426 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XVII. No. 428. 



tions of the absolute acceleration in relative 

 motion,' by G. O. James ; * Infinitesimal de- 

 formation of the skew helicoid,' by L. P. 

 Eisenhart ; ' On integrability by quadratures,' 

 by Saul Epsteen ; ' The centenary of the birth 

 of Abel,' by E. B. Wilson; ' The English and 

 French translation of Hilbert's Grundlagen 

 der Geometrie,' by E. E. Hedrick; 'Dickson's 

 linear groups,' by G. A. Miller ; ' Bucking- 

 ham's Thermodynamics,' by E. H. Hall; 

 ' Notes ' ; ' New publications.' The January 

 Bulletin contains : ' The October meeting of 

 the American Mathematical Society,' by E. N. 

 Cole ; ' Series whose product is absolutely con- 

 vergent,' by Florian Cajori; 'Three sets of 

 generational relations defining the abstract 

 group of order 504,' by L. E. Dickson ; ' Gen- 

 erational relations defining the abstract simple 

 group of order 660,' by L. E. Dickson ; ' The 

 Carlsbad meeting of the Deutsche Mathe- 

 matiker-Vereinigung, September, 1902,' by C. 

 M. Mason ; ' Shorter notices ' ; ' Notes ' ; ' New 

 publications.' The February Bulletin con- 

 tains : ' On the transformation of the boundary 

 in the case of conformal mapping,' by W. F. 

 Osgood ; ' On the quintic scroll having three 

 double conies,' by Virgil Snyder ; ' Surfaces 

 referred to their lines of length zero,' by L. 

 P. Eisenhart ; ' Supplementary note on the 

 calculus of variations,' by E. E. Hedrick; 

 ' The synthetic treatment of conies at the 

 present time,' by E. B. "Wilson ; ' Brown's 

 lunar theory,' by F. E. Moiilton; 'The doe- 

 trine of infinity,' by E. E. Hedrick ; ' Some 

 recent German text-books in geometry,' by 

 P. F. Smith; 'Notes'; 'New publications.' 



Bird Lore for January-February has an 

 illustrated paper on ' The Mound-building 

 Birds of Australia,' by A. J. Campbell; an 

 article on ' Making Bird Friends,' by Laurence 

 J. Webster, and one on ' The Eeturn of the 

 Nuthatch,' by E. M. Mead; the 'Christmas , 

 Bird Census,' taken in various parts of the 

 United States, and a second series of por- 

 traits of members of Bird Lore's Advisory 

 Council. The article on ' How to Study 

 Birds,' by Frank M. Chapman, treats of ' The 

 Nesting Season,' and Abbott M. Thayer pro- 

 tests against the use of ' Mounted Birds in 



Illustration,' a subject which has another side 

 to it, shown in the editor's reply. 



The American Museum Journal for Febru- 

 ary contains a few announcements of material 

 received in various departments, and illustra- 

 tions of the new ptarmigan groups. The im- 

 portant part of the number is the supplement, 

 by WiUiam Beutenmiller, devoted to ' The 

 Hawk-moths of the Vicinity of New Tork.' 

 Besides a key and descriptions there is an 

 illustration of each species, so that the merest 

 tyro should be able, with the aid of this little 

 hand-book, to identify all. This makes the 

 tenth of the valuable ' Guide Leaflets ' issued 

 by the American Museum. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 



The 367th meeting was held Saturday, Feb- 

 ruary 21. 



D. E. Salmon spoke of ' The Eecent Out- 

 break of the Foot-and-Mouth Disease in New 

 England.' He said that the effects of an out- 

 break of this kind, if not promptly checked, 

 would be so disastrous financially that the 

 Bureau of Animal Industry was always care- 

 ful to ascertain that the malady reported wa3 

 really foot-and-mouth disease; having ascer- 

 tained the facts in the present case, every 

 means was promptly taken to stamp it out. 

 Dr. Salmon described the symptoms of the 

 disease, saying that it was so extremely con- 

 tagious, that it was readily carried from barn 

 to barn by men, dogs and even pigeons, and 

 once introduced into a herd, every member 

 was pretty sure to be afflicted. While the 

 distemper did not, in very many cases, cause 

 death, it was extremely painful to the cattle 

 afflicted, destroyed their value as beef for 

 many months, and dried up the milk at once. 

 Foreign governments prohibited the importa- 

 tion of cattle from afflicted districts, and as 

 the United States exported annually 400,000 

 cattle and 100,000 sheep, the immediate effect 

 of an outbreak in our western cattle regions 

 could readily be seen. Furthermore, if there 

 were no cattle for exportation some steamship 

 lines would be compelled to withdraw their 

 vessels. The only practical way to check the 



