344 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXV. No. 635 



the causes that affect the observer's perception 

 of the image. The first portion of the paper 

 was concerned almost exclusively with the sec- 

 ondary aberration of the refracting telescope. 

 He found that it was impossible to bring more 

 than a small fraction, perhaps one fourth of 

 the light emanating from a star within a 

 radius of one tenth of a second. For this 

 reason a black line on the planet would not be 

 imaged as black in the telescope, but only as 

 a gray diffused line. This effect was one that 

 could not be cured by any arrangement or 

 figuring of the lenses, but could be diminished 

 by increasing the ratio of focal length to the 

 aperture of the telescope. 



The second part of the paper was devoted to 

 what the author proposes to call ' visual infer- 

 ence.' This includes the process by which the 

 eye, from the image on the retina, infers the 

 nature of the object which produces the image. 

 He showed at some length the extent to which 

 this form of inference might be carried. It is 

 based largely on experience, but in cases where 

 this is wanting habit may take its place. One 

 result of this process is that different people 

 may see the same image very differently when 

 it approaches the limit of visibility. It was 

 shown by diagrams that broken lines under 

 certain conditions appeared continuous, that 

 double lines may be seen as single, or as a 

 group of which the observer could not give the 

 number without closer inspection. A pecul- 

 iarity near the two ends of a line affected the 

 judgment throughout the whole length of the 

 line. 



Lowell's observations of Mars were very 

 highly spoken of as superior to all others, both 

 in the favorable conditions under which they 

 were made and their careful and critical char- 

 acter; but the general conclusion reached was 

 that his drawings of the canals could not be 

 accepted as certainly correct without a more 

 complete investigation of the possible effects 

 of visual inference in influencing the percep- 

 tion of the observer. E. L. Faeis, 



Secretary 



THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



The annual meeting was called to order at 

 the American Museum of Natural History, at 



8 :30 P.M., with Vice-President Burgess in the 

 chair. 



Following the presentation and acceptance 

 of annual reports from officers and committees, 

 the annual election resulted as follows: 



President — ^H. H. Rusby. 



Vice-Presidents — E. S. Burgess and L. M. Un- 

 derwood. 



Corresponding Secretary — J. K. Small. 



Recording Secretary — C. Stuart Gager. 



Treasurer — C. C. Curtis. 



Editor — J. H. Bamhart. 



Associate Editors — Philip Dowell, A. W. Evans, 

 T. E. Hazen, M. A. Howe, W. A. Murrill, H. M. 

 Richards, Miss A. M-. Vail. 



John Hendley Barnhaet, 

 Secretary pro tern. 



DISCUSSIOW AND CORRESPONDENCE 

 A SCIENCE TRUST 



With the liberal appropriations by Congress 

 for the study of the problems relating to scien- 

 tific agriculture, there seems to be a growing 

 tendency to form classes, and ' rings,' even as 

 in the commercial and political activities of 

 the nation. In too many cases the executive 

 heads of the experiment stations take to them- 

 selves the credit of all that is done in their 

 respective stations and, from the vantage 

 ground of publicity, hamper and cripple, in 

 many ways, the real workers in the respective 

 fields. In many cases, of course, this injustice 

 is unintentional; but it is none the less real. 

 Often the true state of affairs is not realized 

 by the offending directors; in other instances, 

 naturally, it is not conceded. 



Directors frequently assume the attitude of 

 the political ' boss,' and attempt to ' pull the 

 wires ' in such a way that there can be no 

 recourse for the workers except to humble 

 themselves and ' pay court,' or to resign. They 

 even go farther and deliberately plan to make 

 it difficult for a worker to go from one field 

 to a more congenial field, by throwing out in- 

 sinuations as to obscure ' outs ' that make a 

 change very desirable. In other words, the 

 ' political boss ' director claims everything in 

 sight, attempts to bully the workers into what 

 he pleases to call ' respect for authority,' and 

 aims to cut off any possible redress either from 



