Mabch 3, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



353 



The loaning of museum material to the schools 

 has continued; lecture courses or lessons have 

 been offered to the children who have come as 

 delegates from their respective school rooms; 

 several illustrated lectures have been given at the 

 schools; instructional courses open to the teach- 

 ers of nature study have been offered and univer- 

 sity credit courses have been conducted for those 

 wishing to systematically pursue courses of in- 

 struction. 



It is evident from the work, both of the museum 

 and of the instructional courses given in coopera- 

 tion with the work of the museum, that the 

 academy is rapidly assuming a conspicuous place 

 among the educational institutions of Chicago. 

 The expressions of appreciation which have como 

 to us from the superintendent and district super- 

 intendents of the public schools have been most 

 encouraging. The expressions of appreciation 

 which reach us from the principals and teachers 

 more immediately engaged in the educational 

 work of the North Side, are enthusiastic in praise 

 and appreciation of the influence which the acad- 

 emy is having. 



The opportunities for the academy lie far be- 

 yond anything which we have yet realized. The 

 North Side of Chicago is distinctly lacking in 

 any public institution which is actively assisting 

 in the educational work of the schools and offer- 

 ing instructional courses for adults. The work 

 of the academy should be consistently restricted 

 to the utilization of the scientific data and ma- 

 terial in educational work, but the opportunities 

 within that iield are among the most attractive 

 that are open to any educational workers. 



It is, indeed, somewhat surprising to see how 

 easily the academy may become an effective in- 

 strument in the educational work of the city. 

 There seem to have been so many gaps, so many 

 places where we may fit in, and the regret is that 

 we have not better facilities at the building and 

 a larger force who may put their personal efforts 

 into the promotion of science work among the 

 young people and teachers of the city. 



The institution has outgrown its present quar- 

 ters and the demands upon it and the opportuni- 

 ties open to it indicate that the additional build- 

 ing which was originally planned for the insti- 

 tution should now be erected. We need a new 

 building with an auditorium which has a seating 

 capacity of five to eight hundred for various 

 meetings and lectures. Class rooms, laboratories 

 and children's work rooms in which courses of 

 instruction may be conducted, should be provided 



and a children's museum should be placed in this 

 additional space. 



Wallace W. Atwood, 



Secretary 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETT OF WASHINGTON 



The 68Sth meeting of the society was held on 

 January 28, 1911, President Day in the chair. 

 Three papers were read: 

 Integers Useful in Computing Square Roots of 



Numbers: Dr. R. S. Woodwaed, of Carnegie 



Institution of Washington. 



This paper is a continuation and extension in 

 application of the paper on " A Method of Pre- 

 cision for Computing Square Roots of Numbers," 

 presented by the speaker at the 680th meeting of 

 the society. This paper will later appear in full 

 in the publications of the American Mathematical 

 Society. 



A Method for Grading the Results of Tests in 

 Judging: Dr. Lyman J. Bbiqgs, of the Depart- 

 ment of Agriculture. 



This paper describes a rational method of 

 grading student tests in judging such as are now 

 extensively held in agricultural schools. These 

 tests consist in determining how nearly five or 

 more objects can be arranged in the correct order 

 of excellence. Since adjacent objects, when the 

 series is correctly arranged, differ in excellence 

 in vaiying degree, it becomes necessary to take 

 cognizance of this in grading the arrangements 

 made by different students. Furthermore, since 

 there are seven hundred and twenty possible ar- 

 rangements of six objects, the grading of the 

 different arrangements becomes hopelessly compli- 

 cated unless some rational system is adopted. 



The system proposed is based upon the three 

 following principles: 



1. Any arrangement of objects departing from 

 the correct order is brought about through the 

 exchange of adjacent objects. 



2. The error due to transposing two adjacent 

 objects from their correct order is directly pro- 

 portional to the difference in excellence of the two 

 objects transposed. 



3. An erroneous arrangement is penalized in 

 the exact proportion that the error bears to the 

 greatest error that can be made in the series 

 under consideration. 



In employing this system of grading the in- 

 structor first decides upon the relative differ- 

 ence in excellence between adjacent objects in the 



