Apbil 9, 1909] 



SCIENCE 



597 



The two days spent at Merok and Gudvangen 

 amidst their stupendous cliffs and beautiful fjords 

 were a fitting climax to an inspiring and wonder- 

 ful cruise. 



Dr. Britton showed a photograph of a new and 

 interesting cycad collected by Dr. MacDougal and 

 Dr. Eose in Tomellin Canon, Mexico, in 1906. The 

 plant was sent to the New York Botanical Garden 

 and installed in the propagating houses, where it 

 remained for two years before showing any signs 

 of growth. This appears to be a new species of 

 Dioon. 



Dr. Murrill exhibited a number of tropical 

 fruits obtained on his recent trip to Jamaica. 



The club met at the American Museum of Nat- 

 ural History on February 9, at 8:15 p.m., and 

 was called to order by President Rusby. 



The announced paper of the evening on " The 

 Rubber Forests of Mexico " was then presented 

 by Dr. H. H. Rusby. The lecture was illustrated 

 by lantern-slides made from protographs, many 

 of which were obtained by the speaker while in 

 the field. This paper has been printed in full in 

 the January number of the Journal of the 'New 

 Torh Botanical Garden, and an abstract accom- 

 panied by illustrations will appear at an early 

 date in Torreya. 



Peect Wilson, 



Secretary 



THE AMEEICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 

 NOETHEASTEEN SECTION 



The ninetieth regular meeting of the section 

 was held at the Twentieth Century Club, Boston, on 

 February 19, Dr. Arthur L. Day, director of the 

 Carnegie Geophysical Laboratory, of Washington, 

 D. C, addressed the section on " Some Recent 

 Work in Greophysics." After pointing out the 

 necessity of applying the principles of physical 

 chemistry to the solution of many geological 

 problems, the speaker described the electrical 

 furnaces used in his laboratory for maintaining 

 temperatures of about 1,500° C. He stated that 

 the transition points for a number of one-com- 

 ponent and two-component systems of minerals 

 had been determined at this high temperature 

 and that work was now in progress on a three- 

 component system. 



Professor Henry P. Talbot, of the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, presented a paper upon 

 " Present Conceptions of the Action of the Com- 

 mon Indicators used in Aoidimetry, and Some of 



their Applications." The recent advances in the 

 knowledge of the reactions which indicators them- 

 selves undergo in changing from acid to alkaline 

 solutions was fully reviewed and the advantages 

 to be derived by the proper choice of indicators 

 was clearly illustrated by experiments. 



Kenneth L. Maek, 



Secretary 



the biological SOCIETT of "WASHINGTON 



The 454th meeting was held February 6, 1909, 

 with President Palmer in the chair. 



Dr. M. W. Lyon, Jr., exhibited skins and skulls 

 of the oriental genus Gymnura and of the Amer- 

 ican opossum, DidelpMs, and pointed out the close 

 general superficial resemblances in external and 

 cranial characteristics of these two groups of 

 mammals from such widely separated portions of 

 the world and members of different superorders, 

 the Monodelphia and the Didelphia. 



The chair noted the capture near Washington, 

 on September 1, 1908, of a specimen of the little 

 black rail, by Mr. H. M. Darling, on the eastern 

 branch of the Potomac. For the locality this is 

 the third actual specimen and fourth record of 

 this the smallest of the game birds, the first 

 record for the District of Columbia being in 1861. 

 Though its range is from Massachusetts to the 

 West Indies and Guatemala, the bird is seldom 

 seen. 



Dr. 0. F. Cook, in a brief statement on " Mitap- 

 sis and Amitapsis," called attention to the pos- 

 sible importance of the recent investigations of 

 Dr. Reginald R. Gates, of Chicago University, in 

 the cytology of (Unothera. The suggestion was 

 made that the lack of any evidence of fusion of 

 chromatin threads at synapsis may be of more 

 significance than the subsequent differences in the 

 number or distribution of the chromosomes. The 

 name amitapsis was proposed for the newly dis- 

 covered condition in which no fusion of chromatin 

 takes place, to contrast with mitapsis, the name 

 given by Cook and Swingle to the process of 

 chromatin fusion, considered as the final stage 

 of the process of conjugation. Mitapsis has no 

 necessary connection with synapsis, which is the 

 name of the closely coiled condition of the chro- 

 matin skein. Gates finds synapsis in (Enothera, 

 but no indication of mitapsis; the extremely deli- 

 cate threads visible before synapsis are simple. 

 A longitudinal splitting begins after synapsis, 

 but is not carried out, and the new chromosomes 

 are formed in a single chain. 



