526 



SCIENCE. 



[M.S. Vol. XXII. No. 565. 



SAN FRANCISCO SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 

 MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 



The eighth regular meeting of the San 

 Francisco Section of the American Mathe- 

 matical Society was held at the University of 

 California on September 30, 1905. During 

 the morning session the following officers were 

 elected for the ensuing year: 



Chairman — R. E. Allardice. 

 Secretary — G. A. Miller. 



Program Committee — E. J. Wilczynski, D. N. 

 Lelimer and G. A. Miller. 



Seventeen members of the society were in 

 attendance ; in addition to these there were 

 present a number of high school teachers of 

 mathematics who are not members of the so- 

 ciety. The following papers were read and 

 discussed during the two sessions of the sec- 

 tion. 



Professor C. A. Noble : ' Note on Loxodromes.' 



Dr. W. a. Manning : ' Groups in which a large 

 number of operators may correspond to their in- 

 verses.' 



Professor M. W. Haskell: 'A new canonical 

 form of the binary sextic' 



Professor A. O. Leuschner : ' On a new method 

 of determining orbits.' 



Professor Arthur. Ranum : ' The representa- 

 tion of linear fractional congruence groups with a 

 composite modulus as permutation groups.' 



Professor E. J. Wilczynski: 'On a system of 

 partial differential equations in involution.' 



Professor G. A. Miller : ' The groups which 

 contain only three operators which are squares.' 



Professor R. E. Moritz: 'On logarithmic in- 

 volution, the commutative arithmetic process of 

 the third order.' 



Professor L\ E. Dickson: 'The abstract group 

 simply isomorphic with the general linear group 

 in an arbitrary field.' 



Professor L. E. Dickson : ' The abstract group 

 simply isomorphic with the symmetric group.' 



Professor M. W. Haskell: 'On a class of 

 covariants which give rise to birational trans- 

 formations.' 



The next meeting of the section will be 

 held at Stanford University on February 24, 

 1906. 



G. A. Miller, 

 Secretary of the Section. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



STEGOMYIA and yellow fever A CONTRAST. 



The magnificent work done in New Orleans 

 this summer and autumn in fighting the yel- 

 low fever outbreak on the sole basis of the 

 transfer of the disease by Stegomyia fdsciata, 

 and which has resulted in the practical extir- 

 pation of the epidemic long before the first 

 frost, has convinced the most stubborn among 

 the citizens of New Orleans and many other 

 cities and towns throughout the south of the 

 fact that only in this way can an epidemic 

 successfully be handled. The acceptance of 

 what has been termed ' the mosquito theory ' 

 is now almost universal, and this brings us 

 to the contrast. 



In the New Orleans States of May 2, 1902, 

 appeared an article with the following scare 

 headlines : ' Taxpayers to Protest Against Pas- 

 sage of Anti-mosquito Ordinance. Has been 

 Resurrected. A Meeting To-night. Property 

 Holder Discusses Taxation without Benefit.' 

 In the body of the article the following 

 statements are made : 



An effort Avill be made to resurrect the anti- 

 mosquito ordinance at the next meeting of the 

 committee on police and public buildings to which 

 are entrusted for consideration all questions per- 

 taining to public health. The measure was intro- 

 duced last November by Mr. Cucullu at the re- 

 quest of Dr. Q. Kohnke, president of the city board 

 of health. The measure Avas not popular, as the 

 taxpayers contended that its enactment was but 

 another form of enforced taxation. * * * Be- 

 cause of its evident unpopularity, the promoters 

 of the ordinance requested that it be not pressed, 

 and for that reason it has remained untouched 

 before the committee ever since. 



In the meantime the endorsement of ^ medical 

 men and organizations has been sought with more 

 or less success, so that now Dr. Kohnke feels 

 that the chances are more favorable to call the 

 measure up. * * * 



' But there are many taxpayers who are deter- 

 mined to resist the passage of the ordinance, and 

 should it be defended by the committee on police 

 and public buildings at its meeting next Monday 

 evening * * * there will be taxpayers present 

 who Avill strive to prove to Dr. Kohnke that the 

 arguments in favor of this new venture are not so 

 strons: and convincing as he believes. 



