May 1, 1903.] 



SCIENCE. 



683 



they had ever attended. All were hearty 

 and unanimous in the desire that the gen- 

 eral meetings of the society should be con- 

 tinued and made an annual event. No fur- 

 ther justification of these meetings is needed 

 than that they have been successful, that 

 they have attracted many members from a 

 distance and that their continuance is de- 

 sired by those who are acquainted with 

 them ; furthermore, it should not be neces- 

 sary to defend our oldest scientific society 

 for carrying out in practical form the broad 

 policy which it has upheld for more than a 

 century and a half. 



Nevertheless, since there has been some 

 misunderstanding as to the purpose of 

 these general meetings, it may not be amiss 

 to point out the fact that in no sense are 

 they intended to antagonize or to supplant 

 the meetings of other societies. On the con- 

 trary, they occur at a time when few other 

 societies are meeting and they attract 

 papers of a general rather than of a special- 

 ized character. The broad and compre- 

 hensive scope of the society, which includes 

 the whole range of useful knowledge, so far 

 from being a hindrance to the success of the 

 meetings, has been a particular attraction 

 and source of strength. The opportunity 

 of hearing and becoming acquainted with 

 men eminent in the most diverse fields of 

 thought is likely to promote catholicity of 

 spirit even if it does not greatly advance 

 individual specialties, and, after all, the 

 present world stands quite as much in need 

 of the former as it does of the latter. 

 Amidst all the special societies which exist 

 in this country there is surely room for one 

 which shall welcome learned men from all 

 fields whatsoever, and it is fitting that this 

 common meeting ground should be the old- 

 est learned society in America, founded by 

 the many-sided Franklin, and devoted to 

 the promotion of useful knowledge, 'nullo 

 discrimine. ' 



The program of the meeting with ab- 

 stracts of some of the papers presented fol- 

 lows; most of these papers will be printed 

 ^n full in publications of the society : 



THUKSDATj APRIL 2. 



Morning Session, 10 o'clock. 



President Smith in the chair. 

 President's Address of Welcome: Professor 



Edgar F. Smith. 

 The Structure of the Corn Grain and Its 



Relation to Popping: Professor Henry 



Kraemer, of Philadelphia. 



There is a marked difference in the struc- 

 ture of the several parts of corn grains, and 

 according to the character of the endosperm 

 three distinct kinds of grains may be dis- 

 tinguished as foUows: (1) One variety, 

 representing the sweet corns, contains com- 

 paratively few nearly spherical starch 

 grains from 4 to 10 microns in diameter, 

 besides considerable dextrin becoming red 

 with iodine, and a small amount of a reduc- 

 ing sugar. (2) The second class includes 

 the dents and possibly also the soft corns, 

 and in these the greater portion of the en- 

 dosperm is whitish and more or less mealy ; 

 the starch grains in this mealy area are 

 rounded or slightly polygonal, vary from 

 5 to 25 microns in diameter, and have a 

 central rarefied area or point of origin of 

 growth, which may be either wanting or 

 usually not more than 2 microns in di- 

 ameter. (3) The third class includes the 

 pop-corns, in which the endosperm is more 

 or less translucent and horny, and the cells 

 of which contain closely arranged poly- 

 gonal starch grains from 7 to 18 microns 

 in diameter, and having a central rarefied 

 area from 2 to 7 microns in diameter. 

 Some of the flint corns closely resemble the 

 pop-corns and form a group intermediate 

 between the latter and the dent corns. 



If the entire grains of these several 

 groups are heated in a popper or in a hot- 

 air oven at a temperature between 145° C. 



