June 26, 1891.] 



SCIENCE. 



!57 



The meetings of the American Association foi' the Advancement 

 of Science, and of the Geological Society of America, which will 

 talse place during the week preceding that of the meeting of the 

 congress, will be held in the same building. The daily programme 

 of the several meetings is as follows. 



Aug. 19 to 22, — Meetings of the various sections of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Science. The foreign 

 members of the congress have been made honorary associate 

 members of the association by its council, and are thereby entitled 

 to take pai't in its geological and archseological excursions in the 

 vicinity of Washington, and to avail themselves of the reduced 

 rates of fare on railroads which are accorded to its members. 

 American members of the congress who are not already members 

 of the association are invited to join it at the present meeting. 



Aug, 24 and 25. — Meetings of the Geological Society of Amer- 

 ica, The foreign members of the congress are likewise invited to 

 attend the meetings of this society, to contribute jsapers, and to 

 take part in the present meeting. 



Aug. 26 to Sept. 2. — Meetings of the International Congress of 

 Geologists. 



Besides the regular subjects of discussion, such as unfinished 

 business of the former congress, reports of committees, etc., the 

 Committee on Organization recommends that the following sub- 

 jects be made special topics for the consideration of the congress 

 at this meeting: (I) Time correlation of the clastic rocks ; (t) cor- 

 relation by strucluial data; (a) by stratigraphical data, (b) by 

 lithological data, (c) by physiographical data; (2) correlation by 

 paleontological data ; (a) by fossil plants, (b) by fossil animals ; or 

 (a) by marine fossils, (6) by terrestrial fossils: (II) General geo- 

 logical color schemes and other graphic conventions: (III) Genetic 

 classification of the pleistocene rocks. 



The Committee of Organization has arranged with Thomas 

 Cook & Son for reduced rates on certain lines of ocean steamships, 

 for members coming from Europe. On all the principal railroads 

 of the United States, members can obtain a reduction of one-third 

 on regular rates from all main points to Washington and return, 

 jf they are members of the American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, or become so during the meeting. For this 

 purpose it is only necessary in buying a ticket for Washington to 

 obtain from the agent a receipt for the amount paid, on a particu- 

 lar form furnished him for this purpose. When the member 

 leaves Washington, the presentation of this receipt, together with 

 the membership card of the association, will entitle him to a re- 

 turn ticket over the same route for one-third the regular fare. 



The long excursion will be made on special trains, carrying 

 seventy-five persons, and titted with all the latest appliances for 

 the comfort of travellers. It will constitute a moving hotel, per- 

 mitting free and safe passage from one end to the other at all 

 times, and will take the party wherever the rails are laid in the 

 regions visited, and stop wherever desired. As at present planned 

 the excursion will occupy twenty-five days, and cost $265 per per- 

 son, which will cover every necessary expense. The route laid 

 out covers thirty-eight degrees of latitute and twelve of longitude, 

 and enables the traveler to see the finest scenery and most impor- 

 tant geological phenomena of the Eastern States, the Mississippi 

 Valley, and of the Rocky Mountain region, passing a week among 

 the wonders of the Yellowstone Park. 



The following shorter excursions are suggested, and American 

 geologists familiar with the regions stand ready to conduct par- 

 ties. If a sufficient number agree to go on these excursions, con- 

 cessions may be obtained from the railroads to reduce the expenses 

 to a minimum: (1) Through the Southern Appalachian regions, 

 examining the peculiarly appressed folds ' in paleozoic rocks, and 

 viewing the newly opened mines of coal, iron, manganese, tin, 

 and gold ; (2) to the copper and iron regions of Lake Superior, and 

 the great developments of Pre-Cambrian or Algolkian rocks; (3) 

 through the coal and oil regions of Pennsylvania to Niagara Falls, 

 down the St, Lawrence River to Montreal and Quebec, and return 

 through the classic paleozoic and taconic regions of New York and 

 Vermont, 



Members who desire to examine particular localities or geologi- 

 cal horizons are requested to correspond with the secretaries as 

 early as possible, and all efforts will be made to arrange so that 



their wishes may be complied witli. Already a short excursion 

 has been planned by Professor H. .S, Williams for the week pre- 

 ceding the meeting of the geologists to see the typical develop- 

 ment of psileozoic beds (especially Devonian) in the State of New 

 York, in which a number of European geologists have already 

 signified their desire to participate. Correspondence should be 

 addressed to S. F. Emmons, 1330 F Street, Washington, D.C. 



BACTERIA. 



The first of a series of lectures on the nature and functions of 

 bacteria was recently delivered at the Royal Institution, London, 

 by Dr. E. Klein, F.R S. According to the Lancet, to which we 

 are indebted for a brief report of the lecture. Dr. Klein said that 

 perhaps in no branch of biological science had advances in the 

 methods of research within the last twenty-five or thirty years 

 been so enormous as in this subject. In 1828 Ehrenberg recog- 

 nized the existence in water of minute mobile organisms, which 

 he considered to belong to the group of animalculee known as in- 

 fusoria, an assumption which was now known to be erroneous. 

 In 1887 Schwann demonstrated the presence in atmospheric air 

 and in dust of living microscopic beings, which he showed by di- 

 rect experiment to be endowed with the power of producing in 

 certain fluids those chemical changes termed alcoholic fermenta- 

 tion or putrefaction. 



Pasteur fully established the proposition that the different fer- 

 mentations, such as alcoholic, butyric, acetous, mucous, and lac- 

 tous fermentations, and also the decomposition of putrescible 

 matter, were caused by definite and different species of such 

 minute living beings, microbes, and that without them such 

 changes did not occur. This proposition implied that these 

 changes were dependent on and ultimately bound up with the life 

 and growth of these microbes, and if these were prevented from 

 gaining access to such fermentative matters, they would remain 

 unchanged or sterile. This was the principle which Sir Joseph 

 Lister had applied in surgery, with the well-known brilliant re- 

 sults. The role of these microbes in atmospheric air had been 

 minutely worked out and beautifully illustrated by Professor T.vn- 

 dall, who shared in finally establishing that with these simple 

 organisms, belonging almost to the world of thi infinitely small, 

 the same fundamental principle obtains as in other living organ- 

 isms of plant and animal life, be they ever so large and complex, 

 namely, that each organism had descended from an antecedent 

 parent organism, and that no such thing as their origin from non- 

 living matter occurred. 



Within comparatively recent times it has been shown that a 

 variety of the most important and extensive processes of oxidation 

 and reduction which occur in nature, — such as the oxidation and 

 resolution of dead animal and vegetable matter, the breaking up 

 of complex nitrogenous materials and their ultimate change into 

 nitrites and niti-ates, and the specific fermentation so important 

 in foodstuffs and articles of diet, and many other processes. — are 

 caused by and intimately connected with the growth and life of 

 microbes. Though the importance of some species as useful 

 agencies in nature is recognized, the importance of other .species, 

 as being the cause of disease affecting plants, animals, and 

 man, is not less. The term micro-parasite is given to this latter 

 group. 



Amongst the microbes there is one great group to be dealt with 

 in particular, called " bacteria," because it possesses more or less 

 the shape of a minute rod. Like the true or higher fungi, they 

 are free from chlorophyll, and are composed of cells, a cellular 

 membrane with living matter or protoplasm within, and they 

 multiply by fission, for which reason they are called '-fission 

 fungi." Bacteria can then be defined as microscopic elementary 

 organisms, composed of a cellulose investment of the protoplasmic 

 contents, and which multiply by simple fission. They are classi- 

 fied into micrococci or cocci, bacilli, and spiral vibriones, ac- 

 cording to whether they ai'e spherical, cylindrical, or curved and 

 spiral. 



All these organisms, when they have found suitable nidus, 

 multiply with enormous rapidity. It has, for example, been 

 found from observation — all conditions of moisture, medium, and 



