346 
In Chapter ,VI., on the analysis of gaseous 
mixtures, especially by combustion, no direc- 
tions or precautions are given necessary: for a 
successful result, nor is the treatment of the 
analysis of illuminating gas at all satisfactory. 
Chapter VII., on gas analytical apparatus, 
describes in a general way a number of the 
important forms of apparatus. 
Chapter VIII., on the calorific power of gases, 
is especially disappointing, the only methods 
given being that of Mahler—by the bomb, and 
by calculation, noSmention being made of the 
excellent apparatus of Junkers. 
In conclusion, the work, so far from ‘eta 
‘essentiellement pratique,’ as reviewed in the 
Comptes Rendus, appears to be superficial, bet- 
ter adapted to give a general idea of the subject 
than for a laboratory manual. 
Auaustus H. GILL. 
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 
The American Naturalist for January begins 
with a list of ‘Plants used by the Indians of 
Eastern North America,’ by Lucia B. Cham- 
berlain. The plants are arranged in alphabetic 
order under the name of each of the tribes con- 
sidered and the uses of the plants are noted. 
R. W. Shufeldt has an article ‘On the Syste- 
matic Position of the Sand Grouse (Pterocletes ; 
Syrrhaples),’ concluding that they belong 
wliere they are usually placed, between the 
Galli and Columbe. G. H. Parker discusses 
‘Correlated Abnormalites in the Scutes and 
Bony Plates of the Carapace of the Sculptured 
Tortoise,’ concluding that there is a more inti- 
mate relation between the plates and scutes 
than has been generally admitted. Roswell 
H. Johnson describes, with outline and ski- 
agraph illustrations ‘Three Polymelous Frogs’ 
and C. H. Higenmann and Ulysses O. Cox con- 
sider ‘Some Cases of Saltatory Variation.’ 
James Perrin Smith treats of ‘The Larval Coil 
of Baculites’ and deduces that Baculites prob- 
ably originated from Lytoceras, and some ‘ Vari- 
ation Notes’ are given, taken from the Bulletin 
of the Société d’ Anthropologie. The Editor an- 
nounces that the ‘ News’ department will be 
discontinued as the same field is covered by 
SCIENCE more promptly, but that the record of 
appointments, retirements and deaths will be 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Vou. XIII. No. 322. 
continued and that there will be added notices 
of gifts to educational institutions, all to be 
published quarterly. 
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
SECTION OF ASTRONOMY, PHYSICS AND CHEMIS- 
TRY OF THE NEW YORK ACADEMY 
OF SCIENCES. 
A REGULAR meeting of the Section was held 
at 12 West 31st Street, New York, on February 
4,1901. Professor George E. Hale, director 
of the Yerkes Observatory, gave a lecture on 
‘Astronomical Photography with a Visual Tele- 
scope.’ The following is an abstract : 
Photography was discovered in 1837, and the 
first astronomical photograph was taken in 
1840 by Dr. Draper of New York. It was a 
photograph of the moon made on a daguerreo- 
type plate, and gave great promise of future 
work. Bond in 1850 made the first photograph 
of the stars. Rutherfurd of New York, in 1858, 
made some remarkable photographs of the 
moon, and later some star photographs. 
Photography has now become so valuable in 
astronomy that it is applied in every depart- 
ment. Itis not true, however, that it will dis- 
place the eye. There are certain fields where 
the eye will be superior to the photographic 
plate, but in many other fields photography has 
led to results that never could have been ob- 
tained by visual observation. I shall speak to- 
night of work done at the Yerkes Observatory 
with a telescope designed for visual observa- 
tion. It is fortunate that this telescope was 
not designed for photography alone, for by the 
use of methods recently devised it has been 
possible to use it for photography and the re- 
sults are not at all inferior to what they might 
have been on a telescope designed for photog- 
raphy alone. 
The forty inch telescope of the Yerkes Ob- 
servatory can be considered as a long camera 
with a focal length of about sixty-four feet. Its 
field of view embraces a circle in the sky of only 
about five minutes of arc in diameter. In pho- 
tographing groups and clusters of stars this 
long focal length makes it possible to separate 
stars which would have been run together into 
one mass with an instrument of shorter focal 
length. A means of counteracting the uncor- 
