OCTOBBB 9, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



495 



from the mother to the egg, and from the egg 

 to the offspring, and thereby marking the 

 transmission of the actual substance of the 

 egg, and indirectly of the mother, to the off- 

 spring. 



3. The precision of the method and its 

 striking results apparently open to biologists 

 a field -which has lain dormant since its dis- 

 covery by Daddi" twelve years ago, i. e., the 

 possibility of following with great exactness 

 at least one of the processes of nutrition.* 

 Simon H. Gage 

 Susanna Phelps Gage 



might well be adopted by the American Associa- 

 tion. As some of the section rooms were rather 

 widely separated, an inter-section service of auto- 

 mobiles running at ten-minute intervals was insti- 

 tuted, but of its success the writer is unable to 



GEOLOGY AT THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION 

 The seventy-eighth annual meeting of the Brit- 

 ish Association for the Advancement of Science 

 was held at Dublin, September 2 to 9, largely in 

 the buildings of Trinity College and the Royal 

 University. The Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the 

 universities, and the city cooperated to extend to 

 the visitors a true Irish hospitality. In addition 

 to the presidential address by Dr. Francis Darwin, 

 popular illustrated evening addresses were de- 

 livered by Professor Turner, of Oxford University, 

 on "Halley's Comet," and by Professor Davis, of 

 Harvard University, on " The Lessons of the Col- 

 orado Canyon." 



The mornings only were devoted to the reading 

 of papers, the afternoon hours being wholly taken 

 up by excursions and by elaborate social func- 

 tions. In the sectional meetings an innovation 

 was introduced in a large bulletin board set up 

 at the front of each room, on which appeared 

 " Papers Now Being Read." Beneath this were 

 placed large letters to designate the individual 

 sections of the association, and under each was a 

 peg on which was hung up the number of the 

 paper which at the moment was being read. A 

 boy in attendance almost noiselessly received the 

 telephonic messages at one end of the presiding 

 ofBcer's desk and adjusted the numbers on the 

 board after the manner in use at American foot- 

 ball games. The method proved a success, and 



"Daddi, in 1896 {Arch. Ital. de Biol, T. XXVI., 

 1896, p. 143), was the first to show that fat de- 

 posited in the living body is stained by fciudan III. 

 when ingested with the food. 



* The authors wish to express their thanks to 

 the staff of the poultry department of the New 

 York State College of Agriculture for the abun- 

 dant facilities and assistance placed at their dis- 



The invitation of the city of Winnipeg for the 

 association to hold its meetings of 1909 in that 

 city was brought by Dr. Bryce, vice-president of 

 the Royal Society of Canada, and was accepted. 

 The meetings will be held at Winnipeg during the 

 last week of August and will be followed by an 

 excursion through the Canadian Rockies by spe- 

 cial train to Vancouver, B. C, with stops at 

 Bantt', Glacier and other intermeaiate points. To 

 members of the British and American Associations 

 the trip will be made for one fare, or $50, and an 

 excursion from Vancouver to Alaska and perhaps 

 to still more distant points is under consideration. 

 To members of the American Association attend- 

 ing the meetings the usual dues of a sovereign 

 will be remitted, and it is hoped that the occasion 

 will be notable by reason of the large number of 

 British, Canadian and American scientists brought 

 together. As was the case on the occasion of the 

 South African meeting of the British Association, 

 a considerable number of distinguished scientists 

 will be made the special guests of the occasion. 



Section C (Geology) was well attended by rep- 

 resentative geologists of Great Britain, and the 

 distant dependencies of the empire were repre- 

 sented by Hume, of Egypt; Hayden, of India; 

 Maitland, of Western Australia; Hatch, of South 

 Africa, and Grabham, of the Soudan. 



The address before the section was delivered by 

 Professor John Joly, F.R.S., of Trinity College, 

 Dublin, the president of the section, on " Uranium 

 and Geology." It was an able and scholarly 

 address dealing with the recent developments in 

 the study of radio-activity as a factor in geolog- 

 ical dynamics, and ascribing to it large impor- 

 tance in the explanation of the earth's interior 

 heat and of mountain growth. Professor Joly's 

 own studies in connection with the great Alpine 

 tunnels, where he found the least quantity of 

 radium corresponded to the greatest depth below 

 the surface, he explained by the radio-active 

 nuclei originally distributed fortuitously through 

 the earth's mass, heating and expanding beyond 

 the capacity of the surroimding material, and in 

 consequence rising to the surface. It would thus 

 seem that it is not necessary to assume such 

 large quantities of radium to be still contained 

 in the core of the earth as are now to be found 

 in its outer shell. 



