Febkuaet 23, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



305 



At the regular meeting held in the chemical 

 lecture room of the university, November 24, 

 1906, Dr. Lindley M. Keasbey addressed the 

 academy upon ' The Science of Economics.' 

 The following brief abstract will show the 

 scope of his remarks: 



In the last instance, economics is an elabora- 

 tion of the weal relation, which is as follows: 

 Demand tends towards utility, utility necessitates 

 utilization, and utilization results in supply. 

 Consequently the science consists of three parts: 

 Economic psychology, economic geography and 

 demography, and economic history. 



1. Economic Psychology. — Demand tends toward 

 utility because all men seek to satisfy their wants 

 and utility is the quality of satisfying such wants. 

 The first term of weal relation therefore requires 

 an analysis of human wants, resulting in a hedonic 

 classification and a hedonic calculus. 



2. Economic Geography and Demography. — The 

 qualities of satisfying wants are circumstances of 

 persons and tilings, hence potential utilities may 

 be said to reside in man's physical and social en- 

 vironments. The study of these environments 

 with a view to determining their potential 

 utilities constitutes the second part of the science : 

 economic geography and demography. 



3. Economic History.— In striving to satisfy his 

 wants, man is compelled to convert potential 

 utilities into actual utilities. The study of this 

 process of utilization constitutes economic his- 

 tory, the third part of economics, the dynamics 

 of the science, as it were. In short the subject- 

 matter of economic science may be said to be: 

 The system of activities whereby the potential 

 utilities pertaining to persons and things are 

 through utilization converted into actual utilities. 



On the evening of December 28 and the 

 morning of December 29 joint meetings of 

 the Texas Academy of Science and the Scien- 

 tific Society of San Antonio were held in the 

 rooms of the latter organization in the Stevens 

 Building, San Antonio. The program for the 

 evening session included a lecture upon ' Iron- 

 smelting and Steel-making,' illustrated with 

 many steriopticon views, by Mr. Edward C. H. 

 Bantel, of the engineering department of the 

 University of Texas. The speaker's familiar- 

 ity with the subject from residence and study 

 in the center of the Pennsylvania steel district 

 enabled him to handle it in a most interesting 

 and detailed manner. Mr. Bantel was fol- 



lowed by Captain T. J. Dickson, U.S.A., 

 Chaplain of the Twenty-sixth Infantry, Fort 

 Sam Houston, San Antonio, who presented 

 two papers : ' Fighting Asiatic Cholera ' and 

 the ' First Ascent of Mount Isarog,' both of 

 which were illustrated with stereopticon views. 



Mount Isarog is a famous volcano in south- 

 ern Luzon. The speaker, with eight soldiers 

 and five Filipino cargadores, made the first 

 and only ascent in June, 1903. The summit 

 is a sharp, jagged contour, about two miles in 

 diameter. The trees are knotted and dwarfed 

 and evidence the mighty battle they have 

 waged while contending with the storms that 

 raged around the summit. It has the appear- 

 ance of a deep soup bowl with one side chopped 

 out. It was possible for members of the party 

 to climb out on the limbs of trees and look 

 down a distance that was estimated one mile. 



The last number on the program of the 

 evening session was ' Facts furnished by the 

 Study of Radium and Deduction leading to 

 the Present Electron Theory,' by Dr. Eugene 

 P. Schoch, of the school of chemistry. Uni- 

 versity of Texas. This exercise, which was a 

 demonstration rather than a lecture, attracted 

 much attention, as outside of the university 

 nothing like it had ever before been seen in 

 Texas. In the audience were a number of 

 officers of the regular army stationed at Fort 

 Sam Houston. It is a pleasure to note the 

 interest these gentlemen have taken in science 

 and the promotion of the scientific spirit 

 within the state. 



At the morning session, on December 29, 

 Dr. W. L. Bringhurst, of San Antonio, read 

 a paper upon ' Some Eecent Experiments in 

 Biology,' dealing chiefly with the results of 

 the interbreeding of different varieties of the 

 domestic fowl. 



Frederic W. Simonds, 

 Secretary. 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



At the 174th meeting, on January 24, under 

 the head of ' Informal Communications,' Dr. 

 David T. Day bespoke the cooperation of the 

 geologists of the society in furthering the in- 

 vestigation of black sands, and especially of 

 heavy material derived from sluice boxes by 



