SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 309 



Chapter, for the study of botany, and the Isaac Lea Memorial Chap- 

 ter, for the study of shells. 



It is worthy of mention that from the beginning the girls and 

 women have kept equal step with the boys and men, not only in 

 patient and thorough work in field and laboratory, but also in 

 the work of organization and direction. Many ladies are efficient 

 secretaries, curators, or presidents of chapters, and one girl has 

 held with honor the office of president of a State assembly. 



We have been asked why we favor the establishment of societies. 

 Why should not the study be carried on by individuals.' All true 

 study, it is claimed by these critics, is prosecuted in solitude and 

 silence. Great books are not written by a society of authors ; poets 

 do not sing in chorus ; artists do not paint in clubs ; and the light 

 of scientific discovery has come to the world in little flashes of illu- 

 mination, which have fallen singly upon the minds of silent and 

 lonely thinkers. 



There is much truth in this argument, and there can be no good 

 work done either in or out of any society unless each separate 

 worker acts and thinks for and by himself. Yet there are impor- 

 tant advantages which are secured by united effort. Every one 

 who finds any thing that interests him, wants some one to whom 

 he can show it. A pleasure shared is a pleasure doubled. Thus, 

 at the meetings of our clubs, each member has a friendly audience 

 to listen to the results of his private study. Then, too, when 

 several friends join in a society, they are often able to buy more 

 expensive books and instruments than any could afford alone. A 

 library may be had, a microscope bought, a lecturer secured, a 

 room rented, a building erected. Think, too, of the pleasure of 

 these social gatherings, often enlivened by music and song ; think 

 of the pleasant excursions, picnics, or field-meetings, and the oc- 

 casional evening receptions. 



Besides, when we bring several of these local clubs into fellow- 

 ship with one another through correspondence, exchanges, or a 

 convention now and then, the pleasures and benefits are greatly 

 increased, and many things are done which no single chapter 

 could do. Storms can be traced and their courses represented on 

 maps ; erratic bowlders can be tracked to their ancient homes ; 

 the routes of travel of birds and insects can oe followed for hun- 

 dreds of miles, and facts of interest gathered in every department of 

 science. 



One of the most important features of the last year's work has 

 been in this direction. Simple blanks have been sent to different 

 chapters, with the request that they be filled out with records of 

 local observation in particular branches. One boy has prepared 

 a set of blanks on which different observers are writing accounts of 

 all the dragon-flies they may see, telling the place where each 

 specimen was found, its name, description, habits, etc.; and other 

 members have prepared similar blanks for records of observations 

 on birds and minerals. In this way distant parts of the country 

 are brought into friendly acquaintance ; and boys of Maine and 

 boys of Florida, girls of California and girls of Massachusetts, be- 

 come interested in learning one another's thoughts, and in giving 

 one another information and assistance. 



Perhaps a more definite idea of what our boys and girls find in 

 their rambles may be gained from a list of a few of the topics upon 

 which members have made original notes during the year. From 

 hundreds may be named these : ' Two Rare Fossils from Catskill," 

 " Rose-Leaf Galls," " White Blackbirds," " Ivy-Blossoms," " Curi- 

 ous Trees," "Animals that do not Drink," "Do Salmon Eat 

 Birds ? " " Complementary Colors," " An Abnormal Cabbage- 

 Leaf," " A Living Barometer," " Rainbow and Sun-Dogs," 

 " Double Adder's-Tongue," " New Jersev Butterflies," " Eggs of 

 the Crayfish," " Colorado Ants," " Floating Pollen," " A Double 

 Stinger," " Frost Pictures," " An Experience with a Heron," " A 

 White Weasel," " A Strange Mouse," " Girls in a Silver-Mine." 



In closing this brief report, I wish, in behalf of the Agassiz As- 

 sociation, again to invite all who are in any way interested in the 

 study of nature to join us, either by organizing societies in their 

 own towns, or, if that be impossible, by joining as individuals. All 

 are welcome, from the oldest to the youngest. We have a council 

 of fifty scientists always ready to receive from our members ques- 

 tions about whatever may puzzle them, and these gentlemen are 

 eager to give all the help they can. We are just about to begin a 



course of simple observation-lessons in botany, open to all our 

 members. The plan is to send to every one who takes the course 

 a set of perhaps fifty specimens, nicely prepared, with printed in- 

 structions on the proper way of so observing them as to see all that 

 can be seen, and for telling in the proper way all that is seen — and 

 nothing more. To all who would like to consider the question of 

 joining the association, we will send, free, papers giving full direc- 

 tions for organizing a club or a chapter, or for joining alone. We 

 will also send, until the supply is exhausted, an excellent wood- 

 engraving of Agassiz, representing him examining a sea-urchin. 

 This picture is printed on one of the papers of information, but is 

 one of the best likenesses of Professor Agassiz in existence. All who 

 are interested may address The Agassiz Association, 50 South 

 Street, Pittsfield, Mass. Harlan H. Ballard. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



A REGULAR meeting of the American Physiological Association 

 was held in the rooms of Jefferson ?4edical College, Philadelphia, 

 on Dec. 29, and at the University of Pennsylvania on Dec. 31. A 

 number of interesting communications were read. Professor 

 Reichert recounted experiments showing that the anterior columns 

 of the spinal cord possessed no irritability of their own, or that the 

 power of excitability was confined to the posterior sensory columns. 

 He also showed that the rate of transmission of a nervous impulse 

 differed under different conditions. Dr. J. W. Warren described 

 some recent experiments showing that a sensory impulse, such as 

 the explosion of a torpedo, re-enforced the knee-jerk, and drew the 

 curve showing the variation of this re-enforcement with the interval 

 between the sensation and the knee-jerk. Dr. Donaldson showed 

 specimens from which it could be seen that the effect of a long 

 electrical stimulation was to decrease the size of the nuclei of 

 ganglion-cells, and that the amount of this shrinkage was roughly 

 proportional to the duration of the stimulation. Professor Martin 

 in one paper gave the determinations of the minimal and maximal 

 temperatures consistent with life that the blood supplied to an 

 isolated heart could undergo, and in another showed that the varia- 

 tion in the amount of carbonic acid given off by a normal frog and 

 one kept in the dark was due to the optical and not the psychic 

 differences of the two states, because a frog deprived of its cere- 

 bral hemispheres acts in this respect just like a normal frog. All 

 of these papers led to interesting discussions ; and the discussion 

 of Dr. Reichert's paper induced Dr. S. Weir Mitchell to place at 

 the disposal of the society two hundred dollars, to be devoted 

 towards aiding research upon the rate of nervous transmission, 

 especially in man. The society was hospitably entertained, and 

 found much pleasure in visiting the laboratories of the Jeffersori 

 College and the University of Pennsylvania. The members of the 

 society were invited to participate in the International Congress of 

 Physiologists to be held in Basle in 1889. 



— Professor F. Janssen, in a recent number of the " Revue Sci- 

 entifique," describes his interesting and arduous expedition to the 

 Mont Blanc, undertaken in October of this year, in order to study 

 the influence of the atmosphere upon the solar spectrum. It has 

 long been a disputed question whether the oxygen lines are due to 

 the solar or terrestrial atmosphere. This question can be solved 

 only by observations on elevated stations, where the influence of 

 the atmosphere of the earth is very small. In order to make the 

 results still more satisfactory, Mr. Janssen selected the month of 

 October, when the amount of vapor present is small. The ascent 

 was very difficult on account of the lateness of the season, snow 

 having covered the slopes of the mountain and the glaciers. Not- 

 withstanding his advanced years, Mr. Janssen persevered, and, with 

 the aid of a number of experienced guides, reached the Grands- 

 Mulets, where the observations were to be made. He was favored 

 by exceptionally clear weather, and on Oct. 14 observed the solar 

 spectrum. The lines and bands of vapor were absent, and the 

 bands of oxygen decreased rapidly with increasing altitude of 

 the sun. At noon they had entirely disappeared. The lines, on 

 the other hand, were still visible, but had become very faint. From 

 these observations it appears that oxygen does not exist in the at- 

 mosphere of the sun in such form as to produce the lines which it 

 produces in the form in which it occurs in the earth's atmosphere 



