188 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 422. 



President — Henry W. Eliot. 



First Vice-President — D. S. H. Smith. 



Second Vice-President — Wm. K. Bixby. 



Recording Secretary — Wm. Trelease. 



Corresponding Secretary — Ernest P. Olshauaen. 



Treasurer — Enno Sander. 



Librarian — G-. Hambaeh. 



Curators — G. Hambaeh, Julius Hurter, A. H. 

 Timmerman. 



Directors — F. E. Nipher, Adolf Alt. 



Mr. Julius Hurter presented a paper en- 

 titled 'A Contribution to tbe Herpetology of 

 Missouri,' illustrated by specimens of nine- 

 teen reptiles not included in his former paper 

 on tbe same subject, and bringing the total 

 thus far recorded for the state up to ninety- 

 three. 



Dr. Hermann von Schrenk presented some 

 notes on the bitter-rot disease of apples, re- 

 ferring particularly to recent investigations 

 and cultural experiments. He exhibited 

 specimens of the cankers formed on apple 

 limbs by the bitter-rot fungus (Glmosporium 

 fructigenum Berk.) in various orchards, and 

 of the artificial cankers produced in apple 

 trees at the Missouri Botanical Garden by 

 inoculating branches with spores from apples 

 affected with the bitter-rot disease, and spores 

 from pure cultures of the fungus from cank- 

 ers occurring naturally in the orchard. Cul- 

 tures showing the perfect or ascus stage of 

 the fungus were exhibited, and attention was 

 called to the fact that up to date the perfect 

 form had been found only in cultures and on 

 several apples kept in the laboratory. He 

 announced the discovery two weeks ago, by 

 Mr. Perley Spaulding, of the perithecia and 

 perfectly formed asci and ascospores of the 

 bitter-rot fungus in several of the cankers 

 produced on apple limbs from pure cultures 

 of the bitter-rot fungus, as well as from bitter- 

 rot spores taken from cankers obtained in an 

 affected orchard. This discovery is consid- 

 ered extremely important, as it demonstrates 

 for the first time, beyond question, that the 

 bitter-rot fungus actually produces its perfect 

 fruit in the cankers, and thereby strengthens 

 the contention that the cankers on apple 

 limbs are actually formed by the bitter-rot 

 fungus. The asci are apparently as evanes- 

 cent in the cankers as they are in the cul- 



tures, and it is, therefore, not at all improb- 

 able that many of the supposed pycnidial 

 spores found in both the natural and artifi- 

 cially produced cankers were really asco- 

 spores. Drawings were exhibited showing 

 the perithecia found in the cankers with asci 

 and ascospores. 



Two persons were elected to active mem- 

 bership. William Trelease, 



Recording Secretary. 



TORONTO ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY. 



DuRiNO the November and December ses- 

 sions of this society, W. F. King, Government 

 Astronomer at Ottawa, contributed a paper 

 dealing with the general outlook of 'Astron- 

 omy in Canada.' A detailed description was 

 given of the new government observatory at 

 Ottawa, which was now nearing completion, 

 and its equipment. The instruments being 

 set up were said to be of superior excellence, 

 the optical parts of the large telescope and 

 most of the other instruments being the work 

 of John A. Brashear, of Allegheny, Pa. Mr. 

 King was quite sanguine of the future of the 

 institution under his control. 



C. A. Chant, M.A., Ph.D., first vice-presi- 

 dent, contributed a paper dealing with ' New 

 Developments in Wireless Telegraphy,' with 

 special reference to the labors of Marconi. 

 Upwards of fifty lantern slides were shovni, 

 illustrating the development of method and 

 apparatus used from Hertz to Braun of Strass- 

 burg. Professor Slaby of Berlin and Professor 

 Fessenden, late of the U. S. Weather Bureau, 

 up to November, 1902. Reference was made 

 to the desirability of knowing the precise 

 nature of the office rendered by the ether in 

 originating and transmitting these electric 

 waves or shocks, and also the nature of the 

 oscillations about the aerial wire, and its earth 

 connection, in order to give a solid scientific 

 basis for further practical developments of the 

 system. Dr. Chant has been doing some orig- 

 inal work of value along these lines. The 

 result of some of this work will be found 

 elaborated in the forthcoming number of the 

 American Journal of Science. 



Under the heading ' Vagaries of the Mar- 

 iner's Compass ' Arthur Harvey, F.E.S.C, 



