36 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 720 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY 



The fifteenth summer meeting of the society 

 was convened at the University of Illinois on 

 Thursday and Friday, September 10-11, 1908. 

 The scientific program occupied a morning and an 

 afternoon session on each day. On Thursday 

 evening a social gathering and dinner at the 

 University Club contributed much to the pleasure 

 of the occasion. 



The first session was opened with an address of 

 welcome by Professor E. J. Townsend on behalf 

 of the University of Illinois. In the absence of 

 the president of the society, Professor H. S. White, 

 the chair was occupied by Vice-president Professor 

 G. A. Miller, relieved by Professors E. B. Van 

 Vleck and Ziwet. At the close of the meeting 

 resolutions were adopted expressing the society's 

 appreciation of the generous hospitality of the 

 University of Illinois and its officers. 



The total attendance at the various sessions 

 was over fifty, including thirty-eight members of 

 the society. Among the visitors present was Pro- 

 fessor Max Abraham, of the University of Gott- 

 ingen. At the meeting of the council the follow- 

 ing persons were elected to membership in the 

 society: Dr. G. G. Chambers, University of Penn- 

 sylvania; Dr. G. M. Conwell, Yale Univer- 

 sity; Mr. F. F. Decker, California Polytechnic 

 School; Professor A. E. Haynes, University of 

 Minnesota; Mr. P. H. Linehan, College of the 

 City of New York; Mr. H. F. MacNeish, Univer- 

 sity High School, Chicago; Mr. Lewis Omer, High 

 School, Oak Park, 111.; Professor J. C. Stone, 

 State Normal College, Ypsilanti, Mich. Six appli- 

 cations for membership in the society were re- 

 ceived. The total membership is now 598. 



The following papers were read at this meeting: 



Eduard Study: " Zur Differentialgeometrie der 

 analytischen Curven." 



L. E. Dickson : " On definite forms in a finite 

 field." 



G. A. Miller: "'Answer to a question raised by 

 Cayley as regards a property of abstract groups." 



Arnold Dresden : " The second derivatives of 

 the extremal integral." 



0. E. Glenn : " On the decomposition of forms 

 into quadratic factors." 



Louis Ingold: "On the Kowalewski integral." 



L. D. Ames : " A method for the approximate 

 solution of 71 equations in n unknowns." 



Oskar Bolza: " Heinrich Maschke: his life and 

 work." 



G. A. Bliss and Max Mason : " Fields of ex- 

 tremals In space." 



J. B. Shaw: "Qualitative algebra." 



Virgil Snyder : " Construction of plane curves 

 of given order and genus having distinct double 

 points." 



Arthur Eanum: "The division of riemannian 

 space into congruent parts." 



Arthur Ranum : " Parallelopipeds in lobachev- 

 skian geometry." 



F. L. Grifiin : "Families of central orbits related 

 to circular trajectories." 



F. E. Sharpe: "The identical relations of the 

 strain and stress components of an elastic solid." 



Virgil Snyder: " Surfaces derived from the cubic 

 variety having nine double points in four dimen- 

 sional space." 



L. E. Dickson : " On Fermat's last theorem." 

 L. E. Dickson: "Rational reduction of two 

 quadratic forms" (preliminary communication). 

 W. R. Longley: "Note on implicit functions." 

 E. B. Wilson: "Note on statistical mechanics." 

 E. J. Wilczynski: "A projective generalization 

 of Meusnier's theorem." 



E. E. Hedrick: "On the convergence of the 

 jacobian." 



Edward Kasner : " Conformality in connection 

 with functions of two complex variables." 



G. A. Miller : " Groups with regard to modular 

 systems." 



J. W. Young : " Two-dimensional chains and the 

 classification of complex collineations in a plane 

 (second paper)." 



J. H. Maclagan-Wedderburn : " On the direct 

 product in the theory of finite groups." 



W. B. Fite : " The class of a group all of whose 

 operations except identity are of order three." 



C. N. Moore : " The summability of the develop- 

 ments in Bessel functions, with applications." 



E. J. Townsend : " Interchange of order of dif- 

 ferentiation." 



H. B. Newson: "On characteristic equations." 



L. W. Dowling : " The arrangements of the real 

 branches of a plane sextic curve." 



C. N. Haskins : " On the second law of the 

 mean." 



L. I. Hewes : " Necessary and sufficient condi- 

 tions that an ordinary difi^erential equation of the 

 first order and nth degree shall admit a continuous 

 conformal group." 



The next meeting of the society falls on Satur- 

 day, October 31. The San Francisco section held 

 its fourteenth regular meeting at the University 

 of California on September 26. The southwestern 

 section will meet in the Thanksgiving holidays. 

 F. N. Cole, 

 Secretary 



