NOTEMBEB 22, 1907] 



SCIENCE 



717 



been accepted, but will not go into effect at 

 present. 



The Museum News of tbe Brooklyn Insti- 

 tute for November has a good article on Zuni 

 masks, and notes on the recent expedition to 

 Soutb America whicb secured among other 

 things several Matamata, Chelys fimlriaia, 

 and examples of the huge jabiru, Mycteria. 

 Three of the Matamata have been deposited in 

 the New York Zoological Park. The leading 

 article in the Children's Museum section is on 

 " The Value of an Escort " in that institution. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY 



The fall meeting of the Physical Society 

 was held at Colimibia University on Saturday, 

 October 19, President Edw. L. Nichols pre- 

 siding. 



The following papers were presented: 



L. A. Bauee : " Results of Careful Weighings 

 of a Magnet in Various Magnetic Fields." 



C. B. Thwing: "On the Emissivity of Molten 

 Iron and Copper." 



Leighton B. Mobse: "The Selective Reflection 

 of Carbonates as a Function of the Atomic Weight 

 of the Base." 



F. 0. Bkown and Joel Stebbins : " The Varia- 

 tion of the Light Sensitiveness of the Selenliun 

 Cell with Pressure." 



Ernest Mebeitt : " The Recovery of Selenium 

 Cells after Exposure to Light." 



F. L. Tufts : "Wave-length — Luminosity Curves 

 for Normal and Color-blind Eyes." 



F. C. Bkown and Joel Stebbins : " The Effect 

 of Radium on the Resistance of the Selenium Cell." 



J. Babnett: "An Investigation of the Electric 

 Displacement and Intensities Produced in Insula- 

 tors by their Motion in a Magnetic Field, and its 

 bearing on the Question of the Relative Motion of 

 Ether and Matter." (By title.) 



It was announced that the annual meeting 

 would be held this year in Chicago in con- 

 nection with the meeting there of the Ameri- 

 can Association for the Advancement of Sci- 

 ence during convocation week, and that in 

 consequence the usual Thanksgiving meeting 

 at Chicago would be omitted. 



Ernest Merritt, 



Secretary 



the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. NORTH- 

 EASTERN SECTION 



The seventy-eighth regular meeting of the 

 section was held at the Richardson Hotel, 

 Lowell, Mass., on October 25, at 7:30 p.m., 

 Vice-President F. G. Stantial in the chair. 

 Forty-two members and g-uests were present. 

 Professor Louis A. Olney, of the Lowell 

 Textile School, president of the section, pre- 

 sented a paper upon " Standard Methods of 

 Determining and Recording the Relative Per- 

 manency or Resistance of Coloring Matters 

 to the Common Color Destroying Agencies." 



In general the value of a dyestuff depends 

 upon its resistance to the ordinary color 

 weakening or destroying agencies, or to use 

 the terms of the trade, upon its fastness. 

 Other properties must also be considered in 

 the ultimate valuation of a dyestuff, namely, 

 its solubility, its afEnity for fibers, and its 

 equalizing power. 



The qualities demanded of any particular 

 coloring matter depend upon the conditions to 

 which its uses will necessarily subject it, there- 

 fore the requirements vary greatly. Taking 

 any dyestuff at random, we may find it to be 

 particularly well suited for one branch of 

 textile work, and wholly unfit for another. 



With the numerous variations in require- 

 ments, the question of fastness becomes of 

 great importance, and much responsibility 

 rests with the textile colorist in the selection 

 of the proper dyestuffs in any particular case. 



If standard methods could be established 

 whereby the relative fastness of dyestuffs to 

 the common color destroying agencies could 

 be determined, and the results recorded in 

 such a manner as to permit of their being used 

 as standards of general reference, the problem 

 could be very much simplified, and the reports 

 given in regard to the properties of dyestuffs 

 more reliable. 



It was the purpose of the paper to show that 

 the establishment of standard methods was by 

 no means an impossibility, and to make cer- 

 tain suggestions, which had resulted from 

 work carried on at the Lowell Textile School 

 during a period of five years, with the object 

 of formulating such methods. While the 

 speaker was by no means ready to offer such a 



