MakgcH 8, 1901.] 
had not been one, but several land connections 
between the continents during the past. 
Vernon Bailey said that nine species and 
subspecies of voles inhabiting the islands, coast 
and barren grounds of Alaska, belong to a well- 
defined group in the subgenus Microtus not rep- 
resented elsewhere in America, but largely rep 
resented in Siberia and Northern Europe, M. 
aperazius of St. Michaels, for example, being 
closely related to M. arvalis of Europe. Among 
the red-backed voles Evotomys alascensis of the 
barren grounds of Alaska is much more nearly 
related to EL. rutilus of northern Siberia and 
Europe than to any other American species. 
As these animals were small and weak and 
must therefore travel and spread slowly, he 
concluded that they could not have crossed 
over an ice bridge, but that their affinities 
pointed to a comparatively recent and some- 
what extended, in point of time, land connec- 
tion. 
F. A. Lucas. 
THE NEW YORK SEOTION OF THE AMERICAN 
CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
THE monthly meeting of the New York Sec- 
tion of the American Chemical Society was held 
on February 8th at the Chemists’ Club, 108 
West Fifty-fifth street. 
Dr. T. C. Stearns read a paper on ‘ The 
Chemistry of Materials used in Perfumery and 
Kindred Arts,’ in which he described the 
methods of preparation and chemical relations 
of the essential odors of flowers and their syn- 
thetic imitations. 
In the discussion it was suggested, and by 
some maintained, that the effect of the syn- 
thetic preparations was harmful to the human 
system, but nothing whatever in the way of 
proof was adduced. 
Dr. C. W. Volney gave the results of his in- 
vestigation of the ‘Decomposition of the 
Chlorids of the Alkali Metals by Sulfuric 
Acid,’ with exhibition of crystals, which he 
considered polysulphates, the most important 
being the trisulphate. Some of those present 
thought these salts were probably acid sul- 
phates, with sulfuric acid of crystallization, 
and that even the thermal evidence was in sup- 
port of this explanation. 
SCIENCE. 
33 
A paper by Dr. H. T. Vulté and Harriet W. 
Gibson on the ‘ Metallic Soaps from Linseed 
Oil; an Investigation of their Solubilities in 
certain of the Hydrocarbons,’ was read by Dr. 
Vulté. Professor Sabin said that a great many 
of the driers in use were made from rosin and 
contained no linseed soaps at all. Dr. Dudley 
said that he knew of no subject needing more 
study than the chemistry of the drying of oil, 
and that a great deal of time had been spent 
on it in his laboratory. He found that oil dri- 
ers used in excess retard drying, but that gum 
shellac driers could be used in all proportions 
and drying would occur approximately in pro- 
portion to the drier used. He had also found 
that a lead and manganese drier could be pre- 
pared which would induce drying of linseed oil 
in two hours. 
H. C. eeenate and J. F. Snell were repre- 
sented by H. C. Sherman, who read a paper in 
two sections: at On the Heat of Combustion 
asa Factor in the Analytical Examination of 
Oils’; (b) ‘The Heats of Combustion of some 
Commercial Oils.’ 
It was shown that in the case of a drying oil 
exposure to the air produced a reduction in the 
heat of combustion which may amount to ten 
per cent., whereas lard oil with the same expo- 
sure lost only one per cent. of its heat of com- 
bustion. 
To ignite the oil in the bomb calorimeter it 
was found satisfactory to absorb it on asbestos 
wool, whereby the use of any special igniting 
substance, with its consequent introduction of a 
troublesome error, was entirely obviated. 
DURAND WOODMAN, 
Secretary. 
THE WESTERN PHILOSOPHICAL ASSOCIATION. 
THE Western Philosophical Association held 
its first annual meeting at the University of 
Nebraska, Lincoln, on January lstand 2d. The 
program was as follows : 
Greetings—Chancellor E. Benjamin Andrews, Uni- 
versity of Nebraska. : 
President's Address—‘ The Theory of Interaction ’ 
—Frank Thilly, Professor of Philosophy, University 
of Missouri. 
‘The Dominant Conception of the Earliest Greek 
Philosophers ’—Frederick J. E. Woodbridge, Professor 
of Philosophy, University of Minnesota. 
