Apeil 17, 1914] 



SCIENCE 



567 



of members, foreign associates and two 

 members of the council. 

 1 :30 P.M. — Luncheon in the private dining- 

 room of the Hotel Raleigh. 

 4:00 P.M. — Auditorium, National Museum. 

 Second of the William Ellery Hale Lec- 

 tures, by Sir Ernest Eutherford, of Man- 

 chester. (Open to the public.) Subject: 

 " The Constitution of Matter and the Evo- 

 lution of the Elements." (Hlustrated.) 

 The chairmen of the various trust funds 

 are requested to present at the meeting de- 

 tailed written reports in accordance with in- 

 structions in rule 22, adopted at the annual 

 meeting in 1911, which reads as follows : 



The annual reports of the Committees on Ee- 

 search Funds shall, so far as the Academy has au- 

 thority to determine their form, give a current 

 number to each award, stating the name, position 

 and address of the recipient, the subject of re- 

 search for which the award is made, and the sum 

 awarded; and in later annual reports the status of 

 the work accomplished under each award previ- 

 ously made shall be announced, until the research 

 is completed, when ajmouncement of its comple- 

 tion and, if published, the title and place of pub- 

 lication shall be stated, and the record of the 

 award shall be reported as closed. 



At the scientific sessions of the academy, 

 held in the Auditorium of the National Mu- 

 seum on April 22, papers will be presented as 

 follows : 

 Pre-Cambrian Algonhian Algce: Charles D. Wal- 



COTT. (Lantern slides.) 

 Hewettite, Metahewettite and Pascoite, Hydrous 

 Calcium Vanadates: W. F. Hillebrand, N. E. 

 Mekwin and Feed E. Wright. 

 Two apparently different calcium vanadates are 

 described, which resemble each other very closely 

 and have the same composition — CaO.3V2O5.9H2O — - 

 when holding their maximum water content at room 

 temperature. One of them — hewettite — occurs at 

 Minasragra, Peru, and has been noticed on a 

 single specimen from Paradox Valley, Colorado. 

 The other — ^metahewettite — occurs at numerous lo- 

 calities ia western Colorado and eastern Utah. 

 Both minerals are sparingly soluble in water. A 

 third calcium vanadate — ^pascoite (2Ca0.3V20ii.- 

 llJHjO) — is. also described. This occurs with 

 hewettite at Minasragra. It is very soluble in 

 water. The first and second minerals are regarded 

 as hydrated acid hexavanadates — CaHjVeOu.SHjO 



— the third as a normal hexavanadate, Ca^VsOiT.- 

 llfH.O. 



The reasons for specific separation of hewettite 

 and metahewettite are set forth in detail. All three 

 minerals are so sensitive to changes in atmospheric 

 humidity that their water content varies within 

 wide limits at different times of the year. The re- 

 moval of all or nearly all the water does not result 

 in breaking down of the crystal structure, and 

 until this has occurred the water is wholly or in 

 great part taken up again when opportunity is of- 

 fered. 



The importance is emphasized of bringing all 

 minerals that behave in this way to a definite 

 maximum water content before analyzing them and 

 of following carefully the course of dehydration 

 under prescribed conditions. Detailed directions 

 are given for such tests and for avoiding several 

 sources of error. Attention is also called to two 

 fairly constant associates of metahewettite. One 

 of these (also a constituent of carnotite ores) is a 

 gray hydrous silicate of aluminum, trivalent vana- 

 dium and potassium. The other is elemental se- 

 lenium, the existence of which as a mineral species 

 seems now for the first time established. 

 The Origin of Monocoiyledony : John M. Coultek. 



The evidence of vascular anatomy, supported by 

 the historical record, as well as by general morpho- 

 logical considerations, has demonstrated that the 

 Monocotyledons have been derived from the 

 Dicotyledons. It remained to obtain evidence of 

 the transition from dicotyledony to monocotyled- 

 ony. The two opposing views, each supported by 

 considerable indirect evidence, are (1) that the 

 monocotyledonous condition has arisen by a fusion 

 of the two cotyledons, and (2) that it has arisen 

 by a suppression of one of them. 



Material of Agapanthus umbellatus (Liliacese) 

 obtained from South Africa proved to be occa- 

 sionally dicotyledonous, so that it was possible to 

 determine the relation between the two conditions. 

 The result has shown that neither one of the 

 theories advanced to explain the origin of mono- 

 cotyledony is tenable, but that this condition arises 

 from the continuation of one growing point on the 

 cotyledonary ring rather than a differentiation of 

 two growing points. In every case, the cotyledo- 

 nary apparatus begins as a ring, and continues its 

 growth as one cotyledon or two. It is evident that 

 there is neither suppression of one cotyledon nor 

 fusion of two. 

 Heredity of Some Emotional Traits: Charles B. 



Davenport. 



Among emotional traits, violent temper and rm- 



