272 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 165. 



name the iN'ova Scotia animal, and I pro- 

 pose to call it Vulpes pennsylvanica rubricosa 

 (Type No. 116, Bangs Coll., described 

 under above reference as Vulpes pennsyl- 

 vanica vafra). 



OuTEAM Bangs. 

 January, 1898. 



THi: AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 



The sixteenth general meeting of the 

 American Chemical Society was held with 

 the Washington Section oa December 29th 

 and 30th. No place could have been more 

 favorable for the meeting, as, outside of 

 New York, "Washington has the largest and 

 strongest local section of the Society. As 

 a result, this was the most largely attend- 

 ed meeting in the history of the Society. 

 Every preparation had been made by the 

 local committee and no meeting has been 

 more successful or enjoj'able. The sessions 

 were held at the Columbian University and 

 ■were opened by an address of welcome by 

 President B. L. Whitman. The forenoons 

 and Wednesday evening were devoted to 

 the reading and discussion of papers. 

 Among the papers read were the following: 



Professor L. P. Kinnicutt, of Worcester, 

 gave an interesting account of recent de- 

 velopments in the new methods of sewage 

 purification, including the method by which 

 a very considerable amount of the purifica- 

 tion is due to giving the anaerobic bacteria 

 an opportunity to develop to the greatest 

 extent. 



An account was given, with illustrations, 

 of Professor W. O. Atwater's respiration 

 calorimeter, by means of which the total 

 income and expenditure of heat and energy 

 of the human body can be measured for 

 periods of several days at a time. 



C. A. Crampton, of the Treasury Depart- 

 ment, read a paper on glucose in butter, il- 

 lustrated by samples. Glucose is largely 

 used as a preservative for butter to be 

 shipped to tropical climates. The peculiar 



taste of some peoples was well illustrated 

 by a sample of butter prepared for the 

 island of Martinique, which was a bright 

 orange-red color. Mr. J. P. Geisler, of 

 New York, showed that the azo dyes which 

 are used for coloring butter are very readily 

 detected by absorbing with fuller's earth. 



In the field of analytical chemistry Pro- 

 fessor Francis C. Phillips read a paper on 

 the determination of sulfur in gas-mix- 

 tures, giving description and illustration of 

 an apparatus in which any desired amount 

 of a gas (as natural gas) can be burned 

 and the sulfur estimated as barium sul- 

 fate. 



There was but one paper on didactic 

 chemistry, by Professor Wm. P. Mason, of 

 the Troy Polytechnic. In the very earnest 

 discussion which followed the paper this 

 question was raised: Is it wiser for a 

 teacher to state scientific theories to his 

 class dogmatically, thus giving them some- 

 thing tangible for a foundation, but know- 

 ing that, as they progress, they will have 

 much to unlearn and modify ; or should he 

 confine himself strictly to statement of 

 known truth, discussing conflicting theories 

 with their arguments, pro and con, and, as 

 a result, leave the mind of the student in a 

 very hazy condition ? It is not in chemistry 

 alone that this difficulty arises. 



Of papers devoted to pure chemistry, 

 mention may be made of a series of papers 

 on physical chemistry from the Cornell 

 University laboratory ; a discussion of the 

 compounds of the higher haloids of ele- 

 ments of the Group IV., by J. F. X. Har- 

 old, of the University of Pennsylvania ; a 

 paper on the atomic weight of zirconium, 

 by Professor F. P. Venable, of the Univer- 

 sity of North Carolina, and one on the 

 chemistry and crystallography of some new 

 rutheno-cyanids, by Jas. Lewis Howe and 

 Professor H. D. Campbell, of Washington 

 and Lee University. 



President Charles B. Dudley's address on 



