224 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXIX. No. 997 



Dwight-Woolseys of Coimeoticut, the Bayard-Jay- 

 Livingston Complex of New York, and the first 

 families of Virginia have arisen. Actors tend to 

 marry each other and so rapidly produce nearly 

 pure strains of histrionic talent. This nation owes 

 more than it recognizes to its strains of inventors, 

 surgeons, commanders, statesmen, authors, artists 

 and financiers that have made her famous and 

 given her the high standing she has attained in 

 the family of nations. 



Thus biotypes in man prove to be real things 

 and their study is quite as much within the proper 

 field of research of the anthropologist as are the 

 commonly recognized races of men. 



The paper was discussed by Dr. Hrdlicka. 

 Daniel Polkmak, 



Secretary 



THE ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON 



At the 223d regular meeting of the society, held 

 January 7, Mr. August Busek gave his retiring 

 presidential address entitled, ' ' Notes on the 

 Classification of the Microlepidoptera. ' ' In this 

 address Mr. Busck reviewed the characters which 

 have been used in classifying the Microlepidoptera, 

 telling how the venation is now used most exten- 

 sively and emphasizing this as the most important 

 character in judging the phylogenetie relationships 

 of superfamilies, families and genera. He pre- 

 sented his views on the phylogeny of the Micro- 

 lepidoptera arranged graphically in a phylogenetie 

 tree. This address, as well as some of the discus- 

 sion which it called forth, wOl be published in an 

 early number of the Proceedings of the Entomo- 

 logical Society of Washington. 



The meeting was very well attended by members 

 and visitors. The most distinguished visitor was 

 the Canadian entomologist, Dr. C. Gordon Hewitt. 



the PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY, UNIVEESITY OF VIR- 

 GINIA, MATHEMATICAL AND SCIENTIFIC 

 SECTION 



The fourth meeting of the year 1913-14 was 

 held January 20, 1914. 



Professor T. L. Watson and Mr. J. H. Oline pre- 

 sented a paper entitled ' ' Some Examples of the 

 Intercision Type of Stream Piracy in Western 

 Virginia. ' ' 



Professor W. A. Kepner and Mr. W. H. Talia- 

 ferro presented a paper entitled ' ' The Organs of 

 Special Sense of Prorhyncns." 



L. G. HoxTON, 



Secretary 



the SCIENCE CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 

 WISCONSIN 



Dr. Frederic E. Weight, petrologist of the Geo- 

 physical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of 

 Washington, gave an account of ' ' Some Phases of 

 the Work of the Geophysical Laboratory" before 

 the Science Club of the University of Wisconsin 

 at its 127th meeting on December 10, 1913. 



The scope of the Geophysical Laboratory of 

 Washington is restricted to the field of experi- 

 mental geology, and particularly to the quantita- 

 tive investigation of the chemical, physical and 

 physico-chemical phenomena of minerals. Arti- 

 ficial minerals are prepared from pure substances 

 under known conditions, and are studied and com- 

 pared with natural minerals. A great deal of 

 preliminary work has been done by the laboratory 

 in devising, making and standardizing apparatus. 



Dr. Wright described and illustrated with color 

 photographs projected on the screen the labora- 

 tory, its equipment and methods of work; per- 

 formed experiments showing phenomena of crys- 

 tallization, eutectic fusion, recalescence and other 

 inversion phenomena; and showed by means of pro- 

 jected color photographs the polarization, and other, 

 phenomena employed in the microscopic analysis 

 of minerals. Dr. Wright exhibited a model of a 

 fusion-equilibrium surface in trilinear coordinates 

 representing the properties of all possible mix- 

 tures of lime, magnesia and silica, the result of 

 six years ' research in the laboratory. He also gave 

 an account of the work of Dr. Day and Dr. Shep- 

 herd, in collecting and examining volcanic gases, 

 and projected on the screen color photographs 

 taken during the descent into the crater of 

 Kilauea, showing in the most vivid way the phe- 

 nomena of an active volcano at close range. The 

 work of the expeditions to Kilauea has shown that 

 water is present in the magma of volcanoes, at 

 least of Kilauea; that this water is not of at- 

 mospheric origin, since no argon accompanies it; 

 and that the heat of recombination of the dissoci- 

 ated gases is sufficient to keep the lava molten. 



In response to a question by Dr. C. K. Leith, 

 Dr. Wright gave a brief account of the present 

 state of his research on the internal forces of crys- 

 tals by determining the changes of form and other 

 properties of crystals in response to change of 

 temperature and pressure. 



Eric E. Miller, 



Secretary 



