724 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLIII. No. 1116 



Belation ietween Changes in Solar Activity and 

 the Earth's Magnetic Activity, 1902-1914: 

 Louis A. Bauer. 



No criterion of solar activity, wlietlier it be the 

 spottedness of the sun, or the faculae, prominences, 

 or calcium flocculi, has been found to synchronize 

 precisely with any quantity used as an index of the 

 earth's magnetic activity. Thus, for example, the 

 maximum magnetic activity in 1892 preceded the 

 maximum sunspot activity of that period by a 

 year. So again the recent minimum magnetic ac- 

 tivity of the earth seems to have occurred in 1912, 

 whereas the minimum sunspot activity did not 

 take place until 1913, or a year later. Then again 

 the amount of magnetic activity is not necessarily 

 commensurate with that of solar activity, what- 

 ever measure of the latter be used. When the 

 comparisons between the solar data and the mag- 

 netic data are made for intervals of less than a 

 year, a month for example, as was done in my 

 paper before this society in 1909, the lack of exact 

 synchronism and the lack of proportionality be- 

 tween the two sets of changes become especially 

 noticeable. Fortunately, beginning with 1905, we 

 have a new set of figures, the values of the solar 

 constant, determined with high precision at Mount 

 Wilson, California, by Dr. Abbot. Remarkable 

 fluctuations are shown in these values, amounting 

 at times to 10 per cent, of the value. The present 

 paper makes a comparison between the annual 

 changes in the values of the solar constant for the 

 period 1905 to 1914 with the irregularities in the 

 annual changes of the earth's magnetic constant. 

 It is found that the two sets of data, in general, 

 show similar fluctuations. Also, a closer corre- 

 spondence is found between those two sets of 

 changes than between either set and that of sun- 

 spot frequencies. In brief, the solar-constant val- 

 ues furnish another index of changes in solar ac- 

 tivity which may be usefully studied in connection 

 with minor fluctuations in the earth's magnetism. 

 In conclusion, it was pointed out why none of the 

 mentioned criteria of solar activity can be used as 

 an adequate measure of the various ionizing agen- 

 cies ultimately responsible, according to present 

 belief, for the magnetic changes recorded on the 

 earth. 



FRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 14 



Reception from 8 to 11 o'clock at the hall of the 

 Historical Society of Pennsylvania, S.W. corner 

 of Locust and Thirteenth Streets, at 8:15 o'clock. 

 Lelaad 0. Howard gave an illustrated lecture "On 

 Some Disease-bearing Insects." 



SATURDAY, APRIL 15 



Executive Session — 9:30 o'clock 

 Stated Business. — Candidates for membership 

 balloted for. As a result of the election the fol- 

 lowing were elected as members of the society: 

 Residents in the United States 

 William Wallace Atterbury, A.M., Radnor, Pa.; 

 Maxirne BScher, A.B., Ph.D., Cambridge, Mass.; 

 Percy William Bridgman, Ph.D., Cambridge, 

 Mass.; James Mason Crafts, S.B., LL.D., Boston, 

 Mass.; Henry Piatt Gushing, Cleveland, Ohio; Ed- 

 ward Murray East, M.S., Ph.D., Boston, Mass.; 

 Frank Rattray Lillie, Ph.D., Chicago, HI.; Wil- 

 liam E. Lingelbach, A.B., Ph.D., Philadelphia; 

 Daniel Trembly MacDougal, A.M., Ph.D., Tucson, 

 Ariz.; Charles Frederick Marvin, M.E., Washing- 

 ton, D. C. ; Lafayette Benedict Mendel, A.B., Ph.D., 

 Sc.D., New Haven, Conn.; Forest Ray Moulton, 

 Ph.D., Chicago, 111.; Eli Kirk Price, A.B., LL.B., 

 Philadelphia; Erwin Frink Smith, Sc.D., Wash- 

 ington, D. C; William Morton Wheeler, Ph.D., 

 Boston, Mass. 



Foreign Residents 

 Frank Dawson Adams, D.Sc, Ph.D., F..B.S., 

 Montreal; Wilhelm L. Johannsen, M.D., Ph.D., 

 Copenhagen; Joannes Diderik van der Waals, 

 Ph.D., Amsterdam. 



Morning Session — 10 o 'clock 

 Edward C. Pickering, D.Sc, LL.D., F.R.S., Vice- 

 president, in the Chair 

 Age Cycles and Other Periodicities in Orgamisms : 



C. M. Child. (Introduced by Professor C. E. 



McClung.) 



Experiments with various forms among the 

 lower invertebrates show that senescence occurs in 

 those forms as in the higher animals, but that 

 rejuvenescence also ocurs in asexual reproduction, 

 in the reconstitution of pieces experimentally iso- 

 lated and also during starvation. These organisms 

 may pass through alternating periods of senescence 

 and rejuvenescence without death and often with- 

 out reproduction. The experimental evidence indi- 

 cates that senescence consists physiologically in a 

 decrease in the general metabolic rate, conditioned 

 by the modifications of the colloid substratum and 

 the progressive accumulation of relatively stable 

 structural substances during growth and differen- 

 tiation. Rejuvenescence is physiologically an in- 

 crease in general metabolic rate conditioned by 

 the chemical breakdown and removal of such modi- 

 fications under certain physiological conditions. 

 The sex cells are physiologically old, highly differ- 

 entiated cells and the early stages of embryonic de- 



