March 22, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



295 



determine the basis on which soil physicists 

 and certain others must compare soils. It is 

 contended, however, that the soil physicist 

 should not be allowed to express ratios as per- 

 centages unless the substances so reported are 

 actually contained in the material in the con- 

 dition reported upon. The analyst does not 

 include the moisture in a dry basis analysis for 

 the object of the dry basis analysis is to elimi- 

 nate the moisture so that the constituents of 

 the material may be readily compared in 

 amounts with those in other materials. 



Speaking of the per cent, of moisture in 

 moist soil the following quotation is made: 



For example, 100 grams of wet soil containing 

 5 per cent, of water would consist of 5 grams of 

 water and 95 grams of soil, a ratio of 1 to 19. If 

 the soil contained instead 25 per cent, of water, 

 the ratio would be 1-3 instead of 1-3.8 as the per- 

 centages would naturally lead one to expect. 



In speaking of the particular objection re- 

 ferred to above the same authors write: 



In using a percentage of moisture based on the 

 dry soil instead of on the wet, the first of the 

 above objections is eliminated. Consequently this 

 method of erpression is perfectly legitimate as 

 long as soils having about the same specific grav- 

 ity are compared. 



The above is taken to signify that the soil 

 physicist has decided that the weight of 

 water present with each 100 parts of dry soil 

 gives him a better basis of comparing soils 

 than he would have if he stated the same re- 

 sult in terms of percentage composition: ex- 

 ample, that 100 grams of dry soil will take up 

 50 grams of water is a better basis of compari- 

 son for the soil physicist that the soil contains 

 33.3 per cent, of moisture when saturated. 



If those, including in addition to soil physi- 

 cists, chemists, botanists and general agricul- 

 turalists, who have been reporting moisture 

 as " percentage on the dry basis " would sub- 

 stitute something for the words per cent, or 

 percentage in this connection all would inter- 

 pret moisture results as they were intended to 

 be interpreted. 



The following phrases which serve the case 

 equally well are suggested: 



1. Ratio of water to 100 parts of dry soil. 



2. Parts of water with 100 parts of dry soil, 

 under conditions specified. 



3. Moisture with 100 parts of dry soil. 



4. Grams moisture per 100 grams of dry soil. 



H. A. NoYES 

 Purdue Univeksitt 



THE FEDERATION OF AMERICAN SO- 

 CIETIES FOR EXPERIMENTAL 

 BIOLOGY 



The annual meeting of the Federation or 

 American Societies for Experimental Biology, 

 which includes The American Physiological So- 

 ciety, The American Society of Biological Chem- 

 ists, The American Society for Pharmacology and 

 Experimental Therapeutics and The American So- 

 ciety for Experimental Pathology, held its annual 

 meeting at the University of Minnesota, Decem- 

 ber 27 and 28, and at The Mayo Foundation, 

 Eochester, Minnesota, December 29. 1917. The 

 meetings were very well attended and the scien- 

 tific interest was unusually strong. Every one 

 voted the sessions an unqualified success. 



The meeting opened witb a joint session of the 

 societies on Thursday morning and closed with 

 similar joint sessions at Rochester, Saturday morn- 

 ing and afternoon. Friday afternoon was g^ven 

 to joint demonstrations and the Saturday morning 

 session opened with surgical and scientific labora- 

 tory demonstrations at Eochester. The physiolo- 

 gists held three special sessions, the biochemists 

 and pharmacologists each two special sessions, and 

 the pathologists one special session. Some 265 

 guests were present- at the joint dinner provided 

 for the federation, the anatomists and the zoolo- 

 gists given at the Hotel Radisson, Thursday even- 

 ing, December 27. The local committee provided 

 very convenient arrangements for the meetings in 

 Millard Hall, University of Minnesota Medical 

 School. The membership of the society is in- 

 debted to the local committee for the very pleas- 

 ant smoker and buffet luncheon Friday evening. 



A special train carried the visitors to the last 

 day's session at Eochester. A very pleasant inter- 

 val was the noon-day luncheon by the hospitality 

 of Dr. and Mrs. WiUiam J. Mayo at their home in 

 Eochester. The session closed with a dinner under 

 the auspices of the Mayo Foundation staff at the 

 Hotel Zumbro and a social and smoker which fol- 

 lowed at the Mayo Clinic assembly hall. 



The officers and members of the American Fed- 

 eration feel under special obligation to the local 

 committees at Minneapolis and Rochester for the 



