90 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1152 



tion to the literature of the subject, consti- 

 tuting, as it does, the first attempt to treat 

 comprehensively this important part of the 

 marine mammal fauna of New England, and 

 is a highly satisfactory summation of present 

 knowledge of the subject. A bibliography of 

 six pages (about 100 titles) gives references to 

 the technical literature cited in the text, in 

 addition to which are numerous footnote and 

 other references in the text to historical 

 records relating to the distribution and occur- 

 rence of the species in New England waters, 

 from early colonial times to the present. 



J. A. Allen 

 Ambeican Museum op Natural History 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL 

 ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



The eleventh number of Volume 2 of the 

 Proceedings of the National Academy of Sci- 

 ences contains the following articles: 



Path Differences within which Spectrum 

 Interferences are OhservaMe: Carl Barus, De- 

 partment of Physics, Brown University. The 

 method of observing interferences in the 

 zeroth, first, second, third, and even fourth 

 order, successively, without essential change 

 of the parts of the apparatus is noteworthy. 

 The present experiments furnish a striking 

 example of the uniform breadth of the strip 

 of spectrum carrying the fringes, quite apart 

 from the dispersion of the spectrum. 



Non-Reversed Spectra of Restricted Coin- 

 cidence: Carl Barus, Department of Physics, 

 Brown University. The method, apart from 

 any practical outcome, is worth pursuing be- 

 cause of the data it will furnish of the width 

 of the strip of spectrum carrying interference 

 fringes under any given conditions. 



The Equilibrium between Acids and Bases 

 in Sea Water: Lawrence J. Henderson and 

 Edwin J. Colin, Wolcott Gibbs Memorial Labo- 

 ratory, Harvard University. The ocean, 

 which, because of the presence of free carbonic 

 acid, was originally acid, and which has been 

 becoming more alkaline from the accumulation 

 of basic material, is at present in an epoch 

 where the growing alkalinity is checked by the 

 buffer action of acids of approximately the 



strength of boric acid. These buSers regulate 

 the reaction of sea water in a manner similar 

 to the way in which bicarbonates and phos- 

 phates regulate the reaction of blood. 



An Apparent Correspondence between the 

 Chemistry of Igneous Magmas and of Organic 

 Metabolism: Henry S. Washington, Geophys- 

 ical Laboratory, Carnegie Institution of "Wash- 

 ington. The object is to call attention to 

 what appears to be a congruous relation of 

 two pairs of elements in the organic world; 

 it would appear that iron and sodium are nec- 

 essary for animal metabolism, while magne- 

 sium and potassium are essential to vegetable 

 metabolism. 



The Oaks of America: William Trelease, 

 Department of Botany, University of Illinois. 

 A summary of a manuscript now prepared for 

 submission to the academy for publication as 

 one of its scientific memoirs. 354 species of 

 oaks, of which about one half are new, are 

 recognized. The relations to fossil oaks are 

 pointed out. 



A Set of Independent Postulates for Cyclic 

 Order: Edward V. Huntington, Department 

 of Mathematics, Harvard University. Eive 

 postulates are given for cyclic order. 



A New Method of Studying Ideational and 

 Allied Forms of Behavior in Man and Other 

 Animals: Robert M. Yerkes, Psychological 

 Laboratory, Harvard University. A descrip- 

 tion of the author's method of multiple choices 

 for the deduction of reactive tendencies and 

 the study of their role in the attempted solu- 

 tion of certain types of problem. The method 

 involves the presentation to the subject of a 

 problem or series of problems whose rapid and 

 complete solution depends upon ideational 

 processes. 



Electrical Conduction in Dilute Amalgams : 

 Gilbert N. Lewis and Thomas B. Hine, De- 

 partment of Chemistry, University of Cali- 

 fornia. The resistance of amalgams of 

 lithium, sodium and potassium is studied at 

 constant pressure and shows extraordinary 

 differences; the resistances at constant aver- 

 age atomic volume are also calculated and 

 found to differ materially from those at con- 

 stant pressure. 



