Juke 2G, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



991 



The Scope and Function, of Science: Wm. 



Louis Poteat, of Wake Forest College. 



(Eead by title.) 

 Some Trials of a Museum Curator: H. H. 



Brimley, State Museum, Ealeigii. (Read 



by title.) 

 The Oral Gestation of the Gaff Topsail Cat- 

 fish, Felichthys maritius: E. W. Gudgee, of 



the State Normal and Industrial College. 



This paper was given by permission of the 

 Commissioner of Fisheries and will later be 

 published in the Bulletin, of the bureau. 

 The Proximate Constituents of the Oleoresins 



of Pinus palustris and Pinus heterophylla : 



Chas. H. Herty, of the University of North 



Carolina. (No abstract furnished.) 

 The San Jose Scale: Franklin Sherman, Jr., 



entomologist. North Carolina Department 



of Agriculture, Ealeigh, N. C. 



The paper opens with an apology and ex- 

 planation for presenting so threadbare a sub- 

 ject before the academy — stating, however, 

 the author's belief that popular presentation 

 of subjects of economic interest to the state 

 should have a conspicuous place on the pro- 

 gram. 



A brief account of the history and general 

 distribution of the San Jose scale (Aspidiotus 

 perniciosus, Comst.) is given, and mention is 

 made of the principal food-plants and meth- 

 ods of spread of the insect. 



Referring to conditions within the state of 

 North Carolina it is shown that present rec- 

 ords indicate the pest in 65 counties, at 145 

 different post-office localities, and on at least 

 423 different premises. It is a safe presump- 

 tion that it is in many localities in addition 

 to those on record. It is a reasonable pre- 

 sumption that it is in every county in the 

 state, but it can not he presumed that it is in 

 every locality — and there is every reason to 

 believe that many individual premises are not 

 yet infested by it. 



In at least seventeen communities it is gen- 

 erally distributed, having been found in a 

 number of the orchards and perhaps in all. 

 In the west it is known in the counties of 

 Cherokee, Haywood, Mitchell, and Watauga — 

 and in the east in the counties of Brunswick, 



New Hanover, Carteret and Pasquotank. It 

 is found only a few feet above sea-level, and 

 at an elevation of 4,000 feet. 



According to present records the worst-in- 

 fested counties are as follows in order of in- 

 festation: Catawba, Surry, Guilford, Moore, 

 Gaston, Wade, and PoUc. 

 Concerning the Difference of Behavior of Soil 

 Organisms when in Solutions and when in 

 Soils: F. L. Stevens and W. A. Withers, 

 of the North Carolina Experiment Station, 

 Raleigh. A preliminary report of work 

 done by F. L. Stevens and W. A. Withers, 

 assisted by W. A. Syme and J. C. Temple. 

 Results of numerous experiments were ad- 

 duced to show that the activities of ammoni- 

 fying, nitrifying, denitrifying, and nitrogen- 

 gathering bacteria are different in soils from 

 what they are in solutions and that no ade- 

 quate knowledge of the efficiency of these 

 various soil organisms in effecting chemical 

 change can be attained by tests conducted in 

 solutions. Even the relative powers of dif- 

 ferent organisms or of different soils is largely 

 affected by the conditions of the test. It 

 seems, therefore, that in the study of soil bac- 

 teria the work must be done with soils rather 

 than with solutions, or at least that frequent 

 controls or checks in soil must be made. 

 How to Study the Common BocJcs: Collier 

 Cobb, of the University of North Carolina. 

 (No abstract furnished.) 



E. W. GUDGER, 



Secretary 



THE philosophical SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON 



The 650th meeting was held on May 9, 

 1908, President Bauer in the chair. 



Professor Harry Fielding Reid, of Johns 

 Hopkins University, presented, by invitation, 

 an interesting paper on the " Mechanics of the 

 Oalifornian Earthquake" (1906). 



The surveys of the United States Coast and 

 Geodetic Survey during 1874^91 and 1906-7 as 

 discussed by Dr. Hayford show that between 

 these dates the earth on opposite sides and at 

 some distance from the great fault was rela- 

 tively displaced about six feet. At the time 

 of the rupture on April 18, 1906, the opposite 

 side of the fault plane shifted about twenty 



