968 



SCIENCE.. 



[N. S. \^0L. XXIII. No. 600. 



furnish material more within the scope of 

 the readei-s of Science. In Sections I. 

 and II., however, it may not be out of place 

 to note that there were several papers pre- 

 sented that are of special interest from the 

 exploratory side of historical researches, 

 e. g., 'The Successors of de la Verendrye 

 imder the French Regime: 1743-1755,' by 

 the Hon. L. A. Priid 'Homme, in which the 

 successors of the first discoverer of the 

 Roclry Mountains and their enterprises are 

 described, and Dr. Suite's 'General Index' 

 to the twenty-four volumes of the Royal 

 Society of Canada already published, will 

 form a most valuable contribution. 



Amongst sociological studies of a high 

 order may be ranked Mons. Leon Gerin's 

 monographs on the French Canadian hab- 

 itant—two types from the southern plain 

 of the St. Lawrence. Gerin's descriptions 

 of the three types from the north shore of 

 the same river are too well known to be 

 commented upon. 



Monsieur Errol Bouehette discusses the 

 relation between social progress and pri- 

 mary education. 



Dr. N. E. Dionne gives a chronological 

 list of the volumes, pamphlets, newspapers 

 and reviews published in the English 

 tongue in the Province of Quebec from the 

 first introduction of printing in 1764 to 

 1906. In a previous volume of the Pro- 

 ceedings and Transactions of the Eoyal 

 Society of Canada Dionne prepared a sim- 

 ilar and very exhaustive work for all 

 similar writings in the French language. 



In Section II. R. W. McLachlan gave a 

 sketch of the life of Joseph Fleury Mesplet, 

 who first introduced printing in Canada, 

 whilst Professor W. F. Ganong, corre- 

 sponding member of the society, gives fur- 

 ther contributions to his invaluable mono- 

 graphs on the province of New Brunswick. 

 Dr. S. E. Dawson has a paper 'On the 

 Birds met with by Cartier on the North- 



ea.stern Coast of America and especially 

 of the Great Auk, now Extinct.' 



SECTION III. MATHEMATICS, PHYSICAL AND 

 CHEMICAL SCIENCES. 



Then come the papers and addresses de- 

 livered before the third section, with Pro- 

 fessor Alfred Baker, of Toronto Univer- 

 sity, president of the section. 



The following papers of scientific in- 

 terest were presented and discussed: 



Dr. E. Deville's paper, entitled 'Abacus 

 of the Altitude and Azimuth of the Pole 

 Star,' explains the theory and constitution 

 of a diagram for finding, without calcula- 

 tion, the altitude and azimuth of the pole 

 star when the sidereal time is known. The 

 diagram was prepared for the use of the 

 surveyors who have to subdivide townships 

 in the northwest territories. 



'Notes sur la Mecanique celeste, les 

 Mathematiques, le calcul differential et 

 I'Algebre,' by Docteur Arthur Duval. 



' On the Metallic Currency of the British 

 Empire,' by Thomas Macfarlane, M.E., 

 F.R.S.C, F.C.S., Dominion analyst. 



'On the Analysis of Wheaten Flour' 

 and 'On the Conservation of Nitrogen in 

 Manure,' by Thomas Macfarlane, M.E., 

 F.R.S.C, F.C.S., Dominion analyst. 



Professor R. B. Owens, of McGill Uni- 

 versity, Montreal, contributed a paper 'On 

 a New Form of Frequency Indicator.' 



Mons. C. Baillarge, of Quebec, con- 

 tributed no less than six papers on varied 

 topics, including (a) 'The Simplification 

 of Geometrical Teaching'; (6) 'The In- 

 commensurability of the Bushel and Gallon 

 Measures as Used in Canada'; (c) 'The 

 Duration of the World Rationally Consid- 

 ered'; (d) 'The Humanitarian Question 

 of how to Prevent Accidents to Children 

 or Persons Taking Fire from Becoming 

 Fatalities'; (e) 'On the Spontaneous 

 Origin of Forest Fires'; (/) 'A Retro- 



