230 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 34. 



which all who may be present may take 

 part. In order that a systematic course 

 may be followed in these discussions, each 

 general division of chemical work arranged 

 for this meeting will be introduced by a 

 member of the section, who will be followed 

 in turn by some other members who 

 majr have anything to offer. These discus- 

 sions will be ojDen to all members of this 

 Section, but it is requested that those who 

 may have something to offer will advise the 

 Chairman of the Committee of the fact and 

 submit to him as earljr as possible a brief 

 abstract or sjdlabus of the material. 

 The object of this is to enable the Com- 

 mittee to make a systematic arrangement 

 of the work to be done. The several ses- 

 sions will be devoted respectively to phys- 

 ical, general inorganic, general organic, 

 analytic, didatic, biologic, hj'gienic, agri- 

 cultural and technical chemistry. The ad- 

 dress of the vice-president. Dr. William 

 McMurtrie, is on ' The Eelations of the In- 

 dustries to the Advance of Chemical Sci- 

 ence. ' 



THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMEEICA. 



The Botanical Society of America was 

 formally organized last summer at Brook- 

 lyn. The first annual meeting will be held 

 at Springfield, Mass., Tuesday and Wednes- 

 day, August 27th and 2<Sth, immediately 

 preceding the meeting of the A. A. A. S. 

 The sessions of the Society will be held in 

 the High School building, room 6, first floor, 

 beginning at 3 P. M., Tuesday. The Coun- 

 cil will meet at the Hotel Worthy at 2 P. 

 M. of the same day, for the purpose of ar- 

 ranging the program and for such other busi- 

 ness as may come before it. 



C. R. Barnes, Sec'y. 



VITAL STATISTICS OF NEW ENGLAND. 



A SUMMARY of the vital statistics of the 

 New England States for the year 1892 has 

 been compiled under the direction of the 



secretaries of the State Boards of Health and 

 published by Damrell & Upham, Boston. 

 It appears that the birth rate of ISTew Eng- 

 land, 24.9 per thousand of the population, 

 was less than that of any European country 

 excepting France and Ireland. The death 

 rate (19.9) was less than that of Italy, 

 Hungary, Austria, Germany, France, Hol- 

 land and Belgium, but greater than that of 

 the British Islands, the Scandinavian coun- 

 tries and Switzerland. The marriage rate 

 (18.5) was higher than that of any other 

 country. The illegitimate births were only 

 13.4 per thousand living births, whereas in 

 Europe they vary from 25 in Ireland to 143 

 in Austria. The total population of New 

 England (4,700,745) is almost equally di- 

 vided between the urban population con- 

 tained in cities having a population larger 

 than 10,000 and the rural iDOpulation. The 

 marriage, birth and death rates in the two 

 groups were as follows : 



At the Versammlung deutscher Katurfor- 

 scher xmd Aerzte, which will be held in Lii- 

 beck, under the presidency of Professor J. 

 Wislicenus, from the 16th to tlie 21st of 

 September, the following lectures will be 

 given: On Some Problems of the Phj'siology 

 of Reproduction, by Professor G. Klebs; 

 Serum Therapeutics, by Professor Behring; 

 Surgical Operations on the Brain, by Pro- 

 fessor Riedel ; Atomic Problems, by Pro- 

 fessor Victor Meyer ; Neo- Vitalism, by Pro- 

 fessor von Rindfleisch; The Origin of the 

 East Sea, by Professor R. Credner; The 

 Overthrow of Scientific Materialism, by 

 Professor W. Ostwald. 



