he had undertaken 

 completed, and he is now saved from the sufTering 

 which at the end rendered life a burden to him. 



" Pi'ofessor Hough's activity in science extended 

 over many years. We remember, even at our last 

 meeting, his interest in our work and plans. His 

 observations with the Evanston telescope, at one 

 time the largest in the world, were maintained 

 for nearly thirty years." 



The president then discussed the present needs 

 of astronomy and expressed the hope that the 

 society might take active part in supplying them. 

 One of the greatest needs is a number of small 

 grants, not exceeding a thousand dollars each, 

 which could be used with the sole object of se- 

 curing the greatest scientific return. If made to 

 the larger observatories, careful organization and 

 system would permit a large amount of routine 

 work to be secured. If made to a small observa- 

 tory, or to an amateur, the skill and experience 

 of an expert in his own specialty might be secured, 

 with results far beyond those which could be ob- 

 tained by another astronomer, however skilful in 

 other lines of work. The only way to supply such 

 needs is to make them known. President Picker- 

 ing invited the members of the society to send him 

 examples of such researches. For instance: Pro- 

 fessor Bailey is now studying the climate of South 

 Africa, perhaps the best in the world for an 

 astronomical observatory, and will return shortly. 

 He is making visual and photometric obser\'ations 

 with a ten-inch telescope, and photographing the 

 Milky Way with a Cook anastigraat, using long 

 exposures. A grant of one thousand dollars would 

 permit this work to be continued for another year 

 by his assistant, thus doubling the results ob- 

 tained, at a small additional expense. 



After the address by the president the following 

 papers were read: 

 Some Results with a Selenium Photometer: Joel 



Stebbins. 



This paper is a report of progress in the method 

 of using selenium for the electrical measurement 

 of starlight. It has been found that the best 

 results are obtained by keeping the selenium at a 

 constant low temperature in an ice pack. During 

 the past summer, the accuracy of the method has 

 been so increased that it is now possible to meas- 

 ure first-magnitude stars witli a probable error 

 of less than 0.01 magnitude. 



