June 29, 1906.] 



SCIENCE. 



981 



used. The entire apparatus, including bell 

 attachnient, may be placed on a surface 5 x 

 8J inches. The bell employed directly with 

 the apparatus is a small one with delicate 

 musical sound. Its ringing does not disturb 

 the animal. It is obvious, of course, that the 

 apparatus may be connected with a bell in a 

 room some distance from that in which the 

 animal is kept. 



In the demonstration it was shown that the 

 apparatus announced the deposit in an ordi- 

 nary urinary receiver placed on it of volumes 

 of water less than 5 c.c. The apparatus may 

 be adjusted to announce delivery of a volume 

 as small as 1 c.c. and may be made, in larger 

 sizes, to announce the deposit of masses of 

 any desired weight. 



The annunciator was made especially for 

 use with Gies's metabolism cage, in connec- 

 tion with its urine receiver. 



Some Observations on the Presence of Al- 

 lumin in Bile: William Salant. 

 The author's results thus far, although not 

 uniform, make it seem probable that the al- 

 buminocholia that results from poisoning with 

 ethyl or amyl alcohol, as observed in animals 

 with permanent fistulas, might have been due 

 to irritation of the bladder and perhaps only 

 slightly to lesions in the liver. The question 

 whether albumin passes more readily into the 

 bile than it does into the urine was also 

 studied. The results in every instance ex- 

 amined showed considerable quantities of al- 

 bumin in the urine after poisoning with amyl 

 alcohol. 



More decided effects were obtained with 

 ricin, which seemed to cause the appearance 

 of considerable albumin in the bile. 



William J. Gies, 



Secretai-y. 



THE UNIVERSITY OF COLORADO SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 



During the months of April and May the 

 society held seven meetings, at which papers 

 were presented as follows : 



Pkofessor E. C. Hills : ' Esperanto, the new 

 Universal Language.' 



Dr. F. R. Spencer: 'The Prevalence of Near- 

 sight and the Reasons for its Development.' 



Professor Charles B. Dyke : ' Hawaii and its 

 People.' 



Professor .John B. Phillips : ' The Divorce 

 Problem.' 



Dr. H. B. Leonard : ' Practical Results of 

 Higher Mathematics.' 



Dr. 0. M. Gilbert : ' Death due to Embryonic 

 Structures.' 



Mr. G. S. Dodds : ' Tlie So-called Artificial Crea- 

 tion of Life.' 



Officers for the coming year were elected as 

 follows : 



President — Professor William Duane. 



Vice-president — Dr. 0. M. Gilbert. 



Secretary — Mr. G. S. Dodds. 



Treasurer — Professor John A. Hlmter. 



Francis Eamaley, 



Secretary. 



Boulder, Colo., 

 June 1, 1906. 



DISCUSSION AND GOBRESPONDENCE. 



COLLEGE ENTRANCE EXAMINATIONS. 



To THE Editor op Science: Professor 

 Thorndike's article on ' College Entrance Ex- 

 aminations' in Science for June 1 seems to 

 me so timely and so important that teachers 

 who agree with the general substance of it 

 may well say so. An experience of something 

 like twenty-five years, mostly in secondary 

 schools, has led me to take the same view of 

 the matter which Professor Thorndike has so 

 thoroughly set forth. It would be worth 

 while to get the principal of some large fitting 

 school to give in considerable detail his ex- 

 periences in regard to the inadequacy of the 

 entrance examination to test the boy's fitness 

 for college. I will not in this place under- 

 take to give detailed evidence, but only to cite 

 a few instances which occur to me at once in 

 regard to the imperfectness with which ex- 

 aminations test the attainments of the stu- 

 dent. I have known of a class in science in 

 a very highly respected private preparatory 

 school securing the signature of the instructor 

 to the laboratory note-books before his de- 

 parture for Europe some weeks before the end 

 of the school year. After the signature was 

 afiixed, the ablest boy in the class completed 

 by himself a large portion of the whole year's 



