800 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXXI. No. 803 



Separation and Determination of C'ocain and 

 Strychnin, and Atropin and Strychnin when 

 they Ocour Together: H. C. Fulleb. 

 Mr. Fuller explained that the alkaloids are ex- 

 tracted from the drug product and weighed to- 

 gether, using proper precautions to obtain them 

 in a pure condition. They are then dissolved in 

 alcoholic potash, transferred to a presure flask 

 and heated over the steam bath for one hour, 

 which completely hydrolyzes the cocain and atro- 

 pin, but does not aflect the strychnin. The latter 

 is then separated and weighed. 



J. A. LeCi,ebc, 



Secretary 



THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY 



The one hundred and forty-eighth regular meet- 

 ing of the society was held at Columbia Univer- 

 sity on Saturday, April 30. The attendance at 

 tne two sessions included forty-two members. 

 Ex-President W. F. Osgood occupied the chair at 

 the morning session, Ex-President T. S. Fiske and 

 Professor Frank Morley at the afternoon session. 

 The council announced the election of the follow- 

 ing persons to membership in the society: Mr. F. 

 W. Beal, Princeton University; Professor W. J. 

 Berry, Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute; Mr. J. K. 

 Lamond, Yale University; Mr. E. M. Mathews, 

 University High School, Chicago, 111.; Professor 

 F. E. Miller, Otterbein University; Mr. J. E. 

 Rowe, Johns Hopkins University; Mr. W. H. 

 Terrell, Clyde, N. C; Jlr. George Wentworth, 

 Exeter, N. H. ; Mr. W. A. Wilson, Yale University. 

 Eight applications for membership in the society 

 were received. The total membership is now 630. 



Professor Maxime BSeher was elected a member 

 of the editorial board of the Transactions, to 

 succeed Professor W. F. Osgood at the expiration 

 of the latter's term of office. Professor L. E. 

 Dickson was appointed to fill the unexpired term 

 of Professor E. B. Van Vleck, who retires from 

 the board in July. 



The committee of publication was directed to 

 publish in book form the lectures delivered at the 

 Princeton Colloquium in September, 1909, by 

 Professors G. A. Bliss and Edward Kasner. The 

 Yale Colloquium lectures have just appeared from 

 the press of Yale University. 



The following papers were read at the April 

 meeting : 



H. B. Phillips: "Application of Gibbs's inde- 

 terminate product to the algebra of linear sys- 

 tems." 



H. B. Phillips : " Concerning a class of surfaces 



associated with polygons on a quadric surface." 

 Virgil Snyder: " Conjugate line congruences 



contained in a bundle of quadric surfaces." 

 W. B. Carver : " Ideals of a quadratic number 



field in canonic form." 



G. A. Miller: "On a method due to Galois." 



E. H. Taylor : " On the transformation of the 

 boundary in conformal mapping." 



W. B. Fite: "Concerning the invariant points 

 of commutative eollineations." 



R. G. D. Richardson : " On the saddle point in 

 the theory of maxima and minima and in the 

 calculus of variations." 



H. H. Mitchell : " Note concerning the subgroups 

 01 the linear fractional group LF(2, p")." 



H. H. Mitchell : " The subgroups of the linear 

 group LF(3, p")." 



C. L. E. Moore : " Some infinitesimal properties 

 of five-parameter families of lines in space of four 

 dimensions." 



Edward Kasner : " Forces depending on the 

 time, and a related transformation group." 



F. H. Safford : " Sturm's method of integrating 

 dx!/VS+dy/VY = 0:' 



G. F. Gimdelfinger : "On the geometry of line 

 elements in the plane with reference to osculating 

 circles." 



The Chicago Section of the society held its 

 spring meeting at the University of Chicago, 

 April S-9. The summer meeting of the society 

 will probably be held in New York City early in 

 September. F. N. Cole, 



Secretary 



THE AMEEICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY 

 EHODE ISLAKB SECTION 



The regular March meeting of the section was 

 held March 31, 1910, at the University Club, pre- 

 ceded by the usual informal dinner. Professor 

 William H. Kenerson, of the engineering depart- 

 ment of Brown University, presented the paper 

 for the evening on the subject, " Some Problems 

 of the Testing Laboratory." The speaker showed 

 by means of lantern slides the various types of 

 testing machines and explained their method of 

 operation and the results obtained. Then he took 

 up some of the special problems that had been 

 presented to the Brown Laboratory and showed 

 the methods and machines devised to secure ac- 

 curate results in the solving of these unusual 

 cases. 



Albert W. Claflin, 

 Secretary 



Providence, R. I. 



