December 8, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



755 



by his clear grasp of the vital connection be- 

 tween fact and theory and by his experimental 

 skill. 



Born at Wilson, New York, on January 5, 

 1859, he took his bachelor's degree at Boston 

 University in 1881, at the same time special- 

 izing in physics at the Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology. In his graduate work, 

 he had the good fortune to come under the 

 influence of Rowland and Helmholtz, with the 

 latter of whom he took his doctor's degree. 

 Two years of mathematical physics with 

 Kirchhoff was also a potent factor in his de- 

 velopment. 



His researches, covering a wide range of 

 optical subjects, are described mainly in 

 Wiedemann's Annalen, the Philosophical 

 Magazine, the Astrophysical Journal and the 

 Physical Review, during the twenty years 

 following 1885, when his doctor's dissertation 

 appeared in the first-mentioned periodical. 



Those who were associated with him as 

 students at Baltimore and Berlin, those who 

 have worked with him as colleagues in the 

 University at Lincoln, those students who 

 have come under his guidance in the labora- 

 tory and those who have accepted the generous 

 hospitality of his home, unite in admiration 

 of the fine qualities of mind and the high 

 ideals which made him at once a successful 

 teacher and an effective investigator. 



His modesty was innate, his courtesy never 

 failing, his energy and singleness of purpose 

 a powerful stimulus to all who knew him. 



The papers presented were as follows : 



Geo. a. Hulett: 'Standard Cells with Electro- 

 lytic Mercurous Sulphate as Depolarizer.' 



F. L. Tufts : ' The Phenomena of Ionization in 

 Flame Gases and Vapors.' 



L. A. Bauek : ' Instruments and Methods used 

 in the Magnetic Survey of the North Pacific Ocean 

 by the Carnegie Institution of Washington.' 



F. C. Blake and C. R. Fountain : ' The Trans- 

 mission and Reflection of Electric Waves by 

 Screens of Resonators and Grids.' 



Carl Barus : ' The Nucleation of Dust-free Air, 

 Energized or not, Observed at Successively In- 

 creasing Supersaturation.' 



C. C. Trowbridge : ' The Duration of the After 

 Glow Produced by the Electrodeless Discharge.' 



E. L. Nichols and Ernest Merritt: 'The De- 

 cay of Phosphorescence in Sidot Blende.' 



Fanny Cook Gates : ' The Conductivity of the 

 Air due to the Sulphate, of Quinine.' 



C* D. Child : ' The Conductivity of the Vapor 

 from a Mercury Arc' 



E. B. Rosa: 'The Construction and Measure- 

 ment of Standards of Inductance.' 



E. B. Rosa and N. E. Dorset : ' Preliminary 

 Report on a New Determination of v, the Ratio 

 of the Electromagnetic and Electrostatic Units.' 



The next meeting of the society — the annual 

 meeting — will be held in New York City, 

 December 29-30, 1905. 



Ernest Merritt, 



Secretary. 



THE geological SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



At the 170th meeting of the society, on 

 November 8, the following papers were pre- 

 sented. Mr. (J. D. Walcott discussed ' The 

 Cambrian of Western Utah.' 

 The Morrison Formation and its Relations 



with the Comanche Series and the DaJcota 



Formation: Mr. T. W. Stanton. 



The Morrison formation is the dinosaur- 

 bearing horizon, loiig known as the Atlanto- 

 saurus beds, lying between the Bed Beds and 

 the Dakota formation along the foothills of 

 the Front Range in Colorado. Similar beds 

 of approximately the same age occur widely 

 distributed in the Black Hills region, Wy- 

 oming, Montana and western Colorado. The 

 deposits are all non-marine and they have 

 usually been referred to the Jurassic on ac- 

 " count of the character of the reptilian fauna, 

 though some authorities have recently as- 

 signed them to the Lower Cretaceous. 



In Texas there is a great development of 

 marine Lower Cretaceous rocks known as the 

 Comanche series. The upper, or Washita, 

 group of this series extends beyond the lower 

 groups toward the north and west, so that in 

 southern Kansas and eastern New Mexico it 

 rests on the Red Beds, and, as it is limited 

 above by the Dakota formation, it there seems 

 to hold the same position as the Morrison 

 formation in the general geologic column. 



The work of Messrs. W. T. Lee and N. H. 

 Darton during the past three or four years 



