178 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 501. 



make the tables valuable for short courses or 

 for field work. A. J. Moses. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The July number (volume 5, number 3) of 

 the Transactions of the American Mathe- 

 matical Society contains the following papers : 



E. B. Van Vi^ck: 'The convergence of alge- 

 braic continued fractions whose coeflScients have 

 limiting values.' 



W. FiNDLAY : ' The Sylow subgroups of the sym- 

 metric group.' 



E. W. Brown : ' On the smaller perturbations 

 of the lunar arguments.' 



B. V. Huntington : ' Sets of independent pos- 

 tulates for the algebra of logic' 



H. F. BuCHFELDT: 'On the order of linear 

 homogeneous groups (second paper).' 



J. B. Shaw : ' Algebras defined by finite groups.' 



O. Veblen : ' A system of axioms for geometry.' 



The contents of the American Journal of 

 Science for July are as follows : 



B. B. BoLTWOOD : ' Ratio of Radium to Uranium 

 in some Minerals.' 



F. M. McCnENAHAN : ' Constitution of Hydrous 

 Thallic Chloride.' 



E. H. Sellards ; ' Study of the Structure of 

 Paleozoic Cockroaches, with Descriptions of New 

 Forms from the Coal Measures.' 



W. A. Parks : ' Remarkable Parasite from the 

 Devonian Rocks of the Hudson Bay Slope.' 



C. R. Eastman : ' Asterolepid Appendages.' 

 A. B. Plowman : ' Electrotropism of Roots.' 

 O. C. Lester : ' Oxygen Absorption Bands of the 



Solar Spectrum.' 



The Journal of Nervous and Mental Dis- 

 eases of July, 1904, contains two articles deal- 

 ing with Multiple Sclerosis, one by Drs. W. G. 

 Spiller and C. D. Camp of Philadelphia con- 

 taining a report of two cases and some general 

 observations on the nature of the condition, 

 and the other by Dr. Smith Ely Jelliffe, of 

 New York, on the occurrence and etiology of 

 multiple sclerosis, as observed since the open- 

 ing of the Neurological Department in the 

 Vanderbilt Clinic of New York City. The 

 interesting fact is brought out that this disease 

 is less frequent than in foreign countries. 

 There is also a discussion of Uremic Hemi- 

 plegia, by Dr. T. H. Weisenburg, of Phila- 

 delphia, in which he gives reports of several 



cases, and the results of various experiments. 

 The Periscope contains extended abstracts 

 from The American Journal of Insanity, 

 Bevue de Psychiatrie and Nouvelle Icono- 

 graphie de la Salpetriere, as well as miscellany 

 and reviews of the latest psychiatrical and 

 neurological books, published in this country 

 and abroad. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 

 NEW YORK SECTION. 



At the last meeting of the season, held June 

 iO, at the Chemists' Club, 108 West 55th 

 Street, the section elected as officers for the 

 ensuing year: 



Chairman — Wm. Jay Schiefi'elin. 



Vice-Chairma/n — F. D. Dodge. 



Secretary-Treasurer — F. H. Rough. 



Additional Members of Executive Committee — 

 E. H. Miller, M. T. Bogert, Wm. McMurtrie and 

 T. J. Parker. 



The following papers were read : 

 Alloys (Illustrated) : William Campbell. 



This paper gave the results obtained in a 

 continuation of the work reported at the Jan- 

 uary meeting. The work will appear in full 

 in an early number of the Journal of the 

 American Chemical Society. 

 The Optical Rotation of Some Cyclic Com- 

 pounds: F. D. Dodge. 



Dr. Dodge called attention to the fact that 

 many of the constituents of the volatile oils 

 contain ring-nuclei of three, four, five or six 

 atoms, with varying degrees of saturation. 

 These compounds are most frequently asym- 

 metric ; which is shown by the optical activity. 

 The questions as to how far the observed 

 rotation phenomena are in harmony with the 

 formulae which have been proposed, and as to 

 whether the van't Hoff hypothesis is univer- 

 sally applicable, were discussed. It is shown 

 that in single ring nuclei, racemism is gen- 

 erally theoretically possible, and often ob- 

 served. In the cases of some double nuclei 

 (as the camphor group) racemism appears to 

 be impossible owing to the peculiar molecular 

 structure. The exceptional optical properties 

 of menthone were discussed, and a possible 

 explanation found in a peculiar isomerism 



