January 2, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



26 



to test the power of sunlight in promoting 

 sporulation of malarial parasites in the blood. 

 Dr. Peter Fireman then spoke on the ' De- 

 duction of the Magnitude of Osmotic Pres- 

 sure according to the Kinetic Theory.' He 

 held, first, that the mean kinetic energy of 

 the molecules of a dissolved substance is the 

 same as that of a gas at the same tempera- 

 ture; and, second, that the number of impacts 

 of the molecules of a dissolved substance per 

 unit of time on unit area of any imaginary 

 plane in the solution is the same as if the 

 dissolved substance were in the gaseous state 

 and confined in the same volume at the same 

 temperature. Therefore, the laws governing 

 osmotic pressure in solutions are identical 

 with the laws of perfect gases, and foUow 

 directly from the kinetic theory. 



The 559th meeting was held December 6, 

 1902. 



Announcement was made of the death of 

 Mr. Henry Mitchell, a distinguished engineer, 

 and of Mr. J. W. Osborne, a distinguished in- 

 ventor in the art of photolithography, both 

 members of the society. 



Professor Newcomb gave a brief account of 

 his visit to Christiania during the past sum- 

 mer to attend the convention of mathema- 

 ticians held in commemoration of the one- 

 hundredth anniversary of Abel's birth. 



The first regular paper was by Dr. C. D. 

 Walcott on * The Development of the Car- 

 negie Institution.' He pointed out how its 

 location in Washington is a case of natural 

 development, tracing the growth of scientific 

 organization in the city from the early days 

 when this society stood alone, through the 

 times when societies were multiplied, then 

 through the unifying period of the Joint 

 Committee and the Academy of Sciences, out 

 of which came the Washington Memorial 

 Association; by this last-named body plans 

 for research were formulated clearly enough 

 to attract Mr. Carnegie's attention. His 

 $10,000,000 endowment of the new institu- 

 tion is familiar to all. The trustees of this 

 body appointed 16 advisory committees, in- 

 cluding 46 members; their reports on projects 

 submitted to them, filling over 200 printed 



pages, were presented confidentially to the 

 trustees at their recent meeting, together with 

 other reports; portions of these will be made 

 public early next year. Statements were made 

 regarding the principles adopted for making 

 grants, both of exclusion and of inclusion; 

 special emphasis is laid on the selection of 

 the man who is to be responsible for any 

 specific research, since vague or general ap- 

 propriations are not favored. 



Dr. H. W. Wiley, of the Department of 

 Agriculture, in view of the popular interest 

 in his diet investigations, discussed ' How to 

 Test the Harmfulness of Food Preservatives,' 

 if they are harmful, as alleged. He called 

 attention to the enormous industrial impor- 

 tance of the subject, the difiiculty of obtain- 

 ing reliable data, and the danger of complica- 

 tions with foreign countries over our food 

 exports. The older methods of preservation 

 were: Desiccation, resulting in a tasteless 

 product; sterilization by heat, often imper- 

 fect, and cold storage. The cold storage 

 plants of the country are worth $100,000,000 

 and contain constantly food supplies of an 

 equal value. Cheapest of all methods is the 

 use of chemicals. The effect of these may 

 be- tested, chemically by artificial digestion, 

 by experiments on the lower animals, or by 

 experiments on man. Under an appropria- 

 tion from Congress the speaker is beginning 

 experiments on twelve volunteers, whose food 

 supply and excreta will be fully analyzed to 

 determine the effect, if any, of the usual pre- 

 servatives. Various details of the direct and 

 the control experiments were given. 



Charles K. Wead, 

 Secretary. 



geological society op WASHINGTON. 



The 134th meeting was held December 10, 

 1902. The following papers were presented: 



' A Carboniferous Section in the Upper 

 Copper River Valley, Alaska,' by W. C. Men- 

 denhall. 



Mr. Mendenhall presented some of the de- 

 tails of a section of 7,000 or 8,000 feet of 

 Upper Carboniferous strata, measured during 

 the past summer among the foothills of the 

 Alaskan Eange, in the northern part of the 



