76 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXVII. No. 941 



TEE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOB TSE 



ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



SECTION A— MATHEMATICS AND 



ASTRONOMY 



As both mathematics and astronomy were rep- 

 resented by national societies meeting in affilia- 

 tion irith the association, Section A confined itself 

 to an afternoon session, which was held on Tues- 

 day, December 31. Professor E. B. Van Vleck, 

 of Wisconsin University, presided during this joint 

 meeting of Sections A and B, the American Math- 

 ematical Society (including the Chicago Section), 

 the American Physical Society and the Astronom- 

 ical and Astrophysical Society of America. The 

 meeting was attended by more than two hundred 

 and fifty members of the association and affiliated 

 societies. 



In the absence of the retiring vice-president and 

 chairman of Section A, Professor E. B. Frost, 

 director of Yerkes Observatory, his address, en- 

 titled ' ' The spectroscopic determination of stellar 

 velocities, considered practically," was read by 

 Professor J. A. Parkhurst. This address will be 

 published in Popular Astronomy. The retiring 

 vice-president and chairman of Section B, Pro- 

 fessor E. A. Millikan, University of Chicago, 

 presented an address entitled ' ' On unitary the- 

 ories in physics," which will appear in Science. 



In addition to these two addresses the following 

 four papers were presented during the session of 

 Section A: 



"Henri Poinearg as a mathematical physicist," 

 Professor A. G. Webster, Clark University. 



' ' Some general aspects of modern geometry, ' ' 

 Professor E. J. Wilczynski, University of Chicago. 



"Cosmical magnetic fields," Dr. L. A. Bauer, 

 director of the Department of Terrestrial Mag- 

 netism, Carnegie Institution of Washington. 



' ' Preliminary note on an attempt to detect the 

 general magnetic field of the sun, ' ' Professor G. 

 B. Hale, director of Mt. Wilson Observatory. 



In the absence of Professor Hale his paper was 

 presented by Dr. Bauer. The others were pre- 

 sented by their respective authors. Professor 

 Webster's paper will appear in Science. Brief 

 abstracts of the other three are as follows : 



After discussing briefly the general relations 

 between analysis and geometry. Professor Wilc- 

 zynski considered the notion of a space of n-di- 

 mensions and showed how wide is the applica- 

 bility of this idea even if we confine our attention 

 to ordinary space, provided a suitable geometric 

 form is chosen as generating element. His devel- 



opments culminated in a general theorem which, as 

 he claims, represents a fundamental unifying 

 principle of geometry. This theorem may be 

 stated as follows: The projective geometry of any 

 analytic fc-spread in a space of ?t-dimensions is 

 equivalent to the theory of the invariants and 

 covariants of a certain associated completely in- 

 tegrable system of partial differential equations. 

 The paper will appear in the Bulletin of the 

 American Mathematical Society. 



Dr. Bauer made application of the results of 

 his investigations on the origin of the earth's 

 magnetic field, presented at the Pittsburgh meet- 

 ing of the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society 

 of America, and Section B of the association at 

 the Cleveland meeting, to the possible magnetic 

 fields of the sun and planetary bodies. A new 

 mathematical method of analysis of the earth's 

 magnetic field was briefly sketched. The paper 

 will appear in Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmos- 

 pheric Electricity, 1913. 



Although some definite results have been ob- 

 tained by Professor Hale, further observations will 

 be required to prove conclusively whether or not 

 the effects found are due to the sun's magnetic 

 field. However, the present observations indicate 

 that the north and south poles of the sun agree in 

 magnetic polarity with those of the earth. As far 

 as the strength of the field is concerned, a knowl- 

 edge of the Zeeman effect for the lines in question 

 is necessary to determine this. It happens that 

 all of these lines are too faint in the spark to 

 appear on the photographs, but another effort is 

 being made to observe their behavior in the mag- 

 netic field. 



The investigation is being pushed forward as 

 rapidly as possible, in view of the quiet condition 

 of the sun, since the appearance of sunspots, with 

 their very powerful magnetic fields, will tend to in- 

 troduce troublesome perturbations. The paper ap- 

 peared in Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric 

 Electricity, Vol. XVII. 



The following members of Section A were 

 elected as fellows of the association : S. B. Barret, 

 Harriet W. Bigelow, A. E. Burton, A. E. Doug- 

 lass, S. Einarson, F. Ellerman, E. A. Fath, J. C. 

 Hamilton, E. S. Haynes, W. A. Hurwitz, E. S. 

 King, C. 0. Lampland, F. P. Leavenworth, O. J. 

 Lee, A. 0. Leuschner, J. Lipke, C. P. Olivier, Gr. 

 H. Peters, W. P. Eigge, D. Eines, E. Smith, 

 T. Stephen, H. T. Stetson. 



The section elected Dr. J. A. Brashear member 

 of the council. Professor C. J. Fields member of 



