648 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 304. 



Die VrspriinglicJie Verhreihmg der angebauien Nulz- 

 pflanzen. F. HocK. Leipzig, Teubner. 1900. Pp. 

 78. M. 1.60. 



Lehrbuch der vergleichenden inikroskopischen Anatomie 

 der Wirbeltiere. Albert Oppel. Jena, Gustav 

 Fischer. 1900. Part III. Pp. x + 1180 and 10 



A ScJwol Chemistry. John Waddell. New York 

 and London, The Maemillan Company. 1900. 

 Pp. xiii + 278. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

 Popular Astronomy for October contains an ex- 

 cellent sketch by Professor C. D. Perrine of the 

 late James Edward Keeler, of Lick Observatory, 

 accompanied by his photograph. The opening 

 address by Dr. A. A. Common, F.R.S.,F.KA.S., 

 at the Bradford meeting of the British As- 

 tronomical Association for the Advancement 

 of Science is begun in this number and will be 

 concluded in the November number. Also the 

 first part of Kurt Laves' paper on ' The Adjust- 

 ment of the Equatorial Telescope ' is given. 

 Tables for the observation of the planet Eros 

 and an illustrated article upon that planet by 

 the editor, W. W. Payne, together with a 

 r6sum6 of recent work at the Lowell Observa- 

 tory are important features of this issue, as 

 well as the usual spectroscopic, planet, comet 

 and general notes. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



At the meeting of the Society on October 

 13th, Mr. O. H. Tittmann told in an informal 

 way of some of the incidents of the marking 

 of the provisional boundary between Alaska 

 and the British possessions, at the head of the 

 Lynn Canal, during the past summer. 



Dr. Artemus Martin read a paper on ' A 

 Method of Computing the Logarithm of a 

 Number without making use of any Logarithm 

 but that of 10 or some power of 10.' The 

 method in this paper consists in modifying some 

 of the ordinary forms of logarithmic series so 

 that the logarithm used in the computation is 

 the logarithm of 10 or some power of 10. 



Dr. T. J. J. See read a paper on the ' Sys- 

 tem of Uranus.' It combines a statement of 

 some of the recent results of observations, a 



comparison of these with former results and a 

 critical statement of the uncertainties involved 

 in the present knowledge of the system. 



THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OP ST. LOUIS. 



At the first meeting of the autumn, held on the 

 evening of October 15th, there were sixteen per- 

 sons present. Mr. William H. Roever, of Wash- 

 ington University, presented an elaborate paper, 

 discussing in detail the subject of the establish- 

 ment of the method of least squares. Profes- 

 sor F. E. NijJher presented two papers, entitled 

 respectively 'Positive Photography,' with spe- 

 cial reference to eclipse work and the frictional 

 effects of railway trains upon the air ; and Mr. 

 C. F. Baker exhibited an interesting collection 

 representing nearly all of the species of fleas 

 thus far known, which he had prepared for the 

 United States National Museum. 



Four persons were elected to active member- 

 ship. 



William Treleasb, 

 Recording Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND COBBESPONDENCE. 

 ARITHMETICAL NOTE. 



In the second edition of the Exercices d'arith- 

 melique of MM. Fitzpatrick and Chevrel (Paris, 

 Hermann, 1900), there is given the following 

 interesting application of the binary system of 

 notation (p. 490). Russian peasants, when they 

 have to perform a multiplication, in general 

 proceed thus : They divide the multiplicand by 

 2, and at the same time double the multiplier ; if 

 the multiplicand is odd, they discard the unit 

 remainder and mark the multiplier with a sign. 

 This being done as often as possible, the multi- 

 pliers affected with the sign are added together 

 to obtain the result. Thus, for example, the 

 multiplication of 35 by 42 proceeds as follows : 



35 42-f- 



17 84 + 



8 168 



4 336 



2 672 



1 1344-1- 



42 + 84 -f 1344 = 1470. 



It is easy enough to construct a similar 

 process, e.g., for the ternary system of nota- 



