APRIL 26, 1901.] 
results of some experiments made with the salt 
by Dr. E. V. Wilcox and himself in cases of 
the poisoning of sheep from eating plants. 
These experiments were made in Montana 
where hundreds of sheep are killed by certain 
poisonous plants every year. Preliminary ex- 
periments indicate that a one-per-cent. solution 
of KMn0,, to which one per cent. of the sul- 
fate of aluminum is added, is a wholly satisfac- 
tory antidote for poisoning by two of the most 
poisonous groups of plants of that State, the 
species of death camas, Zygadenus, spp. and 
the larkspurs, providing, of course, that it be 
given in the earlier stages of the poisoning. 
The sulfate of aluminum was added because of 
the greater oxidizing value which it confers 
upon the permanganate. The use of the mixed 
salts in cases of poisoning by other plants is 
to be further investigated. L. 8. Munson, 
Secretary. 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
THE 533d meeting was held March 30, 1901. 
Mr. J. B. Baylor read a paper on the ‘ Mag- 
netic Survey of North Carolina,’ which had 
been carried on jointly by the State and the U. 
S.-Coast and Geodetic Survey. The total cost 
was stated to have been $16.70 per county, in- 
cluding the establishment at-each county seat 
of a meridian line. Charts of isogonic lines 
showed many local irregularities, and that the 
declination had changed several degrees within 
one hundred and fifty years. 
Mr. J. E. Watkins, of the National Mu- 
seum, gave a half-hour paper on ‘ A Century of 
Land Transportation by Steam,’ narrating the 
development of rails, wheels and locomotives, 
with especial reference to early American prac- 
tice. 
An interesting sketch of Titian R. Peale, one 
of the founders of the Society, was then read 
by Mr. A. C. Peale. Mr. Peale was born in 
1799 and died in Philadelphia, in 1885. He 
was assistant naturalist with Long’s expedi- 
tion in 1819, and naturalist to the Wilkes’ ex- 
pedition about 1840; he drew the illustrations 
for many works on natural history, and for 
twenty-five years was an examiner in the U. 
S. Patent Office. C. K. WEaD, 
Secretary. 
SCIENCE. 
665 
THE 534th meeting was held April 13, 1901. 
The first paper upon the program was by Mr. 
Edwin Smith, on the ‘International Goedetic 
Association Latitude Service.’ It consisted of 
a short general statement of the history of the 
development of our knowledge of the variation 
of latitude up to 1898, of the plan of observa- 
tions devised by the International Geodetic As- 
sociation in 1898, and of the very satisfactory 
progress made in carrying out this program at 
six stations nearly upon the thirty-ninth par- 
allel. Lantern slides were exhibited showing 
the distribution of the stations in longitude, 
various curves illustrating the latitude varia- 
tion, a graphical representation of the program 
of observation, and the instrument and obsery- 
atory at Gaithersburg, Md. 
Mr. Artemas Martin read a paper on the 
‘Properties of Rational Plane Triangles.’ 
JOHN F. HAYFORD, 
Secretary. 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
THE 315th regular meeting of the Anthropo- 
logical Society was held March 26th. 
Mr. William Palmer demonstrated the method 
of making a life-mask, occupying only fifteen 
minutes in the operation, and without the use 
of quills placed in the nostrils. ; 
Dr. I. Casanowicz exhibited Babylonian, As- 
syrian and Persian seals and four magic bowls 
from Hilleh, the bowls having inscriptions on 
the inside in early Aramaic and Syriac charac- 
ter. They are in a fine state of preservation, 
and the inscriptions consist of formulas for ex- 
orcism, but so far there is no clue to the method 
of their use. The seals shown were lately 
acquired by the National Museum, and among 
them are some of the finest examples of ancient 
cutting. 
President W. H. Holmes exhibited several 
fine obsidian knives from California. One of 
the blades was 203 inches long and 5 inches 
wide, and with it was shown a mass of solid 
obsidian of the size from which such an imple- 
ment could have been made. The work of 
manufacture must have been attended by enor- 
mous difficulties. Mr. Holmes explained briefly 
the process of manufacture of these remarkable 
specimens of stone-working. 
