612 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 303. 



But two articles of the October Monist are 

 technically scientific in character. The first is 

 by Professor A. S. Packard, of Brown Univer- 

 sity, and gives for the first time, in actual trans- 

 lations, a complete statement of Lamarck's 

 views on the origin and evolution of man, and 

 of his thoughts on morals, and on the relation 

 between science and religion. Professor Pack- 

 ard believes that Lamarck's attempt at explain- 

 ing the probable origin of man from some 

 arboreal creature allied to the apes is more de- 

 tailed and comprehensive than that offered by 

 Darwin in his ' Descent of Man,' which was vir- 

 tually anticipated by Lamarck. The second arti- 

 cle, by Professor Arnold Emch, of the University 

 of Colorado, treats of the ' Mathematical Prin- 

 ciples of Esthetic Forms.' Starting from the 

 physiological conditions for the perception of 

 esthetic forms, the author proceeds to investi- 

 gate the abstract law of symmetry as embodied 

 in the principle of the group, projective and 

 perspective transformation, inversion, etc., 

 showing, for example, that the principle of repe- 

 tition finds its mathematical expression in the 

 geometry of the group, and explaining also why 

 the various species of geometrical transforma- 

 tion do not destroy the impressions of axial and 

 central symmetry. The remaining articles are : 

 (1) an essay on modern Biblical criticism, by 

 Professor Paul Schwartzkopff, entitled ' The 

 Belief in the Eesurrection of Jesus and its Per- 

 manent Significance ' ; (2) an illustrated paper 

 on the ' Greek Mysteries as a Preparation for 

 Christianity,' by Dr. Paul Carus ; (3) ' The Eth- 

 ics of Child-Study,' by Dr. Maximilian P. E. 

 Groszmann ; and (4) a report on the recent 

 Psychological Congress at Paris. (Chicago : The 

 Open Court Publishing Co.) 



The Journal of Physical Chemistry, October. 

 ' Toxic Action of Acid Sodium Salts on Lupinus 

 albus,' by Louis Kahlenberg and Eollan M. 

 Austin. Acid salts are found to be much more 

 poisonous than they ought to be, assuming 

 their toxicity to be due to the hydrogen ions 

 only. ' Relationships between Thermodynamic 

 Fundamental Functions,' by J. E. Trevor. 

 ' The Boiling-points of Mixtures of Chloral 

 and Water,' by Joseph C. Christensen. 'On 

 the Emission and Absorption of Water Vapor 

 by Colloidal Matter ': correction, by P. Duhem. 



' Quantitative Lecture Experiments on Electro- 

 Chemistry,' by W. Lash Miller and Frank B. 

 Kenrick. Description of an ingenious measur- 

 ing instrument for rendering the results of ex- 

 periments visible to a large audience, and a 

 number of selected experiments. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADE3IIES. 



NEW YOEK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



SECTION OP ASTRONOMY, PHYSICS AND 



CHEMISTRY. 



A MEETING of the Section was held on Mon- 

 day, October 1st, at 12 West 31st Street. 



Professor E. R. Von Nardroff presented a 

 paper ' On the Application of Fizeau's Method 

 to the Determination of the Velocity of Sound,' 

 with an experimental illustration. He used 

 sound of very short wave length, beyond the 

 limits of hearing. The sound was detected by 

 means of a sensitive flame. He overcame the 

 effect of irregular disturbing reflected and dif- 

 fracted waves by using sound of considerable 

 intensity and a flame only slightly sensitive. 

 The sound after passing between the teeth of 

 a rapidly revolving wheel, fell on a concave 

 spherical mirror made of wood, some distance 

 away, and was reflected back through the teeth 

 at the opposite end of a diameter of the wheel, 

 and came to a focus on a sensitive flame just be- 

 hind the wheel. The author gave a neat dem- 

 onstration of the working of the apparatus, and 

 showed with great ease how with increasing 

 speed of the revolving wheel the flame was al- 

 ternately shielded from and exposed to the 

 sound. The slightest disturbance of the ad- 

 justment of the mirror threw the focus away 

 from the flame in a marked manner. He stated 

 that the method could probably not be used to 

 compete with other accurate methods hereto- 

 fore used, but it supplied a beautiful illustra- 

 tion of Fizeau's method of measuring the ve- 

 locity of light. 



Professor J. K. Rees gave an interesting ac- 

 count of some of the scientific instruments at 

 the Paris Exhibition. The great telescope was 

 not yet finished, although this fact was not yet 

 generally known, and it was impossible to tell 

 yet whether it was to be a success. The Ger- 

 man exhibit was superb. The Germans had a 



