SCIENCE 



Editoeial Committee : S. Newcomb, Mathematics ; E. S. Woodwaed, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickbeing, 



Astronomy; T. C. Mendenhall, Physics; E. H. TntJESTON, Engineering; Iea Eemsen, Chemistry; 



J. Le Conte, Geology; "W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. Maesh, Paleontology; W. K. Brooks, 



C. Haet Meeeiam, Zoology; S. H. Scuddee, Entomology; C. E. Bessey, N. L. Beitton, 



Botany; Heney F. Osboen, General Biology; C. S. MiNOT, Emhryology, Histology; 



H. P. BowDiTCH, Physiology; J. S. Billings, Hygiene ; J. McKeen Cattell, 



Psychology; Daniel G. Beinton, J. W. Powell, Anthropology. 



Fkiday, Apeil 8, 1898. 



CONTENTS: 



The Mathematical Theory of the Top : Professoe 

 Cael Baeus 469 



The Transmission of Badiant Heat hy Gases at Vary- 

 ing Pressures : Ch AELES F. BRUSH 474 



The Breeding of Animals at Woods Moll during the 

 llonth of March, 1898: PROFESSOR H. C. 

 BUMPUS 485 



2he Anniversary Meeting of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science 487 



Current Notes on Physiography : — 



Waterfall Lakes in Central New York ; Eskers in 

 Ireland ; Desert Conditions in Britain : Peofes- 

 SOE W. M. Davis 489 



Owrrent Notes on Anthropology : — 



Ontario Archxological Beport ; The Pueblo of 

 Taos: Professor D. G. Beinton 491 



Notes on Inorganic Chemistry: J. L. H 491 



Scientific Notes and News 492 



University and Educational News 495 



Scientific Literature: — 



Living Plants and their Properties : Peofessoe 

 Chaeles E. Bessey. Scudder^s Bevision of 

 the Orthopteran Group Melanopoli {Acrididx): 

 Samuel Henshaw. Both's Ethnological Studies 

 in Queensland: Professor D. G. Beinton. 

 Norton on Artesian Wells in Iowa : Peofessoe 

 W. Hallock. Thompson on the Mystery and 

 Bomance of Alchemy and Pharmacy: De. H. 

 Caeeington Bolton 496 



Scientific Journals 500 



Societies and Academies : — 



Biological Society of Washington : F. A. LucAS. 

 Geological Society of Washington : De. W. F. 

 Morsell. Philosophical Society of Washington : 

 E. D. Preston. Engelmann Botanical Club: 

 Hermann von Scheenk. New York Academy 

 of Sciences, Section of Geology and Mineralogy : 

 Professor Eichard E. Dodge. New York 

 Section of the American Chemical Society: De. 

 DUEAND Woodman. Alabama Industrial and 

 Scientific Society: Peofessoe Eugene A. Smith..501 



MSS. intended tor publication and books, etc., intended 

 for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J. 

 McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y. 



THE MATHEMATICAL THEOBY OF THE TOP* 

 Looking over such famous old books as 

 Montmort's ' Analyse des jeux de hasard ' 

 or Moivre's ' Doctrine of Chances ' one re- 

 grets that so much excellent mathematics 

 should have been wasted on games most of 

 which are wholly obsolete. Coriolus in his 

 'Jen de billard' (1835) fared better, for 

 the game is still very much alive and its 

 dynamical terrors unsubdued. In even 

 greater measure is this true of the top. 

 The top has been everybody's toy and must, 

 therefore, at one time or another have 

 piqued everybody's curiosity. Lagrange, 

 Poinsot, Jacobi, not to mention other great 

 names, have in their turn paid tribute; 

 yet the top may be set spinning to-day, un- 

 hampered by a completed theory to ac- 

 count for its evolutions. 



Among recent contributions we may refer 

 in particular to Professor A. Gr. Greenhill'sf 

 noteworthy papers, in which the algebra- 

 ically accessible or pseudo-elliptic cases, 

 such in which the integrations are possible 

 in terms of circular functions, are worked 

 out in full. Physicists will be grateful to 

 Professor Greenhill for the concrete exhibi- 

 tion given of this complex motion. The 

 * Lectures delivered on the occasion of the sesqui- 

 centennial celebration of Princeton University, by 

 Felix Klein, pp. 1-74, edited by Professor H. B. 

 Fine. New York, Charles Scribner's Sons, 1897. 



t Greenhill : Applications Elliptic Functions, Proo. 

 Lond. Math. Soc, 1895, 1896 ; Engineering, July, 

 1896. 



