November 27, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



mi 



CLESISOS COLLEGE SCIEXCE CLUB. 



The club held its first regular meeting of 

 the present scholastic year on the evening of 

 September 18. Professor W. M. Riggs pre- 

 sented a communication entitled ' The Fixa- 

 tion of Atmospheric Nitrogen.' Priestley's 

 observation of the effect produced in the at- 

 mosphere by the discharge of an electric spark 

 was mentioned as being the basis of the pres- 

 ent experimental work now being done on this 

 subject. Tlic work now being done at Niagara 

 Falls by llessrs. Bradley and Lovejoy for the 

 purpose of making the process of ' fixation ' 

 a commercial success was described in detail. 

 The machines used in the process were illus- 

 trated by drawings. The great economic 

 results that would flow from a successful com- 

 mercial application of the process were em- 

 phasized. Professor II. Benton discussed 

 ' Soil Inoculation.' The speaker referred to 

 the fact, long since known, that the cultiva- 

 tion of legumes has always been found bene- 

 ficial to the growth of succeeding crops. The 

 reasons for this were explained. In view of 

 the fact that each species of legume has its 

 own species of nitrogen-assimilating bacteria, 

 it is necessary that there be present in the 

 soil the particular species of bacteria adapted 

 to the crop to be grown. The different 

 methods of inoculation were described in de- 

 tail. The speaker closed by giving some 

 figures showing the efficacy of soil inoculation 

 in the ca.«e of some hay crops grown in Ala- 

 bama. 



Professor F. S. Shiver read a paper entitled 

 ' The Centenary of the Metric System.' This 

 paper gave in detail the evolution and de- 

 velopment of the metric system. Some of 

 the earlier attempts at unification of the 

 French mensiires. prior to the advent of the 

 metric system, were referred to. Picard's 

 work was shown to have furnislied the scien- 

 tific principle upon which the metric system 

 rests. The attempts to legalize the new sys- 

 tem in France and elsewhere were recounted. 

 The system was shown to have entered a new 

 phase, that of becoming an international 

 standard, in 1875. The work of the Interna- 

 tional Commission, as well as of the Interna- 



tional Bureau of Weights and Measures, was 

 explained. The methods of preparing the in- 

 ternational copies of the meter and kilogram 

 were noted. In conclusion, the work of 

 Michelson in comparing the basis of the 

 metric system with a natural unit, namely, the 

 length of a wave of the red light of cadmium, 

 was referred to. The work of Guillaume on 

 nickel steels and their application to metrology 

 was also mentioned. F. S. Shiver, 



Secty.-Treas. 

 Clemsox College, S. C, 

 October, 1903. 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCTETY OF AMERICAN 

 UNIVERSITIES. 



About three years ago the members of the 

 Geological Society at Leland Stanford Junior 

 University began considering the possibility 

 of forming a general geological society among 

 the students of the various American univer- 

 sities or schools of mines having efficient de- 

 partments of geology or mining. A thorough 

 canvass of the situation resulted in the con- 

 clusion that such an organization would not 

 only be possible, but most advisable. The 

 Stanford society, acting on this belief, sent 

 letters to the departments of geology or 

 mining at a number of the principal univer- 

 sities, enclosing in each a constitution for a 

 general society which was tentatively offered 

 for their consideration. 



Answers favorable to the formation of the 

 general society were received from a majority 

 of the departments addressed, and at two of 

 the universities, where before there had been 

 no such organizations, the students formed 

 local sections. A rather intermittent corre- 

 spondence between the Stanford society and 

 these two sections and several other local 

 geological clubs followed, but no definite ac- 

 tion looking toward the permanent organiza- 

 tion of a general society took place. 



The matter of such an association now 

 having been more or less favorably discussed 

 at several institutions for the past year or 

 more, the time seems opportune to proceed 

 with a permanent organization. As nearly 

 all the institutions interested now have local 

 clubs or societies, the forming of a gen- 



