542 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XV. No. S'9. 



The American Naturalist for Mai;cli com- 

 mences with observations ou 'A Remarkable 

 Oeciu'rence of the Fly, Bibio fraternus Loen' 

 by James G. ISTeedham, the writer noting that 

 several counts showed an average, on the 

 ground, of 15 to a square foot, and that there 

 were forty acres of Bihio territory. Even more 

 remarkable was 'An Unusual Occurrence of 

 Dinoflagellata on the California Coast' de- 

 scribed by H. B. Torrey. The organism was 

 a species of Gonyaulax and it caused the 

 death of large numbers of fishes, holothurians 

 and crustaceans, probably the putrefactive 

 changes produced by the death of vast num- 

 bers of Gonyaulax itself. Annah Putnam 

 Hazen describes 'Regeneration in Hyclrac- 

 tinia and Podocoryne' and James A. G. Rheen 

 discusses 'The Standing of Pieropus Halde- 

 mani Hallo well' which he considers as a syno- 

 nym of Epomophorus gamhianus Ogilby. 

 Finally there is a long and valuable article by 

 John H. Lovell on 'The Colors of jSTorthern 

 Polypetalous Flowers' considered not only in 

 their relation to insects but to the origin of 

 the colors themselves. 



The Popular Science Monthly for April 

 opens with a discussion of the question 'Is 

 this a Degenerate Age?' by J. J. Stevenson, 

 who evidently considers that it is not. Frank 

 H. Bigelow describes 'The Formation and 

 Motions of Clouds,' showing the necessity for 

 a study of the higher regions of the atmos- 

 phere in order to enhance the accuracy of 

 weather forecasts, while under the title 'Con- 

 tributions to Biology from Investigations on 

 the Breeding Salmon' Tandell Henderson re- 

 views the work of Miescher and gives some 

 of the more important results of his observa- 

 tions. Frank Thilly discusses the question 

 'What is Philosophy?' and Edwin Grant Dex- 

 ter presents 'A Study of Calms,' showing their 

 apparent effect upon life phenomena. 'Our 

 Foreign Commerce in 1901' is considered by 

 Frederic Emory, showing what advances have 

 been made in foreign trade and what may 

 still be done in that direction, and Frank K. 

 Cameron treats of 'The Soil as an. Economic 

 and Social Factor,' making a plea for more 

 serious consideration of the subject. J. H. 

 Gore tells of the proposed 'Draining of the 



Zuider Zee' and David Starr Jordan of 'The 

 Evolution of Fishes.' Finally we have some 

 notes on Scientific Literature and the Progress 

 of Science, the whole making an extremely 

 good number. 



SOCIETIES AA^Z) ACADEMIES. 



THE SCIENCE CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 

 WISCONSIN. 



At the January meeting of the Club Dr. 

 Victor Lenher described some curious results 

 of an investigation of the telluride minerals. 

 He has observed that when metallic tellurium 

 and a gold solution are brought together, the 

 gold is completely precipitated, while the re- 

 placed tellurium passes into solution. The 

 natural tellurides of gold, when brought in 

 contact with chloride of gold, precipitate 

 gold from solution, and when only a little gold 

 solution is used they completely bleach the 

 yellow solution. Not only does this reaction 

 show why gold is not infrequently found as 

 a pseudomorph in the telluride localities, but 

 it also casts considerable doubt on the true 

 chemical character of the tellurides. As the 

 fusion of gold with tellurium gives an alloy 

 which precipitates gold from solution, this 

 method of preparing an artificial telluride has 

 been unsuccessful. Flydrogen telluride in- 

 troduced into a gold solution was found to 

 act as a reducing agent, precipitating pure 

 gold containing no trace of tellurium. As 

 sulphur chloride and nitric acid extract tel- 

 lurium from these minerals, leaving noble 

 metal as a residue, grave doubt seems to be 

 cast as to these minerals being true chemical 

 compounds. 



On February 27 Professor Louis Kahlenberg 

 lectured before the Club on the subject, ' Chem- 

 ical Action and the Theory of Electrolytic 

 Dissociation.' After a brief explanation of 

 the theory of electrolytic dissociation, the lec- 

 turer stated that adherents of the theory have 

 claimed that instantaneous chemical action, 

 and even all chemical action, is due 

 to the presence of free, charged ions, in 

 other words, that instantaneous chemical 

 changes take place only in conducting solu- 

 tions. This claim is based on the fact that 



