OcTOBER 13, 1899.] 
Farmer, Prof. J. B.—Fertilizationin Pheophycee 20 
Corresponding Societies. 
Meldola, Prof. R.—Preparation of Report.......... 20 
The report of the Council adopted by 
the general committee, made a number of 
important reports and recommendations. 
Arrangements have been made for the es- 
tablishment of a Bureau of Ethnology in 
cooperation with the British Museum. The 
Government of Cape Colony is not able to 
make immediate provision for a magnetic 
observatory. Plans are being arranged for 
a central building for seismological observa- 
tions and to collect statistics of the physical 
and mental characteristics of the races 
throughout the Empire, especially in India. 
It was decided not to reprint the collected re- 
ports on the Northwestern Tribes of Canada 
inasingle volume. The British Admiralty 
was requested to secure systematic observa- 
tions on the erosion of the sea coast. 
We hope to be able to publish special ac- 
counts of the proceedings of some of the 
sections, but it may be convenient for the 
reader to have a general survey of the more 
important papers presented during the 
meeting. In the Mathematica land Phys- 
ical Section the interest created by the ad- 
dress of the president, Professor Poynting, 
already published in Screncsg, was sustained 
throughout the meeting by papers describ- 
ing the results of important work. The 
much-discussed question of color-vision was 
raised once more by the paper of Mr. G. J. 
Burch on ‘The Spectroscopical Examina- 
tion of Contrast Phenomena.’ His investi- 
gations lead him to support the Helmholtz 
theory, but also to suppose that a fourth 
primary sensation should be admitted— 
namely, blue. During the year the com- 
mittee on electrolysis and electrochemistry 
continued the work begun last year and 
furnished a report of progress. 
On the occasion of the visit of members 
of the French Association, Professor J. J. 
SCIENCE. 
507 
Thomson gave a masterly exposition of the 
various lines of research by which it has 
been concluded that the atom is not the 
smallest existing quantity of matter. Hlec- 
tro-chemical phenomena teach us to asso- 
ciate a definite amount of electricity with 
each atom of matter; but these recent re- 
searches indicate that under certain cir- 
cumstances a much larger quantity of neg- 
ative electricity may be conveyed by the 
atom, or else that the negative electrical 
charge resides on a small detachable por- 
tion of the ‘atom,’ which alone is concerned 
in the experiments. The positive charge 
seems to be distributed over the whole mass 
of the atom. 
The exploration of the higher regions of 
our atmosphere, by means of kites bearing 
meteorological instruments, was reported 
by Mr. A. L. Rotch, of the Blue Hill Ob- 
servatory, and supplied convincing proof of 
its usefulness in weather forecasting and in 
climatology. Professor Darwin called at- 
tention to the fact that such work is unduly 
negelcted in Great Britain, because there is 
no Government meteorological observatory. 
Another interesting paper from America 
was presented by Dr. L. A. Bauer, who de- 
scribed the work of the newly-organized 
division of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic 
Survey for the study of terrestrial magne- 
tism in the United States. A discussion on 
thermometry which was introduced by Pro- 
fessor Callendar, will, it is hoped, lead 
to the adoption of a standard platinum 
thermometer. The matter is to be fully 
discussed by the Committee on Electric 
Standards, which has done good work in 
the past in connection with electrical meas- 
urement. 
In the Chemical Section particular prom- 
inence was given to the discussion of sub- 
jects of a general character. Undoubted 
good resulted from the consideration of the 
best means to organize the study of atomic 
weight determinations, whilst the joint dis-’ 
