Januaey 28, 1910] 



SCIENCE 



153 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOB THE 

 ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 

 SECTION A— MATHEMATICS AND 

 ASTRONOMY 

 As the American Mathematical Society held its 

 annual meeting in affiliation with the American 

 Association the special program of Section A did 

 not include any technical mathematical papers. 

 The most strilcing features of the program of this 

 section were the joint sessions with Section B and 

 the American Mathematical Society. The fact 

 that such eminent men took part in these sessions 

 enhanced the interest and called more general 

 attention to the need of closer relations between 

 scientific bodies representing neighboring subjects. 

 In particular, the need of frequent conference 

 between the physicists and the mathematicians 

 can not be too strongly emphasized in the present 

 stage of our development, and it is to be hoped 

 that the eminently successful joint session of Sec- 

 tions A and B will tend to spread and intensify 

 the appreciation of this need. 



The address of the retiring vice-president. Pro- 

 fessor C. J. Keyser, of Columbia University, was 

 given during the joint session of Section A and 

 the American Mathematical Society, held on 

 Wednesday morning, December 29. During the 

 same session Professor D. E. Smith, of Teachers 

 College, Columbia University, read his paper on 

 the worli of the " International Commission on 

 the Teaching of Mathematics." Professor Smith 

 is chairman of the United States section of this 

 important commission, the other members ap- 

 pointed by the central body are. Professor W. F. 

 Osgood, of Harvard University, and Professor J. 

 W. A. Young, of Chicago University. The paper 

 by Professor C. Eunge, Kaiser Wilhelm exchange 

 professor of mathematics at Columbia University 

 for the present academic year, was read at the 

 joint session of Sections A and B and the Amer- 

 ican Mathematical Society, held on Tuesday after- 

 noon. At the same session Professor E. W. Brown 

 read his first paper. 



An interesting feature of the program was the 

 visit to Harvard College Observatory on Monday 

 afternoon at the close of a brief session of the 

 section. The director of the observatory. Pro- 

 fessor E. C. Pickering, invited Sections A and E 

 to visit the observatory at this time and he ex- 

 plained to them photographs and illustrations of 

 work in progress. In view of the fact that 

 Percival Lowell failed to reach Boston before the 



close of the program of Section A his paper was 

 transferred to Section B. All the papers of the 

 following list, with the exception of the five men- 

 tioned above, were read at the three special ses- 

 sions of Section A. These special sessions were 

 held on Jlonday afternoon, Tuesday morning and 

 Wednesday afternoon. The complete list of papers 

 accepted for the program of Section A is as 

 follows : 



1. "The Thesis of Modern Logistic" (vice-presi- 

 dential address) , by C. J. Keyser. 



2. " On the Determination of Latitude and 

 Longitude in a Balloon," by C. Runge. 



3. " On Certain Physical Hypotheses sufficient 

 to explain an Anomaly in the Moon's Motion," by 

 E. W. Brown. 



4. " The Work of the International Commission 

 on the Teaching of Mathematics," by D. E. Smith. 



5. " The Value of the Solar Constant of Radia- 

 tion," by C. G. Abbot. 



6. "A New Mode of Measuring the Intensities 

 of Spectral Lines," by F. W. Very. 



7. "The Absorption of Light by the Ether of 

 Space," by F. W. Very. 



8. "The Fireball of October 7, 1909," by F. W. 

 Very. 



9. " On a Recent Hypothesis and the Motion of 

 the Perihelion of Mercury," by E. W. Brown. 



10. " The Heliocentric Position of Certain Cor- 

 onal Streams," by J. A. Miller and W. R. Mar- 

 riott. 



11. "The Mutual P^elation oj Magnifying Power, 

 Illumination, Aperture and Definition in Tele- 

 scopic Work," by David P. Todd. 



12. " La Contribution Non-euclidienne a la Phi- 

 losophic," by G. B. Halsted. 



13. "Declination of the Moon for Greenwich 

 Mean Time," by D. H. E. Wetherill. 



14. " Meteorological Waves of Short Period and 

 Allied Solar Phenomena," by H. W. Clough. 



15. " Recent Work with the 6-inch Transit Circle 

 of the United States Naval Observatory," by 

 Milton UpdegraflF. 



16. "The Canali Nova; of Mars," by Percival 

 Lowell. 



17. " Peculiar Star Spectra indicating Selective 

 Absorption of Light in Space," by V. M. Slipher. 



18. " Personality with the Transit Micrometer," 

 by R. M. Stewart. 



19. " Water Vapor on Mars," by Frank W. Very. 



20. " The Existence of Anomalous Fluctuations 

 in the Latitude as shown by Simultaneous Ob- 

 servations with the Zenith Telescope and the 



