910 
former while retarding the latter. In this view 
evolution would be favored by interbreeding 
rather than by segregation, and natural selec- 
tion would be an incident rather than a cause 
of evolution. Diversity was shown not to be 
conditioned upon segregation, but to be’ dis- 
tinctly favored in the economy of species. 
Under a kinetic theory the origination and in- 
heritance of characters represent but different 
statements of the same facts, and the predica- 
tion of a ‘hereditary mechanism’ is unneces- 
Evolution is not confined or directly 
connected with any one type of cells or method 
of reproduction, but is a general property of 
protoplasm ; it is not only a cellular or eyto- 
logical, but a supracellular or organic, process ; 
evolutionary theories must accommodate both 
unicellular and compound individuals, and even 
treat as evolutionary units the colonies of the 
social insects. 
sary. 
F. A. Lucas. 
CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
Aw adjourned meeting was held in Hopkins 
Hall, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 
Md., on April 27th, when the following program 
was presented: ‘The Lowering of the Freez- 
ing Point of Aqueous Hydrogen Dioxide,’ by 
H. C. Jones. The author stated that an attempt 
was made to measure the dissociating power of 
hydrogen dioxide by means of the conductivity 
method. This method was abandoned, since all 
the metals used as electrodes decomposed the 
dioxides, even at zero degrees. The lowering 
of the freezing point of aqueous hydrogen diox- 
ide by certain salts was measured and was found 
to be less than the lowering of the freezing 
point of water, under the same conditions. 
‘The Preparation of Semi-Permeable Mem- 
branes for the Demonstration of Osmotic Pres- 
sure,’ by Professor H. N. Morse. The author 
referred to the difficulties encountered in the 
preparation of osmotic cells by the method of 
Pfeffer, and stated the results of some prelimi- 
nary experiments, undertaken in cooperation 
with Dr. D. W. Horn, in attempting to over- 
come these difficulties. Instead of expelling the 
air from the walls of the cups by immersion in 
water and exhaustion with an air-pump, as is 
done in the method of Pfeffer, electrical endos- 
SCIENCE. 
(N.S. Vou. XIII. No. 336. 
mose was employed, the cup being immersed 
nearly to the top and filled with a dilute solu- 
tion of potassium sulphate, then surrounded by 
a cylindrical electrode and another one placed 
inside. A one-ampere current was passed 
through the solution for 15 minutes, from the 
outer to the inner electrode, causing a rapid 
passage of liquid through the walls of the cup 
and freeing them from air. The cup was then 
removed, emptied, rinsed and placed in water 
until used for the formation of membrane. The 
method described by the author was as follows: 
A cup whose walls had been freed from air and 
filled with water was placed in a solution of a 
copper salt and filled with a solution of ferro- 
cyanide. A current was passed from the out- 
side inward, the copper and ferrocyanogen ions 
being driven into the walls from opposite di- 
rections ; a membrane was built up wherever 
they met. The results were very satisfactory. 
The method of construction of the electrodes 
was described and the resistance of the cups 
stated. On breaking the cup, the membrane 
was found as a reddish brown line, usually in 
the middle of the wall, though deviating more 
or less to one side or the other. 
‘Molecular Rearrangement of Sulphamine 
Acids,’ by Dr. Ira Remsen. 
“On a Reduction Process for Tin at Compar- 
ative Low Temperatures, and Recovery from 
Waste Products,’ by Chas. Glaser. This paper 
gave a description of a process invented by John 
C. Toliaferro for the recovery of tin from waste 
products. The refuse from tin-plate works con- 
sists of the remnants of the fatty acids used to 
protect the black plates from reoxidation after 
cleaning with acid, and more or less oxidized 
tin, which often contains some free metal or 
mixed oxides of tin and lead. The refuse from 
the oils often contains oxides of the two metals, 
which are usually recovered by burning off the 
oil and collecting the residue and metallic 
fumes. The united dross is reduced to metal 
in a suitable furnace. Mr. Toliaferro observed 
that under certain conditions he obtained me- 
tallie tin from the refuse fatty acids by heating 
them to incipient decomposition. Certain ex- 
periments were made showing that ata tem- 
perature a little above the melting point of tin, 
stannous soaps are reduced to metallic tin, 
