846 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXIII. No. 596. 



tract notliing from the general excellence of 

 the book, of which it is, perhaps, sufficient to 

 say that it is in keeping with what would be 

 expected from one of Professor Sherman's 

 high rank as a teacher and investigator in 

 this field of analytical chemistry. 



The mechanical part of the work is well 

 done, the book being of convenient size, well 

 printed and bound. Personal experience with 

 the index for several months has shown that 

 for the practical purposes of an index it leaves 

 much to be desired. A. G. Woodman. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OP ANATOMY. 



At a meeting of the board of editors of the 

 American Journal of Anatomy on April 18, 

 1906, Dr. Lewellys P. Barker resigned, and 

 Dr. Charles R. Bardeen, professor of anatomy 

 at the University of Wisconsin, and Dr. Henry 

 H. Donaldson, professor of neurology of the 

 Wistar Institute, were elected editors. 



The contents of Vol. V., No. 2, May, 1906, 

 are as follows: 



Eoss G. Habeison : ' Further Experiments on 

 the Development of Peripheral Nerves.' With 

 five figures. 



Albert C. Eycleshymeb and J. M. Wilson: 

 ' The Gastrulation and Embryo Formation in 

 Amia Calva.' With four double plates. 



C. F. W. McCluee: 'A Contribution to the 

 Anatomy and Development of the Venous System 

 of Didelphys Marsupialis (L. ) — ^Part II., Develop- 

 ment.' With twenty-seven text figures and five 

 double plates. 



Proceedings of the Association of American 

 A-natomists, Nineteenth Session, August 6-10, 

 1905, and Twentieth Session, December 27-29, 

 1905. 



List of Members of the Association of Anato- 

 mists. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND 

 MEDICINE. 



The sixteenth meeting of the Society for 

 Experimental Biology and Medicine was held 

 in the new building of the Eockefeller Insti- 

 tute for Medical Eesearch on Wednesday, 

 April 18. The president, Simon Flexner, was 

 in the chair. 



Members Present. — Atkinson, Auer, Beebe, 

 Buxton, Calkins, Dunham, Emerson, Field, 

 Plexner, Foster, Gibson, Gies, Herter, Lee, 

 Levene, Lusk, Meltzer, Meyer, Murlin, No- 

 guchi, Opie, Parker,' Pratt,' Salant, Schwyzer, 

 Sherman, Terry, Wolf, Wood. 



Members Elected. — Charles E. Bardeen, G. 

 H. A. Clowes, N. B. Foster, J. H. Kastle, 

 Ealph S. Lillie, D. T. MacDougal, J. J. E. 

 Macleod, Eobert M. Yerkes. 



Abstracts of Reports of Original 



Investigations.^ 



On the Digestion of Gelatin: P. A. Levene 



and W. A. Beatty. 



The authors used phosphotungstic acid to 

 efiect separation of the amino-acids produced 

 from proteins by hydrolysis. Tryptic digestion 

 of gelatin resulted in the formation of a sub- 

 stance apparently identical with prolinglycyl 

 anhydrid (C,H,„N,0,). 



The Reactions of Amphioxus to Light: G. H. 



Parker. 



When strong light was thrown into a basin 

 of sea-water containing many amphioxus, the 

 whole assembly swam about in wild confusion. 

 This has been taken to indicate that amphi- 

 oxus is very sensitive to light. But when 

 twenty individuals were illuminated singly 

 only twelve responded. The wild confusion 

 in the first experiment is due quite as much 

 to tactile stimulation as to light. When a 

 sti'ong, well-circumscribed beam of light was 

 thrown on the tail of amphioxus the animal 

 almost always reacted by a slight forward 

 spring. When the light was thrown on the 

 middle of the body there was usually no reac- 

 tion, though sometimes a backward movement. 

 When the light was applied to the head end, 

 there was always a backward spring. This 

 sensitiveness was not lost or impaired by cut- 



' Non-resident. 



- The abstracts presented in this account of the 

 proceedings have been greatly condensed from ab- 

 stracts given to the secretary by the authors them- 

 selves. The latter abstracts of the communica- 

 tions may be found in current numbers of Tlie 

 ■lournal of the American Medical Association, 

 American Medicine and the New York Medical 

 .Journal, 



