776 



8GIENGE 



[N. S. Vol. XXX. No. 778 



lows: The Coos were a peaceful tribe. They 

 seldom resorted to war and never practised scalp- 

 ing. Flattening of heads was unknown among 

 them, as was likewise tattooing. Their imple- 

 ments and utensils show an absolute lack of 

 decorative art, and their festivals were devoid 

 of any ceremonial significance. 



R. S. WOODWOETH, 



Secretary 



THE AMEBICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 

 NEW TOEK SECTION 



The second regular meeting of the session of 

 1909-10 was held at the Chemists' Club on No- 

 vember 5. 



The Wm. H. Nichols medal, awarded annually 

 for the best paper read before the section, was 

 presented to L. H. Baekeland, Sc.D., for " Re- 

 searches on Bakelite." 



The chairman, Dr. Morris Loeb, in presenting 

 the medal, said that aside from increasing the 

 interest in the meetings of the New York Section, 

 the medal afforded the very pleasant and gratify- 

 ing result of showing appreciation of the work 

 done by a friend and fellow member. He took 

 particular pleasure also in crowning bakelite on 

 the occasion of Dr. Baekeland's twenty-fifth anni- 

 versary of his doctorate. 



Dr. Baekeland, in reply, expressed his hearty 

 appreciation of the honor extended to him and 

 of the many expressions of friendship and good 

 will accompanying the medal. He described some 

 recent applications of bakelite in veneering and 

 in the manufacture of composition billiard balls 

 which showed greater resiliency than ivory; also 

 a method of running a mixture of the initial 

 condensation product and wood pulp on a Four- 

 drinier wire, thus obtaining a coarse paper which 

 could be converted by the application of heat and 

 pressure into many useful forms. 



The chairman called on Dr. Nichols, who, after 

 speaking in high terms of Dr. Baekeland's work, 

 passed to the subject of the eighth International 

 Congress of Applied Chemistry. He regarded it 

 as most important that during the next three 

 years we should produce such papers and research 

 work as to show the American chemists equal to 

 any chemists in the world. Dr. Nichols described 

 the preliminary plans for the congress of 1912, 

 saying that the original committee would be en- 

 larged so as to represent the whole United States, 

 covering eveiy branch and every phase of science; 

 the invitation to meet in America was received 

 with great enthusiasm in London and its popu- 



larity is spreading rapidly through the states, 

 affording support and confidence to those in charge 

 of the work. 



Mr. Richard H. Gaines read a paper on " Bac- 

 terial Activity as a Corrosive Influence in the 

 Soil." 



Dr. F. B. Power's paper, " The Chemical Exam- 

 ination of Jalap," was presented in abstract by 

 Dr. R. W. Moore and discussed at length by 

 Dr. Virgil Coblentz. 



Dr. Wilder D. Bancroft gave some further re- 

 sults in photo-chemistry under the title " Stan- 

 nous Chloride and Solarization." 



Professor A. A. Breneman gave a rgsumg of his 

 investigations on " Sewer Explosions in the City 

 of New York." 



C. M. Joyce, 

 Secretary 



THE ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY OF THE 

 UNIVEESITY or NOETH CAEOLINA 



The 184th meeting was held in the main lecture 

 room of Chemistry Hall, Wednesday, October 20, 

 1909, 7:30 P.M. The following papers were pre- 

 sented : 



" Yosemite Valley and the Big Trees " ( lantern 

 slides ) , by Professor W. C. Coker. 



" The Anatomical Reaction of Nerve Cells in 

 Normal and Excessive Muscular Exertion " ( illus- 

 trated with colored charts), by Professor D. H. 

 Dolley. 



The 185th meeting was held in the main lecture 

 hall of the Chemistry Building, Tuesday evening, 

 November 9, 1909. Professor H. V. Wilson pre- 

 sented the results of his investigations during the 

 past summer at the Beaufort (N. C. ) Fisheries 

 Laboratory upon " The Structure and Regenera- 

 tion of the Skin in Sponges." Dr. A. S. Wheeler, 

 in his paper on " A New Study of Oceanic Salts," 

 gave an outline of work done the past summer 

 at the same laboratory. Samples of water taken 

 from five points in the harbor were analyzed with 

 unusual care. The differences in composition were 

 found to be exceedingly small. Professor A. H. 

 Patterson, in his paper " The Personal Equation 

 in Judgment of Length, Mass and Time," pre- 

 sented the results of a series of tests upon a class 

 in physics of twenty-two men. The averages of 

 the guesses in most cases were above the true 

 values. The maximum and minimum figures were 

 usually much above and below the correct ones. 

 A. S. Wheeler, 

 Recording Secretary 



