November 18, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



717 



The frontispiece oi Appleton's Popular Science 

 Monthly for November is a portrait of Professor 

 F. W. Clarice, Chief Chemist to the United States 

 Geological Survey, and the number contains an 

 account of Professor Clarke's contributions to the 

 advancement of science. In the first article in 

 the number Professor E. S. Morse asks whether 

 middle America was peopled from Asia and 

 answers in the negative. Mr. C. R. Dodge 

 contributes an elaborately illustrated article on 

 the possible fiber industries in the United 

 States, and there are, as usual, a number of in- 

 teresting articles relating to different depart- 

 ments of natural and social science. 



Natural Science announces that it will be 

 transferred to a new editor, who will continue 

 the journal on the same plan as heretofore. 

 Further particulars are deferred until Decem- 

 ber. 



The jury on ' Imprimerie et Industries de 

 Livre ' of the Brussels International Exposition 

 has awarded the Scientific American a diploma 

 of merit and a silver medal. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADE3IIES. 

 AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 



A REGULAR meeting of the American Mathe- 

 matical Society was held at Columbia Univer- 

 sity, New York City, on Saturday, October 

 29th. Thirty-six persons were in attendance, 

 including twenty-nine members of the Society. 

 The meeting extended through two sessions, 

 beginning at 10:30 a. m. and 2:30 p. m. The 

 President, Professor Simon Newcomb, occu- 

 pied the Chair. The Council announced the 

 election of the following persons to membership 

 in the Society: Mr. E. B. Escott, Grand Rapids, 

 Mich.; Dr. L. B. Mullen, Cleveland, O.; Pro- 

 fessor J. M. Peirce, Cambridge, Mass. ; Profes- 

 sor Alexander Pell, Vermilion, S. D. ; Professor 

 Arthur Ranum, Seattle, Wash.; Mr. A. N. 

 Whitehead, Cambridge, Eng.; Mr. W. C. 

 Wright, Boston, Mass. Five applications for 

 membership were received. The total number 

 of members of the Society is now 315. At the 

 meeting of the Council nominations of oflBcers 

 for the coming year were made, and a report 

 was received from the committee appointed at 

 the preceding meeting to consider the question 



of improved facilities for the publication of the 

 result of original research in mathematics in 

 this country. 



The following papers were read at the meet- 

 ing: 



1. Professor F. Morley : 'A regular config- 

 uration of ten line-pairs in hyperbolic space.' 



2. Professor R. S. Woodward : ' The mutual 

 gravitational attraction of two bodies whose 

 mass distributions are symmetrical with respect 

 to the same axis.' 



3. Professor E. D. Roe : ' On symmetric 

 functions.' 



4. Professor A. S. Chessin : ' Note on the 

 problem of three bodies.' 



5. Professor Maxime BoChee : ' On singular 

 points of linear differential equations with real 

 coeflBcients.' 



6. Professor E. O. Lovett : ' Contact trans- 

 formations of developable surfaces.' 



7. Dr. L. E. Dickson : ' The largest linear 

 homogeneous group with an invariant Pfaffian.' 



F. N. Cole. 



biological SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. — 296TH 

 MEETING, SATUEDAY, NOVEMBEE 5. 



Me. F. V. Coville exhibited a specimen of 

 lava from Mt. St. Helens, bearing the impres- 

 sion of the bark of a pine, saying that he had 

 been told of the existence of stumps and logs 

 buried in the lava on that mountain. 



Mr. Albert F. Woods showed some leaves 

 ' skeletonized ' by the small fresh-water crus- 

 tacean Cypridopsis. 



Mr. H. J. Webber noted the occurrence of 

 several sports of a species of Clarkia which had 

 borne ripe seeds, a thing rather unusual among 

 sports. 



Mr. D. G. Fairchild spoke of ' the Dutch 

 Botanical Gardens at Buitenzorg, Java,' il- 

 lustrating his remarks by photographs. He 

 said that the gardens practically were a biolog- 

 ical station, and that in the future they would 

 undoubtedly be much resorted to by students 

 of all nations. In addition to the gardens at 

 Buitenzorg, which comprised 127 acres, about 

 800 feet above sea level, there was another 

 ' mountain garden ' at Tjibodas, some five hours 

 distant, containing a large tract of forest, 

 ranging from 4,500 to 8,000 feet above sea level. 



