September 16, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



363 



(18) Dr. G. a. Miller : ' On tlie simple isomor- 

 pliisms of a Hamiltonian group to itself.' 



(19) De. L. E. Dicksox : 'A new tripl,v-in- 

 finite sj'stem of simple groups obtained by a two- 

 fold generalization of Jordan's first bypoabelian 

 group. ' 



(20) Dr. L. E. Dickson : ' Construction of a 

 linear homogeneous group in m variables.' 



(21) Mr. Jacob Westlund : 'On a class of 

 equations of transformation. ' 



(22) Prof. F. Morley : 'A generalization of 

 Desargues' theorem.' 



(23) Dr. E. L. Stabler : 'A rule for finding the 

 day of the week corresponding to a given date.' 



(24) Dr. Artejias Martin: 'Evolution by 

 logarithms.' 



(25) Dr. Artemas Martin: 'A method of 

 finding without tables the number fcorresponding to a 

 given logarithm — II. ' 



F. K Cole, 

 Secretary. 



BOSTON BIEETING OF THE NATIONAL OEO- 

 GBAPBIC SOCIETY. 



A SPECIAL meeting of the National Geo- 

 graphic Society was held, in connection 

 with Section E of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, in the 

 lectui-e hall of the Boston Society of Nat- 

 ural History, August 25th, 2 to 4:30 p. m., 

 Vice-President W J McGee presiding in 

 the absence of President Bell ; in addition 

 to the members of the Section, a number of 

 the working members of the Society, in- 

 cluding a quorum of the Board of Managers, 

 were in attendance. 



The first communication was by Marcus 

 Baker, of the U. S. Geological Survey, on 

 ' The Venezuela- British Guiana Bound- 

 ary Dispute.' Mr. Baker was the geo- 

 grapher of the Boundary Commission ap- 

 pointed by President Cleveland near the 

 end of 1896, consisting of Justice David J. 

 Brewer, Dr. Andrew D. White, Professor 

 Daniel C. Gilman, Justice Richard H. Al- 

 vey and F. R. Coudert, Esquire, with S. 

 Mallet- Prevost as Secretary. This Commis- 

 sion, made up of eminent American citi- 

 zens, undertook a critical examination of 



the boundary dispute in that broad and 

 liberal spirit characteristic of American 

 statecraft and diplomacj'. Their inquiries 

 were so shaped as to cover the entire his- 

 tory of settlement and occupation of the 

 territory involved ; months were spent in 

 searching the archives of both America and 

 Europe for maps and records ; and consid- 

 erable progress was made in the arrange- 

 ment of this material before the duties of 

 the Commission were brought to an end 

 through an international agreement. While 

 peace-loving citizens and subjects alike re- 

 joiced when the Commission found its oc- 

 cupation gone, those who knew of its work 

 and plans suffered a certain disappoint- 

 ment ; for the Commission was the ablest 

 and most disinterested ever created to con- 

 sider international complications, and the 

 report, if carried out in accordance with 

 the original plan, would undoubtedly have 

 afforded a model for all nations. It was in 

 line with the policy of rendering every line 

 of inquiry exhaustive that the Commission 

 employed a geographer, recommended by 

 the President of the National Geographic 

 Society and the heads of the scientific in- 

 stitutions engaged in geographic work for 

 the federal government. The report of 

 the Commission was far from complete, by 

 reason of the cessation of the work when 

 only well begun, but comprises three octave 

 volumes with a folio atlas, published within 

 a few months. Mr. Baker summarized the 

 geographic material contained in this re- 

 port, and described the geographic con- 

 ditions of the disputed territory. His 

 remarks were illustrated by maps compiled 

 from all available sources. 



Mr. F. P. Gulliver, of Harvard Univer- 

 sity, discussed a ' Classification of Coastal 

 Forms,' giving on the blackboard full illus- 

 trations of types. The classification pro- 

 posed is genetic ; and the great facility of 

 classifying islands, bars, promontories, 

 sea-cliffs, beaches and other coastal fea- 



