926 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XII. No. 311. 



abilities, independent to a degree hitherto un- 

 suspected, was supported further by the great 

 variability in our judgments of slightly differing 

 magnitudes. 



The fourth paper, by C. H. Judd was on the 

 ' Movements of Writing.' These movements 

 were analyzed by means of tracers attached to 

 the hand, back of the fingers, and to the arm, 

 back of the wrist. The written words give the 

 sum of all the movements of arm, hand and 

 fingers. The hand tracer gives only arm and 

 hand movements, omitting finger movements. 

 The arm tracer shows arm movements only. 

 The general result of this analysis shows that 

 the arm carries the hand forward and partici- 

 pates only to a very small degree in the forma- 

 tion of the letters and words. The gross move- 

 ments, especially those which are upward and 

 forward, in the formation of the letters, are 

 performed by the hand. All the finer curves 

 and more delicate lines of the letters are formed 

 by the fingers. The muscular coordinations of 

 the different individuals tested, while differing 

 greatly in detail characteristics, all show this 

 general type of movement. No results were 

 presented from subjects who write naturally 

 with a full arm movement. 



Charles H. Judd, 



Secretary. 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 524th annual meeting of the Society was 

 held on Saturday night, November 24th, at the 

 Cosmos Club. 



Under the title of ' An Attempted Solution 

 of the Social Problem,' Mr. B. Pickmann Mann 

 described the organization and history of the 

 People's Real Estate Tontine, a philanthropic 

 institution incorporated under the laws of New 

 York State as a building and loan association, 

 with the purpose of providing an annual income 

 of increasing value with increase of age, espe- 

 cially for the relief of superannuated persons 

 from poverty. The officers and trustees of this 

 Association serve gratuitously and it has been 

 endowed by gifts from many persons. This ac- 

 count of the last eight years' growth of the 

 Association supplemented an account of the 

 first eight years' growth, given before the So- 

 ciety by Mr. Mann under the same title in 1892. 



The second paper was by Mr. F. O. Radel- 

 finger, whose topic was 'Divergent Series.' 

 After some preliminary remarks on the origin 

 of divergent series, in which he pointed out a 

 distinction between those which rise naturally 

 from investigation in mathematics and those 

 which are simply hypothecated, he passed to 

 the consideration of some recent investigations 

 by Borel.* 



A first power series, assumed to be either 

 divergent or convergent was written down, 

 and a second more convergent series obtained 

 from this by multiplying each term by a uni- 

 formly decreasing factor a"/"! A relation be- 

 tween these two series was to be deduced, which 

 relation was expressed as a definite integral of 

 a function of the second or derived series and 

 certain simple transcendentals. Some applica- 

 tions of this relation were then given and its 

 use in rendering the first series convergent in 

 extending its original domain of convergence 

 was pointed out. The relations discovered by 

 Steitjie between certain divergent series and 

 continued fractions were stated and their ex- 

 tension by Borel mentioned. 



E. D. Peeston, 



Secretary. 



geological society of WASHINGTON. 



The 105th regular meeting was held Novem- 

 ber 28, 1900. The following papers were pre- 

 sented : 



Mr. Arnold Hague, ' Account of the Inter- 

 national Geological Congress at Paris, 1900.' 



Mr. F. L. Ransome, ' The Fissure Systems of 

 the Silverton Quadrangle, Colorado.' 



The remarkably numerous and persistent 

 fissures, in which occur most of the ore bodies 

 of this portion of the San Juan Mountains, 

 were described and classified. It was con- 

 cluded that the forces which produced the 

 Assuring were local in character and practically 

 confined to the fissured area.. They were prob- 

 ably genetically connected with the eruption 

 and local accumulation of great thicknesses of 

 volcanic rocks upon an ancient eroded base- 

 ment. F. L. Ransome, 

 David White, 



Secretaries. 



* Annates de I'Ecole Normate, 1899. 



