December 21, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



809 



A, Michelson occupied the chair. The meet- 

 ing was well attended, members coming not 

 only from the vicinity of Chicago, but also 

 from points in Kansas, Iowa, New York and 

 Nebraska, more than five hundred miles dis- 

 tant. 



A resolution was adopted urging upon the 

 council the desirability of holding a regular 

 yearly meeting in Chicago or some other suit- 

 able point in the middle west. 



The following papers were presented: 



John E. Almy, University of Nebraska: 'Spark 

 Discharges in Gases and Vapors.' 



Bruce V. Hill, University of Kansas : ' On the 

 Magnetic Behavior of Certain Alloys of Nickel.' 



Frederick E. Kester, Ohio State University: 

 ' An Experimental Gyroscope for Quantitative 

 Work.' 



R. A. MiLLiKAN and George Winchester, Uni- 

 versity of Chicago : ' Upon the Discharge of Elec- 

 trons from Ordinary Metals under the Influence 

 of Ultra-violet Light.' 



A. B. Porter, Chicago : ' An Inanimate Demon.' 



A. B. Porter, Chicago : ' On Multiple Crossed 

 Gratings.' 



A. A. Michelson, University of Chicago : ' On 

 the Ruling of DiflTraction Gratings.* 



H. G. Gale, University of Chicago : ' The Effect 

 of Temperature on Metallic Spectra.' 



C. E. Mendenhall and L. R. Ingersoll, Uni- 

 versity of Wisconsin : ' The Radiation Constants 

 and Temperature of the Nernst Glower.' 



K. E. GuTHE and C. L. von Ende, University 

 of Iowa : * Standard Cells.' 



F. L. Bishop, Bradley Polytechnic Institute: 

 * Heat of Dilution.' 



Lawrence E. Gurnet, University of Idaho: 

 ' The Viscosity of Water at Low Rates of Shear.' 

 Introduced by A. A. Michelson. 



Frederick E. Kester, Ohio State University: 

 ' The Bridge Method for Comparison of Con- 

 densers.' 



A. H. Taylor, University of Wisconsin: 'A 

 Method for the Determination of Electrolytic 

 Resistance and Capacity.' 



C. F. Lorenz, Johns Hopkins University : * On 

 the Effects of the Electrical Discharge on the 

 Acetylene Flame.' 



Wm. R. Blair, University of Chicago : ' Change 

 of Phase due to the Passage of Electric Waves 

 Through Thin Films and the Index of Refraction 

 of Water for Such Waves.' 



Wm. W. Coblentz, Bureau of Standards, Wash- 



ington: 'The Temperature of the Moon.' (By 

 Title.) 



F. W. Very : ' The Temperature of the Moon.' 

 (By Title.) 



Ernest Merritt, Cornell University : ' Note on 

 the Fluorescence of Sodium Vapor.' 



H. V. McCoy and W. H. Ross, University of 

 Chicago : ' The Relation between Uranium and 

 Radium.' Ernest Merritt, 



Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



' elimination ' IN fixing genotypes. 

 To THE Editor of Science: The valuable 

 article on this subject by Mr. Witmer Stone, 

 in Science for November 2, contains a list of 

 twenty-five systematists to whom certain prob- 

 lems were submitted. The names given are 

 all those of well-known workers in the United 

 States, and I wondered why Mr. Stone had 

 made no attempt to obtain the opinions of hi^ 

 foreign colleagues. The reason was found in 

 the penultimate paragraph : " Elimination has 

 never been practised in Europe and does not 

 seem to be understood by foreign writers." 

 Possibly it did not occur to Mr. Stone that, 

 if foreign writers had never practised elimina- 

 tion, it might have been because they had 

 always shared his unfavorable opinion of the 

 method, and not from any lack of intelligence. 

 The statement, however, is incorrect; at least 

 some of us in the British Museum, who as- 

 suredly did not get our training in systematic 

 zoology from any other part of the world, have 

 always practised elimination when other prin- 

 ciples, such as the fixing of a genotype by the 

 author or the first reviser, did not intervene. 

 I will accept Mr. Stone's assertion that we do 

 not seem (to him) to understand the matter; 

 but I hope to convince him that some of us 

 do understand it at least as well as the ma- 

 jority of those who have replied to his ques- 

 tions. While reading his article I jotted down 

 in the margin my answer to each question, 

 and finished doing so before turning the page. 

 The result was as follows: My answers to 

 questions I, II, III, IV6, Ya, Yh, Yc, VI, 

 Vila, Yllh, Villa, that is to eleven out of 

 thirteen questions, were in agreement with the 

 majority. In VIII& there was no majority. 



