May 10, 1918] 



SCIENCE 



467 



nature. It is probably the ordinary way in 

 which white-flowered, hairless and spineless 

 varieties and so many analogous novelties are 

 produced in the field and in horticulture. The 

 experimental instances seem quite sufficient 

 and broad enough to establish the principle, 

 but as yet they belong almost to the retro- 

 gressive mutations. The claim that progres- 

 sive changes are also due to sudden mutations 

 still mainly rests on our theoretical concep- 

 tion of the evolution of organic life in general. 

 But, fortunately, some experimental evidence 

 is coming in of late for this point also. 



Hugo de Yries 

 LuNTEREN, Holland 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR 



THE ADVANCEMENT OF 



SCIENCE 



SECTION E— GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY 



The sixty-ninth meeting of Section E (Geology 

 and Geography) of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science was held in the audi- 

 torium of the new U. S. Bureau of Mines Building 

 in Pittsburgh, Pa., on December 28 and 29. Pro- 

 fessor George H. Perkins, vice-president of Sec- 

 tion E, presided. 



The genera! program, of which abstracts follow, 

 was 80 full that ea<}h session far overran the usual 

 time limit. Geological workers from the general 

 Pittsburgh region contributed much to the success 

 of the meetings. 



The address of the retiring vice-president. Pro- 

 fessor Rollin D. Salisbury, of the University of 

 Chicago, upon the subject, ' ' The educational value 

 of geology, ' ' was given on the afternoon of De- 

 cember 28, and was printed in Science, April 5. 



On the morning of December 29, a symposium 

 entitled ' ' Mineral resources and chemical indus- 

 try" was held jointly with Section C. This was 

 essentially a war-time session dealing with the pe- 

 culiar problems uow facing this country as the re- 

 sult of the war, the unusual demand for certain 

 materials and products, and the necessity of rely- 

 ing upon the country's own reserves and industries 

 for various materials formerly imported in large 

 measure from sources not now available. The 

 papers upon mineral resources described in detail 

 the special efforts now being made by the U. S. 

 Geological Survey and the U. S. Bureau of Mines 

 to solve the problem of supplying the country with 

 the necessary fuels, potash salts and metals (such 



as tungsten, chromium, nickel, cobalt, vanadium, 

 manganese, etc.) which are required for the suc- 

 cessful prosecution of the war. The papers on 

 chemical industries portrayed some of the efforts 

 put forth by the chemists in response to certain 

 urgent needs and special situations developed by 

 war conditions. 



The Symposium comprised the following papers: 



1. Introduction to the discussion of our mineral 

 reserves under war conditions: David White. 



2. Coal, coke and tar distillation: S. W. Parr. 



3. The bearing of the oil industry on the war: 

 C. H. Beal. 



4. Glassware, with special reference to chemical 

 glassware: S. R. Scholes. 



5. Potash production in the United States : W. 

 B. Hicks. 



6. Research in chemistry and metallurgy as ap- 

 plied to non-ferrous metals: C. H. Fulton. 



7. Domestic resources of ferro-alloy ores: D. F. 

 Hewett. 



These papers will be published in another num- 

 ber of Science. 



Dr. David White, of the U. S. Geological Sur- 

 vey, was elected vice-president of the association 

 and chairman of Section E for the coming year; 

 Dr. Wallace W. Atwood, of Harvard University, 

 member of the council; Dr. George F. Kunz, of 

 New York, member of the General Committee; Dr. 

 George F. Kay, of the University of Iowa, mem- 

 ber of the sectional committee to serve one year in 

 place of Dr. David White, resigned, and Dr. L. C. 

 Glenn, of Vanderbilt University, member of the 

 sectional committee for five years. To represent 

 Section E at the celebration in honor of the one 

 hundred and seventy-fifth anniversary of the birth 

 of Abbg Ren6 Just Haiiy, to be held at the Ameri- 

 can Museum of Natural History, New York City, 

 on February 28, 1918, there were appointed by the 

 chairman Dr. E. C. Hovey, Dr. C. P. Berkey and 

 Dr. J. E. Woodman. 



The titles and abstracts of the papers of the 

 general program follow: 



Glass sands: Chas. R. Fettke (will be printed in 



Science). 



The Saltsburg sandstone as a buildinff stone: S. B. 



Brown. 



The rapidity with which the Saltsburg sandstone 

 gained favor may be seen from the number of im- 

 portant structures in which it has been used dur- 

 ing the last six years. A few of these are the fol- 

 lowing: The Cabin John bridge at Washington 

 City, some interior work in the Grand Central Bail- 



