SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1168 



The systematic endeavor to construct a col- 

 loidal mixture which would display some of 

 the fimdamental physical properties of proto- 

 plasm of plants has resulted in finding that a 

 mixture of substances of two of the three more 

 important groups of constituents, carbo- 

 hydrates and proteins, shows the imbibitional 

 behavior of tissues and tracts of protoplasts 

 of the plant. The differential action of such 

 colloidal masses in distilled water, acid and 

 alkaline solutions yields many striking paral- 

 lels with growth. The general identity of con- 

 stitution of these colloidal mixtures and of 

 cell-masses, and the obvious similarity of their 

 behavior, together with newly determined fea- 

 tures of carbohydrate metabolism not described 

 in this paper, make it possible to correlate 

 more closely the processes of imbibition, 

 metabolism and growth, and on the bases of 

 their interrelation, to interpret growth en- 

 largement and incidental variations in volume 

 and size of organs. D. T. MacDougal, 



H. A. Spoehr 



Desert Laboratory, 

 Tucson, Akizona 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 

 THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY 

 A REGULAR meeting of the society was held at 

 Columbia University on Saturday, April 28. The 

 attendance included twenty-seven members. Pro- 

 fessor E. W. Brown presided at the morning ses- 

 sion and Professor Edward Kasner at the after- 

 noon session. The couneU announced the election 

 of the following persons to membership in the 

 society: Professor C. P. P. Garis, Union College; 

 Professor P. J. Holder, University of Pittsburgh; 

 Dr. V. H. WeUs, University of Michigan; Pro- 

 fessor W. L. Wright, Lincoln University, Pa. Six 

 applications for membership were received. 



Professor L. P. Eisenhart was reelected a mem- 

 ber of the editorial committee of the Transactions. 

 A committee consisting of Professors Pocke, Cairns, 

 Cole, Huntington, Pitcher and D. T. Wilson was 

 appointed to have charge of the arrangements for 

 the simimer meeting of the society at Cleveland, 

 September 4-5. 



The following papers were read at this meeting: 

 W. B. Pite: "The relation between the zeros of 

 a solution of a linear homogeneous differential 

 equation and those of its derivatives." 



Samuel Beatty: "The inversion of an analytic 

 function. ' ' 



Maurice FrSchet: "Eelationa entre les notions 

 de limite et de distance." 



O. E. Glenn: "A fundamental system of formal 

 covariants mod 2 of the binary cubic. ' ' 



Luigi Bianehi : ' ' Concernuig singular transfor- 

 mations B]c of surfaces applicable to quadrics. ' ' 



J. E. Eowe: "The projection of a line section 

 upon the rational plane cubic curve." 



L. B. Robinson: "On partial differential equa- 

 tions which define certain covariants. ' ' 



J. K. Whittemore: "Kinematic properties of 

 ruled surfaces. ' ' 



Olive C. Hazlett: "On Huntington's set of pos- 

 tulates for abstract geometry." 



E. P. Simonds: "Differential invariants in the 

 plane. ' ' 



J. Douglas : ' ' On certain two-point properties of 

 doubly infinite families of curves on an arbitrary 

 surface. ' ' 



L. P. Eisenhart: "Conjugate planar nets with 

 equal invariants. ' ' 



Alexander Pell: "Solutions of the differential 

 equation dx- -\- dy" + ds- = ds- and their appUea- 

 tion. ' ' 



C. A. Pischer: "On bilinear and M-linear func- 

 tionals. ' ' 



E. B. Wilson: "Classification of real strains in 

 hyperspace. ' ' 



P. H. Safford: "Irrational transformations of 

 the general elliptic element. ' ' 



J. H. Weaver : ' ' Some algebraic curves. ' ' 



E. L. Moore: "A necessary and su:2icient con- 

 dition that a sequence of simple arcs of specified 

 type should be equivalent, from the standpoint of 

 analysis situs, to a sequence of straight segments. ' ' 



Dunham Jackson : ' ' Second note on the para- 

 metric representation of an arbitrary continuous 

 curve. ' ' 



Dunham Jackson: "Eoots and singular points of 

 semi-analytic functions. ' ' 



Oswald Veblen: "Doubly oriented lines." 



G. M. Green : ' ' The intersections of a straight 

 line and a hyperquadrie. ' ' 



P. W. Beal: "On a congruence of circles." 



G. A. Miller: "Possible characteristic operators 

 of a group." 



E. D. Carmichael: "Examples of a remarkable 

 class of series. ' ' 



W. L. Hart: "Note on infinite systems of linear 

 equations. ' ' 



P. N. Cole, 

 Secretar3J 



