April 2, 1897.] 



SCIENCE. 



557 



been noted. It would seem that, in this case 

 at least, too much has been eliminated. The 

 list is quite complete otherwise. It is particu- 

 larly rich in references to the geology of the 

 surroundiug region. Such side references are 

 especially valuable to workers in Missouri, since 

 they recall widely scattered notes which might 

 otherwise be overlooked. The paper also be- 

 comes more than a mere bibliography of 

 Missouri. It is a guide to the study of the 

 geology of the central Mississippi Valley and 

 brings out excellently the development of our 

 present knowledge from a historical point of 

 view. Such a bibliography could only come as 

 a result of wide studies throughout the region 

 and is a natural sequence to the similar publi- 

 cation issued by Dr. Keyes while connected 

 with the Iowa Survey.* The general scope 

 and arrangement of the paper is the same as 

 that followed by the author in the Iowa bibliog- 

 raphy. The abstracts are perhaps briefer than 

 those given by Mr. Weeks, but its value is very 

 largely increased by the dictionary arrange- 

 ment. A not unimportant feature of both the 

 bibliographies reviewed is the very full ac- 

 companying index. 



H. F. Bain. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON ; THE 93D 



REGULAR MEETING, WASHINGTON, D. C, 



FEBRUARY 11, 1897- 



The Society was called to order at 8 p. m. by 

 the President, Dr. Bigelow, with twenty-five 

 members and several invited guests present. 



The first paper of the evening was read by 

 Dr. B. W. Allen, and was entitled ' A Critical 

 Review of Aikmann and Wright's Translation 

 of Fleischmann's Lehrbuch der Milchwirt- 

 schaft,' an abstract of which has been pre- 

 sented by the author: "Attention was called 

 to the heavy verbose style of the translation, 

 and often foggy statements, errors in transla- 

 ting the sense and failure to adapt the book for 

 English and American readers, and to correct 

 certain statements which do not apply at the 

 present status of knowledge. The fallacy of 



*Iowa Geol. Surv., Vol. I., pp. 209-464. Des 

 Moines, 1893. 



translating a book for students and semi-popu- 

 lar use, without editing the translation and in 

 a measure adapting it to the new field, was 

 pointed out." 



Dr. H. Carrington Bolton exhibited two 

 British patents which he has described in Sci- 

 ence (p. 401). 



Mr. W. H. Krug read a review, from the 

 German, of a paper by Adolph Meyer entitled 

 ' The Maximum of Plant Production. ' 



Mr. Wirt Tassin's paper was entitled ' A New 

 Blowpipe Eeagent.' He gave a review of 

 the use of iodine in blowpipe analysis from the 

 time of Bunsen to Haanel and Andrews. He 

 then stated that for several years past he had 

 been using iodine in several forms and found 

 that a mixture of equal parts of iodine and 

 potassium sulfocyanate, plus a little sulfur, 

 the whole being intimately mixed, fused and 

 then ground, gave the most satisfactory results. 

 The powder was used as a flux on a gypsum 

 tablet. A series of the iodine and cyanate films 

 produced by some forty minerals was shown. 

 Some of these illustrated the extreme delicacy 

 of the test ; others showed the effect that the 

 coating produced by one element had upon that 

 produced by another when they were deposited 

 together ; still others showed the methods of 

 difierentiating interfering elements. Some at- 

 tempts at quantitative methods were shown, 

 and attention was called to the fact that a mix- 

 ture of three parts of alcohol and one part of 

 chloroform burned in a lamp gave rise to some 

 very interesting reactions either with or with- 

 out the iodine flux. 



The Society adjourned at an early hour, and 

 the remainder of the evening was devoted to 

 feasting and social discourse. 



SPECIAL MEETING, TUESDAY, MARCH 9, 1897. 



A SPECIAL meeting of the Chemical Society 

 was held in the Assembly Hall of the Builders' 

 Exchange Club, under the auspices of the Joint 

 Commission of the Scientific Societies of Wash- 

 ington, to hear the address of the retiring Presi- 

 dent, Dr. E. A. de Schweinitz, upon ' The War 

 with the Microbes,' which will be printed in 

 Science. The speaker was introduced by Sur- 

 geon General Sternberg, of the United States 

 Army, and the hall was filled with members of 



