324 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVIII. Xo. 454. 



in his presidential address, to give a brief 

 account of twenty-five years' work in 

 spectroscopj^ applied to the inA'estigation 

 of the composition and constitution of ter- 

 restrial matter, both organic and inorganic. 

 He will review the present position of 

 spectroscopical investigation, chiefly in re- 

 lation to the theory of chemistry, indicat- 

 ing where it may be usefully and profitably 

 extended. The trend of such work at the 

 present time is towards results of a very 

 interesting character. As regards the gen- 

 eral work of the section, the number of 

 papers sent in is considerable, and they 

 deal -with a great variety of subjects. A 

 paper on 'Dynamic Isomerism,' by Dr. T. 

 M. Lowry, will be one of the reports which 

 have during recent years been a feature of 

 the proceedings of the section. It will 

 consist of a resume of the whole subject of 

 the dynamic isomerism or tautomerism, 

 which has lately attracted much attention, 

 an-d a fruitful disciission should follow. 

 Dr. A. W. Crossley will contribute a paper 

 on 'Hydro-aromatic Compounds' forming 

 a supplement to the valuable report which 

 he presented at the Belfast meeting last 

 year. It will give the results of the re- 

 cent investigations undertaken by Dr. 

 Crossley and others on the turpentines, 

 camphors and other hydro-aromatic sub- 

 stances. A paper by Professor W. J. 

 Pope (recorder) and Mr. J. Hiibner will 

 show that the luster produced on cotton 

 yarn by merurigation— or steeping, whilst 

 under tension, in caustic soda — is due to a 

 simultaneous shrinkage, swelling and un- 

 twisting of the fiber whilst in a gelatinous 

 state. An interesting accompaniment of 

 this paper Avill be a series of photo-micro- 

 graphs taken in natural colors. A discus- 

 sion on the general subject of combustion 

 will be opened by Dr. W. A. Bone with a 

 paper on ' The Combustion of Methane and 

 Ethane,' whilst a somewhat unusual fea- 



ture in the program will be papers in 

 French by Count Arnaud de Gramont, en- 

 titled 'Sur le Spectre du Siliciuui' and 

 'Sur les Precedes de Photographic Spec- 

 tral e Applicable a la Pratique des Labo- 

 ratories de Chimie. ' These ai'e but a 

 few items in the program, other contribu- 

 tions including papers on 'Fluorescence,' 

 as related to the constitution of organic 

 substances, by Dr. J. T. Hewitt; 'Essential 

 Oils, ' by Dr. 0. Silberrad ; ' The Action of 

 Diastase on the Starch Granules of Raw 

 and Malted Barley' and 'The Action of 

 Malt Diastase on Potato Starch,' by Mr. 

 A. R. Ling and Mr. B. F. Davis; a contri- 

 bution to the 'Constitution of the Disac- 

 charides, ' by Professor Purdie and Dr. J. 

 C. Irvine and a 'Method of Separating 

 Cobalt and Nickel and the Volumetric De- 

 termination of Cobalt,' by Mr. R. L. 

 Taylor. Altogether there is every reason 

 to hope that Section B wiU this year have 

 a more prosperous meeting than it had last. 

 The main aim of Professor W. W. Watts, 

 secretary of the Geological Society, in hii 

 presidential address to Section C (geol- 

 ogy), will be to show the importance and 

 uses of geology in practical life. He will 

 advocate its adoption as a subject of ordi- 

 nary education, becai^se, in the first place, 

 its study both exercises the observing fac- 

 ulties and encourages the making of 

 hypotheses for the testing and verifying 

 of which there is ample material. More- 

 over, its pursuit leads to an open-air life 

 in contrast to the confinement in labora- 

 tories and museums imposed on the stu- 

 dents of other branches of science; for the 

 aim of all geological teaching should be the 

 making of the field geologist; even special- 

 ists in paleontology and petrology should 

 be field men as well. Then, again, he will 

 contend that a knowledge of some of the 

 main facts established by geology, such its 

 the extension of time, the antiquitj' of 



* 



