776 
The November number of the Bulletin con- 
tains a report of the meeting of Section A, of 
the American Association, by Dr. G. A. Miller ; 
a review of Harkness and Morley’s ‘ Introduc- 
tion to the Theory of Functions,’ by Professor 
Oskar Bolza; a review of McAulay’s ‘ Octoni- 
ons,’ by Professor A. S. Hathaway ; ‘ Theses in 
Mathematics at the University of Paris,’ a re- 
view by Professor E. O. Lovett of five theses, 
presented to the Faculty of Sciences of the Uni- 
versity of Paris, 1897-8 ; ‘ Notes’; ‘New Publi- 
cations.’ 
Bird-Lore for October contains an article by 
Dr. J. A. Allen on the American Ornithologists’ 
Union illustrated by a full page plate showing 
the twenty-four founders of the Union. It con- 
tains portraits of Baird, Robert Ridgway, Elliott 
Coues, J. A. Allen, C. Hart Merriam, William 
Brewster and other prominent ornithologists. 
Ir is stated in Natural Science that the Quebec 
government has withdrawn the grant made to 
defray the cost of publishing the Canadian 
Record of Science. The Natural History Society 
of Montreal appeals for help to continue the 
journal. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
THE Academy held its autumn session at 
Columbia University on Tuesday and Wednes- 
day, November 14th and 15th, the following 
members being in attendance : Cleveland Abbe, 
George F. Barker, C.. E. Beecher, A. Graham 
Bell, John 8. Billings, Henry P. Bowditch, 
William H. Brewer, George J. Brush, Charles 
F. Chandler, Cyrus B. Comstock, Edward S. 
Dana, Samuel F. Emmons, Wolcott Gibbs, 
Arnold Hague, Charles 8. Hastings, Edward S. 
Holden, Richmond Mayo-Smith, Albert A. 
Michelson, Simon Newcomb, Charles S. Peirce, 
Frederick W. Putnam, T. W. Richards, Ogden 
N. Rood, A. E. Verrill, Charles D. Walcott, 
E. B. Wilson, Horatio C. Wood, Robert 8. 
Woodward and Arthur W. Wright. 
At the business session Professor H. P. Bow- 
ditch presented the report of the delegates to 
the Wiesbaden Congress to consider the estab- 
lishment of an International Scientific Associa- 
tion. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. X. No. 256. 
The scientific program was as follows: 
Variations in Normal Color Vision, by Ogden 
N. Rood. ; 
The Time of Perception as a Measure of Dif- 
ference in Intensity; Relations of Time and 
Space in Vision (by invitation), by J. McKeen 
Cattell. 
The Electro-chemical Equivalents of Copper 
and Silver, by Theodore William Richards. 
Recent Results of the Henry Draper Me- 
morial, by Edward C. Pickering. Read by 
Professor G. F. Barker. 
The Statical Properties of the Atmosphere, 
by R. S. Woodward. 
The Hydrogen Vacua of Dewar, by George 
F. Barker. 
A Direct Proof of the Effect on the Eulerian 
Cycle of an Inequality in the Equatorial Mo- 
ments of:-Inertia of the Earth, by R. 8. Wood- 
ward. 
The Definition of Continuity (by title) ; 
Topical Geometry, in General (by title): 
The Map-coloring Problem, by Charles S. 
Peirce. 
Memoir of W. A. Rogers as a Physicist (by 
title), by E. W. Morley. 
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 311TH 
MEETING, SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH. 
Dr. L. O. HoOwARD, under the title ‘ Prelimi- 
nary Notice of an Investigation of the Insect 
Fauna of Human Excrement,’ exhibted a series 
of dipterous insects reared from human excre- 
ment, and stated that having been interested in 
the published accounts in the medical journals 
of the autumn of 1898 of the supposed carriage 
of typhoid germs by flies in army camps, and 
realizing that no careful investigation of the in- 
sect fauna of human excrement had been made 
by entomologists, he had begun such an investi- 
gationin January, 1899. During the year many 
thousands of specimens of insects had been 
reared from fecal matter, and had been collected 
in privies and on excreta in the field, largely in 
the vicinity of Washington, but also in other 
parts of the country at different points, from 
Porto Rico to the State of Washington. Up to 
the present time, 138 distinct species of insects 
had been determined to frequent human excre- 
ment, including 77 distinct species of Diptera, 
