26 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. I. No. 



species and varieties of Protophyta and 

 Phyeophyta found within the State, con- 

 ti'ibuted bj' Mr. DeAlton Saunders, and of 

 the Coleochsetaceae and Characea; by Mr. 

 Albert F. Woods. The descriptions are 

 well drawn, the typogi-aphj^ excellent and 

 the plates accurate and well executed. We 

 tender our cordial congratulations to all 

 concerned in the production of the book and 

 to all who may have opportunity to use it. 



]sr. L. B. 



THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES. 



The programs of the mid-winter meetings 

 of the several scientific societies promise 

 large attendance and many important 

 papers. The American Society of Natural- 

 ists meets at Johns Hopkins University, 

 Baltimore, and in conjunction with it the 

 American Morphological Society and the 

 American Physiological Society. At the 

 same place and time the American Society 

 of Geologists meets. During the same 

 week the Anatomists meet at Columbia 

 College, New York ; the American Psycho- 

 logical Association meets at Princeton ; the 

 American Folklore Society meets at Wash- 

 ington, and the annual meeting of the 

 American Mathematical Society is held at 

 Columbia College. These meetings will be 

 fully reported in Science. 



PHYSICS. 



Actual trial trips with flying machines 

 have recently been made by Mr. Maxim 

 and Prof. Langiej^. Mr. Maxim's machine 

 was fastened to rails to prevent its rising, 

 and sailed 500 feet at the rate of 45 miles 

 per hour. Prof. Langley's seroplane was 

 allowed to fly over the water at Quantico, 

 Md., on December 8th. Both Mr. Maxim 

 and Prof. Langley use light steam engines 

 in preference to storage batteries. 



The Soci^te Internationale des Electri- 

 ciens established a central laboratory at 

 Paris about seven years ago. The principal 



object of the laboratory was the preserva- 

 tion of electrical standards, and to afibrd 

 practical electricians an opportunity for 

 testing their various instruments. It is 

 evident that such a laboratoiy ofi'ers special 

 advantages for the investigation of questions 

 belonging to the science and industry of 

 electricity. These facilities have been to 

 some extent utilized ; but, in order to in- 

 crease the usefulness of the institution, the 

 Society has added to it a School of Applied 

 Electricit}^ This school, which will be 

 opened on December 3d, has been con- 

 structed on a plot of land granted bj^ the 

 city of Paris, the funds for the building- 

 having been raised by private subscription. 

 Purely practical instruction will be given 

 at the school. There will be two chief 

 courses, one dealing with the industrial 

 applications of electricity, and the other 

 with electrometry. It is hoped that the 

 school will be a training ground for higher 

 work in the Central Laboratory, to which 

 it is attached. — Nature. 



ANTHROPOLOGY. 



De. Charles L. Dana's address on Degen- 

 eration and its Stigmata, delivered at the 

 Anniversary Meeting of the New York 

 Academy of Medicine, Nov. 28, 1894, has 

 been pi-inted in the Medical Record, of 

 Dee. 15th. Dr. Dana traces with much skill 

 the historic develojiment of the scientific 

 method that discovers mental traits and 

 especially mental degenerations from their 

 physical manifestations. 



The charges made against the manage- 

 ment of the Elmira Reformatorj^ have been 

 dismissed by Governor Flower. The ma- 

 jority of the commissioners who examined 

 the charges report that the institution 

 stands preeminent among the reforma- 

 tories of the world and that its success in 

 the reformation of criminals has been extra- 

 ordinary. This confirms the views of the 

 leading criminologists and reformers. 



