Apeil 24, 19(13.] 



SCIENCE. 



669 



The conclusion drawn by the author was 

 on the whole favorable to the new scheme and 

 the thought was expressed that the new classi- 

 fication more or less modified would bear the 

 same relation to the present nomenclature as 

 the scientific system in botany does to the 

 popular plant names. 



W. C. Mendenhall, 



PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 563d regular meeting was held Feb- 

 ruary 14, 1903. 



Rev. J. G. Hagen, S.J., of Georgetown Uni- 

 versity, spoke of 'A Peculiar Type of Tem- 

 porary Stars,' the variation of which is so 

 short in duration that it can not be confirmed 

 by an independent second observer. The 

 speaker enumerated and explained five in- 

 stances of this character, and showed that the 

 authorities in each case were of such weight 

 that the existence of this type can no longer 

 be doubted. The five instances contained two 

 that had been known for many years, but had 

 been accepted with great reserve. Another 

 was published a few months ago; one was 

 taken from unpublished manuscripts of the 

 late E. Heis, and the last was an observation 

 of Christoph Scheiner, S.J., in 1612, which 

 has never been fully studied or understood. 

 The latter especially deserved to be entered in 

 the catalogues of variables stars as well as 

 any other temporary star. 



The next paper, by Mr. G. W: Waidner, of 

 the Bureau of Standards, was ' A Discussion 

 of the Practical Methods of Measuring Tem- 

 perature and the Accuracy attainable by 

 these Methods.' The paper contained a 

 brief outline of the present state of mercurial 

 thei-mometry in the range — 35° 0. to + 550° 

 C., and of the development of suitable kinds 

 of glass for thermometric purposes; some ap- 

 plications of platinum thermometers, thermo- 

 electric and specific heat pyrometers, to the 

 measurement of temperatures, the accuracy 

 and limitations of each of these methods; the 

 estimation of temperatures beyond the range 

 of these methods, e. g., that of the electric arc. 



the Nernst filaments, etc., by extrapolation of 

 Stefans's and Wiens's radiation laws. 



Charles K. Wead, 



Secretary. 



AMERICAN chemical SOCIETY. NORTHEASTERN 

 SECTION. 



The forty-third regular meeting of the sec- 

 tion was held at the ' Tech. Union,' Massachu- 

 setts Institute of Technology, Boston, Tues- 

 day, March 31, 8 p.m.. President A. H. Gill 

 in the chair. About 45 members were present. 



Professor Charles F. Mabery, of the Case 

 School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio, 

 presented a paper, entitled ' A Resume of the 

 Composition of Petroleum,' in which, after 

 a historical introduction of the subject, the 

 lecturer stated that the subject had occupied 

 his attention during the last twenty years, 

 during the last ten of which, with the aid of 

 grants by the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences from the C. M. Warren Fund, and 

 the facilities of the chemical laboratories of 

 the Case School, he had been able to employ ' 

 a corps of assistants that has made possible 

 the vast amount of labor necessary in distill- 

 ing, analyzing and otherwise identifying the 

 constituents, distilling below 350 degrees to 

 450 degrees in petroleum from the field in 

 Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Texas, Cali- 

 fornia, Japan and South America. As a 

 result of this work, it appears that the por- 

 tions of petroleum distilling below the limits 

 mentioned are composed of the series 



CnH2o-|.2, C„H2„, C„H2n— 2, C^H-in—i- 



The sandstone oils, such as the Pennsylvania 

 deposits, contain the continuous series 



C„H2„+2, up to C28H53, 

 and doubtless higher, but this is the limit of 

 possible molecular weight determinations at 

 present. Ohio Trenton limestone oil con- 

 tains members of this series up to and inclu- 

 ding C„H,„ and also the so-called solid paraf- 

 fine hydrocarbons; but the series 



CnHa^, CnH2n— 2) ^u^'la—i 



form the greater portion of the Ohio oil. 

 Associated with the solid paraffine hydrocar- 

 bons are liquid bodies of the series C^^Hzn and 

 Co H2„_2 in smaller proportions. 



