SEPTEMBER 29, 1899.] 
is entitled to a modicum of systematic 
manual training as a part of a rounded 
education. 
Mr. Newcomb’s paper on ‘The Spoils 
System in Theory and Practice’ was a sur- 
prisingly frank and straightforward expo- 
sition of the manner and extent to which 
members of Congress plunder the national 
treasury by creating unnecessary offices and 
filling them with friends who make them- 
selves agreeable, but perform no needful 
public service. The paper will soon appear 
in print. 
C. M. Woopwarp, 
Secretary. 
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY. 
THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 
THE sixth summer meeting of the American 
Mathematical Society was held at the Ohio 
State University, Columbus, Ohio, on Friday 
and Saturday, August 25th and 26th, simul- 
taneously with the meeting of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science at 
that place. In attendance and range of subjects 
covered in the papers presented, the meeting 
was thoroughly representative of mathematical 
activity throughout the country. The Pres- 
ident, Professor R. 8. Woodward occupied the 
chair, and in opening the first session con- 
trasted the present lively interest in mathe- 
matical investigation as indicated by the list of 
papers to be read, each of which was in some 
way a contribution to the sum of mathematical 
knowledge, with the conditions of thirty or 
forty years ago when the workers in mathe- 
matical science were very few and were con- 
* fined within narrow limits. 
The American Mathematical Society which 
represents the organized forces for research and 
the diffusion of mathematical knowledge in the 
United States has had a remarkable growth. It 
was organized upon its present basis in 1894 
and now numbers over three hundred members. 
Ten new members were elected at this meeting 
and eight applications for membership were re- 
ceived. 
The following is a list of the papers presented, 
many of which will be published in the Trans- 
SCIENCE. 
445 
actions of the Society, others in the American 
Journal or the Annals of Mathematics : 
‘Note on relative motion,’ Dr. A. 8S. Chessin, 
New York, N. Y. 
‘On surfaces of zero relative velocity and a 
certain class of special solutions in the problem 
of four bodies,’ Mr. F. R. Moulton, Univer- 
sity of Chicago. 
‘On the use of generalized differentiation in 
the solution of physical problems,’ Professor 
John E. Davies, University of Wisconsin. 
‘ A new class of link works,’ Professor Arnold 
Emch, Kansas Agricultural College. 
‘A relation between point and vector analy- 
sis,’ Mr. Joseph Y. Collins, Stevens Point, Wis- 
consin. 
‘John Speidell’s ‘New Logarithmes,’ Pro- 
fessor Florian Cajori, University of Colorado. 
‘On analogues of the property of the ortho- 
center,’ Herbert Richmond, M.A., King’s Col- 
lege, Cambridge. 
‘A theorem on skew surfaces,’ Professor C. 
A. Waldo, Purdue University. 
‘Irrational covariant conics of a plane cubic,’ 
Professor H. S. White, Northwestern Univer- 
sity. 
‘On the generalization of Desargues’ theorem,’ 
Professor Frank Morley, Haverford College. 
‘On certain crinkly curves,’ Professor E. H. 
Moore, University of Chicago. 
‘Note on non-quaternion number systems,’ 
Dr. Wendell M. Strong, Yale University. 
‘On mixed groups,’ Professor H. B. Newson, 
University of Kansas. 
‘The invariant theory of the inversion group,’ 
Dr. Edward Kasner, Columbia University. 
‘Note on the imprimitive substitution groups 
of degree fifteen and on the primitive substitu- 
tion groups of degree eighteen,’ Miss Emilie N. 
Martin, Bryn Mawr College. 
‘A new definition of the general abelian 
group,’ Professor L. EK. Dickson, University of 
Texas. 
‘Definition of various linear groups as groups 
of isomorphisms,’ Professor L. E. Dickson, 
University of Texas. 
‘On the groups of cogredient isomorphisms 
that are abelian,’ Mr. W. B. Fite, Cornell Uni- 
versity. ; 
‘On the groups that are the direct products of 
