474 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIV. No. 1135 



for measuring the relative position of objects 

 at these distances. Thus an animal with 

 lateral vision, when moving forward, has a 

 stereoscopic view of the landscape, owing to 

 the excessive relative displacement of objects. 

 A person looking out of a side window of a 

 moving railway ear sees the landscape in the 

 same way. 



This power of measuring surrounding dis- 

 tances due to lateral vision is important in its 

 bearing on the " sense of direction " problem 

 because the orientation of a bird with respect 

 to points of reference about it depends on the 

 subconscious summing up of the space rela- 

 tions immediately about the bird as it moves 

 here and there through the woods or through 

 any familiar or unfamiliar region. This sub- 

 conscious summation on the part of the bird 

 is greatly aided by any means which measures 

 the relative distances of minor reference 

 points in its immediate vicinity as it passes on 

 its way. 



The writer is not aware that the power that 

 animals having lateral vision seem to possess 

 of measuring the distances in their surround- 

 ings has been pointed out hitherto. That there 

 is such advantage over frontal vision, as in 

 man, appears to be evident. In any case, the 

 relation of lateral vision to near-by orientation 

 has not been properly emphasized. This short 

 paper is a part of an investigation on " sense 

 of direction " in animals, which has been aided 

 by the Herman Fund of the New York Acad- 

 emy of Sciences. C. 0. Trowbridge 



Phcenix Physical Laboratory, 

 Columbia University 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR 

 THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE- 

 SECTION B, PHYSICS 



The biggest and the best of the several meet- 

 ings the American Physical Society holds every 

 year is always that one held jointly with Section 

 B of the American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science. There are of course very few 

 active members of this section who are not also 

 active members of the Physical Society and there- 

 fore it might seem that there could be no ad- 

 vantage in holding joint meetings. Indeed it 

 might even be argued that the Physical Society 



had better meet at some other place where there 

 were none but physicists — no distracting remind- 

 ers of other sciences and other interests. 



But, as just stated, the uniform experience is 

 strongly in favor of the joint meetings. And one 

 thing that makes the annual meeting so delightful 

 and so profitable is the frequent, even if more or 

 less casual, conversations with scientists whose 

 chief interests are in other subjects — delightful 

 because of the charming acquaintances formed 

 and profitable because of the new interrelations 

 one is quite certain to see between his own and 

 other sciences. 



The recent meeting at Columbus, Ohio, at which 

 President B. A. Millikan, of the Physical Society 

 and Vice-president E. P. Lewis, of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, alter- 

 nately presided, was one of these pleasant and 

 profitable occasions. 



The address of the retiring vice-president of the 

 association and chairman of Section B, Dr. 

 Anthony Zeleny, was a well-deserved tribute to 

 the designer and the maker of instruments of pre- 

 cision upon whom advancement in science so 

 greatly depends. It appeared in full in Science 

 for February 11. 



The symposium — always a delightful feature of 

 these joint meetings — was on the behavior of sub- 

 stances at very high pressures. Dr. P. W. Bridg- 

 man gave a most interesting summary of the nu- 

 merous discoveries he has made of the properties 

 of substances at enormously heavy pressures — 

 properties stranger than fiction and of great im- 

 portance. 



At present the officers of Section B are as fol- 

 lows: 



Vice-president and Chairman of the Section: H. 

 A. Bumstead, Vale University. 



Secretary: "W. J. Humphreys, Washington, D. C. 



Member of Council: A. L. Foley, University of 

 Indiana. 



Sectional Committee: Vice-president, San Fran- 

 cisco and Columbus, E. P. Lewis; Vice-president, 

 New York, H. A. Bumstead; Secretary, "W. J. 

 Humphreys; Preceding Secretary, Alfred D. Cole; 

 T. C. Mendenhall, one year; Dayton C. Miller, two 

 years; George W. Stewart, three years; Bobert B. 

 Tatnall, four years; W. S. Franklin, five years. 

 Ex-officio: B. A. Millikan, President, American 

 Physical Society; Alfred D. Cole, Secretary, Amer- 

 ican Physical Society. 



Member of General Committee: G. B. Pegram, 

 Columbia University. 



"W. J. Humphreys, 



Secretary 



