December U, 1!)03.] 



SCIENCE. 



753 



Slingerlaiul; Secretary, Professor A. F. Brtrgess, 

 Ohio State University, Cohirabus, Ohio. 



The Entomological Club of the Association. 

 At convenient times. President, E. A. Schwarz; 

 Secretary. C. L. ^klarlatt, Department of Agri- 

 culture. Washington, D. C. 



The American Microscopical Society. December 

 28, probably. President, T. J. Burrill; Secretary, 

 H. B. Ward, Lincoln, Nebraska. 



Association of Plant and Animal Breeders. 

 First general meeting. December 29, 30. Chair- 

 man of Committee, W. U. Hayes, University 

 Farm, St. Anthony Park, Minn. 



The American Anthropological Association. 

 December 28, 1903, January 1, 2, 1904. Presi- 

 dent, Dr. W J McGee; Secretary, George H. Pep- 

 per, American Museum of Natural History, Cen- 

 tral Park, New York City. 



The American Psi/chological Association. De- 

 cember 29, 30. President, Dr. W. L. Bryan ; Secre- 

 tary, Professor Livingston Farrand, Columbia 

 University, New York City. 



The Sigma A'i Honorary Scientific Society. 

 During convocation week. President S. W. 

 Williston ; Secretary, Professor E. S. Crawley, 

 University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa. 



The }«ational Educational Association, Depart- 

 ment Presidents. About January 1, 1903. Presi- 

 dent, John W. Cook; Secretary, Irwin Shepard, 

 Winona, Minn. 



There will meet at Philadelphia: 



The Association of American Anatomists. De- 

 cember 29, 30, 31. President, Professor G. S. 

 Huntington; Secretary, Professor G. Carl Huber, 

 University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 



The Society for Plant Morphology and Physiol- 

 ogy. December 29, 30, 31. President, Professor 

 Roland Thaxter; Secretary, Professor W. F. 

 Ganong. Smith College, Northampton, Mass. 



The Society of .-Imcrican Bacteriologists. De- 

 cember 29, 30. President, Professor H. W. Conn; 

 Secretarj', Profe-ssor E. 0. Jordan, University of 

 Chicago, Chicago, HI. 



The American Physiological Society. December 

 29, 30. President, Professor R. H. Chittenden; 

 Secretary, Professor F. S. Lee, Columbia Uni- 

 versity, New York City. 



There will meet at Princeton: 



The American Philosophical Society. December 

 29 and 30. President, Professor Josiah Royce; 

 Secretary, Professor H. N. Gardiner, Smith Col- 

 lege, N.orthampton, Mass. 



There will meet in New York: 



The American Mathematical Society. Columbia 

 University. December 28 and 29. President, 

 Professor Thomas S. Fiske; Secretary, Professor 

 F. N. Cole, Columbia University, New York City. 



THE .\C.\DEIlIY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 



At the meeting of November 16, 1903, 

 twenty-three persons present, Professor A. 

 W. Greeley, of Washington University, pre- 

 sented a report ou experiments on the nature 

 of the contraction of muscle. These experi- 

 ments were imdertaken with the view of work- 

 ing out more fully the mechanism involved in 

 the galvanotropic and cheniotropic reactions of 

 Paramacia in acid and alkaline media, as de- 

 scribed in Professor Greeley's report before the 

 academy last spring. In the experiments on 

 the contraction of muscle, it was found that 

 when the medusa, Gonionetnus, was exposed 

 to the constant current, rhythmical con- 

 tractions began always on the cathodal side 

 when the medusa was immersed in normal 

 sea water, but that the contractions began on 

 the anodal side in acidulated sea water. Like- 

 wise, it was shown that acids induce a phase 

 of contraction, and alkalis a phase of relaxa- 

 tion. It was suggested that these results may 

 throw some light on the supposed electrical 

 nature of muscle contraction, and that they 

 offer additional evidence toward the con- 

 clusion that the charge carried by the proto- 

 plasmic particles depends on certain definite 

 chemical conditions of the surrounding 

 medium. 



William Trelease, 

 Recording Secretary. 



AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. . 



NEW YORK SECTIO.V. 



At the second meeting of the season held 

 November 6, at the Chemists' Club, the fol- 

 lowing papers were presented : 

 Nitro-sulphnric Acid and Its Action on Or- 

 ganic Compounds, Part I.: C. W. Volney. 

 Dr. Volney presented the results of both 

 special experiment and long observation on the 

 behavior of nitro-sulphuric acid in the produc- 

 tion of nitro compounds and organic nitrates. 



