7i:(2 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVI. No 411. 



morning session, and Ex-President R. S. 

 Woodward during the afternoon session. 



The Council announced the election of the 

 following persons to membership in the So- 

 ciety : Professor Sir R. S. Ball, Cambridge 

 University, England; Dr. Otto Dunkel, Wes- 

 leyan University, Middletown, Conn. ; Mr. W. 

 H. Osborne, Purdue University, Lafayette, 

 Ind. ; Professor H. S. Rietz, Butler College, 

 Indianapolis, Ind. ; Professor J. H. Scott, 

 Yankton College, Yankton, S. D.; Professor 

 B. F. Yanney, Mount Union College, Alliance, 

 Ohio; Mr. W. H. Young, M.A., Cambridge 

 University, England; Professor I. K. Van der 

 Vries, Kansas University, Lawrence, Kansas. 

 Seven applications for admission to the So- 

 ciety were received. The Council presented 

 a list of nominations for officers of the So- 

 ciety in anticipation of the annual election 

 which occurs at the December meeting. A 

 committee was appointed to arrange for the 

 next summer meeting, which will be accom- 

 panied by a colloquium or series of lectures 

 on special fields of mathematics. 



The following papers were read at this meet- 

 ing : 



( 1 ) Dr. E. R. Hedrick : ' On the foundations of 

 meclianies (preliminarj' communication).' 



(2) Db. E. V. Huntington: 'Definition of a 

 commutative group by independent postulates.' 



(3) Professor Peter Field: 'On the infinite 

 branches of plane curves which have no point 

 singularities.' 



(4) Dr. Edw.\rd Kasxek: 'The apolarity of 

 double binary forms.' 



(5) Professor JI.\xime Bocher: 'An applica- 

 tion of the Ricmann-Darboux generalization of 

 Green's theorem.' 



( 6 ) Professor M.\xi>[e Bocher : ' Note on 

 Laplace's equation.' 



(7) Dr. Virgil Snyder: 'On the quintic 

 scrolls having three double conies.' 



(8) Miss I. M. Schottenfels : 'Note on the 

 types of groups of order p" every element of 

 which, except identity, is of order p (preliminary 

 communication) .' 



(9) Dr. L. p. Eisenhart: 'Surfaces referred 

 to their lines of length zero.' 



(10) Professor L. E. Dickson: 'Three sets 

 of generational relations defining the abstract 

 simple group of order 504.' 



(11) Professor E. E. Dickson: 'Generational 

 relations defining the abstract simple group of 

 order 660.' 



(12) Dr. G. H. Ling: 'The approximate repre- 

 sentation of a function by means of functions de- 

 fined by quadratic equations.' 



(13) Dr. 0. N. Haskins: 'On the invariant 

 of differential forms of degree higher than two.' 



After the meeting several of the members 

 dined and spent the evening together. 



The next meeting of the Society, on Decem- 

 ber 29-30, will be the annual meeting for the 

 election of officers and delivery of the presi- 

 dential address. F. N. Cole, 



Secretary. 



DISCUSSION A^W OOBRESPONDENCE. 



THK CARNEGIE INSTITUTION. 



In the discussion of the Carnegie Institu- 

 tion in recent numbers of Science, sight has 

 apparently been lost, in a number of cases, of 

 the fact that the participant in the discus- 

 sion is not endowing a novel institution and 

 laying down its general plans. That -part of 

 the work has been admirably performed by 

 Mr. Carnegie, and a repeated return to first 

 principles by recalling the text of Carnegie's 

 plans is not out of place. 



One of the objects of the institution is 

 clearly set out to be ' to discover the excep- 

 tional man and enable him to make the work 

 for which he seems specially designed his life 

 work.' Of course we each and every one 

 recognize ourselves at once as having been 

 especially referred to in this statement, and 

 clearly this and that other fellow could not 

 possibly have been meant. Among those who 

 certainly could not have been meant are the 

 ones who ' shall of course look out for ' their 

 ' share of the spoils.' Newly hatched schemes 

 and plans thought of to help use the income 

 do not commend themselves. 



The thought so well expressed by Carnegie 

 in the portion of one of his sentences quoted 

 above and so lucidly put by Sternberg : " In 

 my opinion a considerable portion of the in- 

 come should be used in assisting individuals 

 who have demonstrated their fitness for re- 

 search work to some special field of investiga- 

 tion, who have a definite object in view and 

 well-considered plans for attacking the prob- 



