690 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVIII. No. 724 



C. L. E. Moore; "Notes"; "New Publica- 

 tions." 



The November number of the Bulletin con- 

 tains : " The Fifteenth Summer Meeting of 

 the American Mathematical Society," by H. 

 E. Slaught ; " Answer to a Question raised by 

 Cayley as regards a Property of Abstract 

 Groups," by G. A. Miller; "Note on the The- 

 orem of Generalized Fourier's Constants," by 

 W. D. A. Westfall; " On the Logical Basis of 

 Grassmann's Extensive Algebra," by A. R. 

 Schweitzer ; " General Algebraic Solutions in 

 the Logic of Classes," by L. M. Hoskins; "A 

 General Diagrammatic Method of Eepresent- 

 ing Propositions and Inference in the Logic 

 of Classes," by L. M. Hoskins; "Heinrich 

 Maschke; his Life and Work," by Oskar 

 Bolza; "Notes"; "New Publications." 



The American Naturalist for October opens 

 with a paper by F. F. Blackman, on " The 

 Manifestations of the Principles of Chemical 

 Mechanics in the Living Plant." D. D. Whit- 

 ney describes a number of experiments on 

 " The Desiccation of Rotifers," the conclusions 

 drawn frora them being that rotifers do not 

 revive after being dried for any length of 

 time, the supposed resuscitation being due to 

 the appearance of those hatched from the 

 winter eggs. O. P. Hay has an article " On 

 the Habits and the Pose of the Sauropodous 

 Dinosaurs, especially of Diplodocus " ; he con- 

 siders that the attitude of these animals was 

 probably like that of a crocodile with the body 

 prone and legs more or less sprawled out, and 

 doubts that they walked erect with legs in an 

 elephantine position. Dr. Hay may not know 

 that crocodiles — some at least — occasionally 

 stand on their hind legs and rush at an assail- 

 ant. W. A. • Setchell gives some " pointers " 

 on " Juvenile Substitutes for Tobacco." 



The Beport of the Commissioners on Fish- 

 eries and Game [for Massachusetts] for 1907 

 contains much general information and is 

 very interesting reading. We commend it to 

 that writer in Nature who recently stated that 

 there was no evidence that the lobster was 

 decreasing! As in the report for 1906 there 

 is much information as to the history and 



status of the heath hen which there is a pos- 

 sibility of saving from extermination. The 

 cut of the new knockabout type of Gloucester 

 fishing vessel shows how far common sense 

 has overcome the prejudice of sailors against 

 any innovation; while the value of the inno- 

 vations is shown in the statement that " again 

 we are able to record that not a single Massa- 

 chusetts fishing vessel has foundered." To 

 appreciate this it is necessary to recall that 

 in the ten years ending in 1883, 82 vessels and 

 896 men were lost. 



Part II. of " The National Collection of 

 Heads and Horns," issued by the New York 

 Zoological Society is mainly devoted to a de- 

 scription of the splendid series gathered by 

 A. S. Reed and presented by Emerson Mc- 

 Millin, another bit of testimony of the liberal 

 manner in which New Yorkers support their 

 scientific institutions. The specimens are 

 from Alaska and British Columbia and com- 

 prise some striking examples of the mountain 

 sheep, caribou and giant moose of that region. 



Incidental to the recent meeting of the 

 International Fishery Congress the Bureau of 

 Fisheries has issued an account of its estab- 

 lishment, functions, organization, resources, 

 operations and achievements. This is well 

 illustrated and contains not only information 

 in regard to the work of the Bureau of Fish- 

 eries but as to the fisheries of the United 

 States. 



MOOREHOVSE'S COMET 

 Professor E. B. Frost, director of the 

 Yerkes Observatory, calls attention to the 

 recent increase of brightness of Moorehouse's 

 comet and writes on October 29 : 



It was visible to the naked eye, and three or 

 four degrees of tail could readily be seen in a 

 small field glass. Three spectrum plates were 

 obtained with the Zeiss ultra-violet doublet and 

 objective prism by Mr. Parkhurst with some as- 

 sistance from me. Two of these had exposures of 

 one hour. No continuous spectrum was percept- 

 ible, whence we may reach the important infer- 

 ence that last night the comet's light was very 

 largely intrinsic. Seven bands were very con- 

 spicuous as knots on the plate. I am measuring 



