JUME 15, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



913 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 



The spring meeting of the Physical Society 

 was held at Washington, D. C, oil Friday, 

 April 20, and Saturday, April 21, 1906. 

 President Barus presided. 



The Friday session was held at the Cosmos 

 Club, and the Saturday sessions at the Na- 

 tional Bureau of Standards. 



On Saturday afternoon Professor H. A. 

 Lorentz, of Leyden, addressed the society on 

 the subject of ' Gibbs's Statistical Mechanics.' 



The program was as follows: 



C. B. Thwing : ' Measurements of the Internal 

 Temperatures of Common Materials.' 



J. 6. Coffin : ' On the Influence of Frequency 

 upon the Self-inductance of Cylindrical Coils of 

 Any Number of Layers.' (Read by title.) 



E. B. Rosa : ' On the Geometric Mean Distance 

 of Square Areas and their Use in the Calculation 

 of Indvietances.' 



L. A. Bauek : ' Cheltenham Magnetic Observa- 

 tory Registration of Effects from Electric Cars 

 over Twelve Miles Distant.' 



E. B. Rosa and F. W. Geovee: 'Mica Con- 

 densers as Standards of Capacity.' 



L. W. Austin : ' The Electrolytic Wave De- 

 tector.' 



C. VV. Waidneb and G. K. Buegess : ' On the 

 Determination of Melting Points by Radiation 

 Methods.' 



E. P. Hybe: 'Talbot's Law as Applied to the 

 Rotating Sectored Disk.' 



H. B. Beooks: 'A New Potentiometer.' 



F. A. Wolff : ' Direct Reading Methods for 

 Resistance Comparisons.' 



S. J. AiiEN: 'The Velocity and Ratio e/m for 

 the Primary and Secondary Rays of Radium.' 



A. H. Pfund : " New ' Reststrahlen.' " 



A. H. Pfund : ' Study of Polarization Phenom- 

 ena in the Infra-red.' 



W. W. Coblentz : ' Note on a New Form of 

 Radiometer.' 



R. W. Wood : ' Fish-eye Views.' 



R. W. Wood : ' Interference Colors of Chlorate 

 of Potash Laminae.' 



R. W. Wood : ' Fluorescence and Magnetic Ro- 

 tation of Vapors.' 



R. W. Wood : ' Resonance Radiation of Fluor- 

 escence of Sodium Vapor.' 



E. B. Rosa and N. E. Dorset: 'The Ratio of 

 the Electromagnetic and Electrostatic Units.' 



F. J. Bates : ' Spectral Lines as Light Sources 

 in Polariscopic Measurements.' 



W. W. Coblentz : ' Water of Crystallization 

 and Water of Constitution.' 



E. Rutheefoed : ' Distribution of the Intensity 

 of Radiation from Radioactive Substances.' 



L. E. Woodman and H. W. Webb: 'The Dis- 

 persion of Electric Waves.' 



C. W. Chamberlain : ' Note on the Compound 

 Interferometer.' 



W. P. White : ' The Constancy of Platinum 

 Thermo-elements and other Thermo-element Prob- 

 lems.' 



W. P. White : ' Some Properties of Moving 

 Coil Galvanometers.' 



The next meeting of the society will be at 

 Ithaca, ]Sr. Y., June 28 to July 3, in connec- 

 tion with the summer meeting of the Amer- 

 ican Association. _, 



Ernest Merritt, 



Secretary. 



THE biological SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 415th meeting was held on March 31, 

 1906, Vice-president Palmer in the chair and 

 twenty-nine persons present. 



Dr. Ch. Warden Stiles offered the first 

 paper, ' A Plan to Insure the Establishment 

 of Type Species of Genera.' He exhibited 

 various sections of the card catalogue on med- 

 ical and veterinary zoology, and explained the 

 system adopted of using different colored 

 cards to aid the memory in systematic zoology, 

 nomenclature and geographic distribution. 



He also explained a proposition he is now 

 submitting to various organizations in order 

 to insure the designation of type species for 

 new genera. This proposition involves the 

 adoption of a rule by publishing organizations 

 to the effect that no papers containing new 

 generic names will be accepted for publication 

 unless the author designates the type species 

 for every new generic name used. It was 

 adopted independently by the Washington 

 Biological Society, which was the first organ- 

 ization to set up the rule. 



In reply to a question. Dr. Stiles stated in 

 reference to Ashmead's genera described in 

 keys and citing a type species that, even in the 

 absence of any separate specific description, he 

 considered these genera as valid; the case is 



