876 
The total number of rats belonging to the 
third generation born in captivity is not yet 
large. There are, however, six litters alto- 
gether, each having a different parentage. 
Within these six litters I have found four 
pure albino rats (white coat and pink eyes) 
among only brown-coated brothers and sisters. 
The distribution of these albino mutants 
within the litters is as follows: 
(1) 7 brown and no albinos, born March 15, 1912. 
(2) 6 brown and no albinos, born March —, 1912. 
(3) 4 brown and 3 albinos, born April 17, 1912. 
(4) 4 brown and 1 albino, born April 17, 1912. 
(5) 12 brown and no albinos, born April 30, 1912. 
(6) 5 brown and no albinos, born May 4, 1912. 
This litter was found dead; all had pig- 
mented eyes. 
Thus the number of albino mutants in pro- 
portion to the brown-coated brothers and sis- 
ters is not large, though it may increase in 
subsequent generations. Although I have 
been anticipating that such albino mutants 
might occur sometime, nevertheless it was a 
great surpise to obtain them within so few 
generations. 
So far as I am aware, this is the first in- 
stance in which the albino mutants have been 
obtained from the common Norway rats under 
laboratory conditions and I thought the event 
of sufficient interest to justify this note. 
S. Hatat 
THE WISTAR INSTITUTE 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 
THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY 
THE one hundred and fifty-eighth regular meet- 
ing of the Society was held at Columbia Univer- 
sity on Saturday, April 27, 1912, with an attend- 
ance of fifty-two members. President H. B. Fine 
occupied the chair. The following new members 
were elected: Miss S. R. Benedict, Smith College; 
Mr. C. E. Fisher, Rhode Island Normal School; 
Dr. T. H. Gronwall, Chicago, Ill.; Mr. Louis A. 
Hopkins, University of Michigan; Dr. A. J. Kemp- 
ner, University of Illinois; Mr. V. C. Poor, Uni- 
versity of Michigan; Mr. R. B. Stone, Harvard 
University; Mr. K. P. Williams, Princeton Uni- 
versity. Seven applications for membership in the 
society were received. 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 909 
It was decided to hold the annual meeting this 
year at Cleveland, Ohio, in affiliation with the 
American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. The winter meeting of the Chicago Sec- 
tion will be merged in this general meeting of the 
society. Owing to President Fine’s absence 
abroad, his presidential address will not be deliv- 
ered at this meeting but at the annual meeting of 
1913. 
The following papers were read at the April 
meeting: 
R. L. Moore: ‘‘Concerning Jordan curves in 
non-metrical analysis situs.’’ 
J. K. Lamond: ‘‘Improper multiple integrals 
over iterable fields.’ 
L. A. Howland: ‘‘ Binary conditions for singular 
points on a cubiec.’’ 
B. H. Camp: ‘‘Certain integrals containing 
parameters. ’’ 
S. Lefschetz: ‘‘On the V,? with five nodes of 
the second species in S,.’’ 
E. R. Marshall: ‘‘A labor-saving device in com- 
putation.’’ 
G. D. Birkhoff: ‘‘The reducibility of maps.’’ 
G. D. Birkhoff: ‘‘A determinant formula for 
the number of ways of coloring any map.’’ 
Oswald Veblen: ‘‘An application of modular 
equations in analysis situs.’’ 
H. B. Phillips and C. L. E. Moore: ‘‘A geo- 
metric use of matrices.’’ 
H. B. Phillips and C. L. E. Moore: ‘‘A theory 
of linear distance and angle.’’ 
L. P. Siceloff: ‘‘Sylow subgroups of groups 
whose orders are of certain special forms.’’ 
A. D. Pitcher: ‘‘Concerning the continuity and 
convergence of functions of a general variable.’ 
W. R. Longley: ‘‘Proof of a theorem due to 
Picard.’’ 
A. R. Schweitzer: 
equation.’’ 
A. BR. Schweitzer: 
equations. ’’ 
Dunham Jackson: ‘‘On approximation by trigo- 
nometrie sums and polynomials (second paper).’’ 
N. J. Lennes: ‘‘Concerning Van Vleck’s non- 
‘Remark on a functional 
‘‘Theorems on functional 
measurable set.’’ 
N. J. Lennes: ‘‘Concerning infinite polygons 
and polyhedrons.’’ 
The next meeting of the society will be the 
summer meeting, which will be held at the Uni- 
yersity of Pennsylvania, September 10-11. 
F. N. Coe, 
Secretary 
