890 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XXVII. No. 701 



Ziwet and H. E. Slaught, who presented the 

 following resolutions on behalf of the section: 



Wheebas, in the death of Professor Heinrich 

 Maschke the Chicago Section of the American 

 Mathematical Society suffers the loss of one of 

 its most honored, influential and beloved members, 

 your committee on behalf of the section hereby 

 expresses its deep appreciation of his services and 

 character. 



From the first organization of the Chicago Sec- 

 tion until the present session Professor Maschke 

 has been one of its most active and inspiring 

 members. By his genial qualities, his unusual 

 sympathy as a teacher, his integrity and intel- 

 lectual honesty, he has won and held the affection 

 of those who have known him. By his ability 

 as an investigator he has contributed greatly to 

 the development of productive mathematical schol- 

 arship in the formative period of the society, and 

 in his o^vn person he has exemplified the influ- 

 ence of German scholarship which has contributed 

 so potently to this development. In the death of 

 Professor Maschke the section for the first time 

 feels the loss of one of its leaders. 



The following papers were read before the 

 section : 



Dr. C. H. SiSAM : " On a locus determined by 

 concurrent tangents." 



Professor W. B. Fokd : " On the integration of 

 the equation 

 ao{a!)u{x-\-2) -{- ai{x)u(x+l) -{- a,{x)u{x) = 0." 



Professor D. R. Citrtiss; "On the real branches 

 of implicit functions in the neighborhood of mul- 

 tiple points." 



Mr. L. L. Dines : " A method of investigating 

 numbers of the forms 6« ■ s ± 1." 



Professor L. E. Dickson : " Criteria for the 

 irreducibility of a reciprocal equation." 



Professor L. E. Dickson : " On reciprocal 

 abeliari equations." 



Professor L. E. Dickson : " On the congruence 



X'l -\- yn -^- !^ ^ (mod p)." 



Professor Jacob Westlund : " Note on the 

 equation x" -f- j/t = ns^." 



Mr. F. H. Hodge and Mr. E. J. Mottlton : " On 

 certain characteristics ol orbits for a general cen- 

 tral force." 



Professor G. A. Millee : " The central of a 

 group." 



Dr. A. E. Young : " On the problem of the 

 spherical representation and the characteristic 

 equations of certain classes of surfaces." 



Dr. A. C. LuNN : " A continuous group related 

 to von Seidel's optical theory." 



Dr. A. C. LuNN : " A minimal property of 

 simple harmonic motion." 



Dr. A. C. LuNN : " The deduction of the electro- 

 static equations by the calculus of variations." 



Mr. A. R. SCHWEITZEE : " Remark on Enriques' 

 review of the foundations of geometry." 



Mr. A. R. Schweitzer : " On the calculi of rela- 

 tions, classes and operations." 



Professor E. J. Wilcztnski : " Projective dif- 

 ferential geometry of curved surfaces, fourth 

 memoir." 



Dr. G. D. BiEKHOFF : " Irregular integrals of 

 ordinary linear differential equations." 



Professor R. D. Caemichael: "On the general 

 tangent to plane curves." 



Professor R. D. Caemichael: "On plane alge- 

 braic curves symmetrical with respect to each of 

 two rectangular axes." 



Professor 0. D. Kellogg: "Note on the geom- 

 etry of continuously turning curves." 



Dr. I. ScHUK : " Beitrage zur Tlieorie der Grup- 

 pen linearer homogener Substitutionen." 



Mr. W. D. MacMillan : " On the character of 

 the solutions of homogeneous linear equations 

 with periodic coefficients." 



Mr. A. R. Schweitzer : " On the quaternion as 

 an operator in Grassman's extensive algebra." 



The nest meeting of the section will occur 

 in December, 1908. 



H. E. Slaught, 

 Secretary of the Section 



THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. SECTION 

 OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY 



In conjunction with the American Ethno- 

 logical Society, a meeting was held on March 

 23, at the American Museum of Natural 

 History. 



Professor Arthur O. Lovejoy spoke on 

 " Fire Cults : their Distribution and Char- 

 acteristic Features, with a Hypothesis Ee- 

 speeting their Origin and Meaning." While 

 the most wide-spread of the observances re- 

 lating to the sacred fire is the custom of main- 

 taining, either upon the domestic hearth or in 

 a communal shrine, a fire that, except upon 

 periodic ceremonial occasions, is never per- 

 mitted to go out — a practise which by itseK 

 might be regarded as a mere convenience or 

 necessity, invested in the course of time 



