242 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 503. 



organization has been efEected, and since tlie 

 society has constantly increased in strength 

 and importance it seems desirable to give a 

 brief account of the scientific programs of all 

 the meetings which have been held up to the 

 present time. 



At the first meeting of the society, held at 

 the rooms of Professor Greeley, March 3, 1903, 

 Dr. A. W. Greeley reviewed and discussed the 

 work of Calkins upon the life-cycle of Para- 

 mcecium caudatum. The program of the sec- 

 ond meeting, March 24, at the home of Pro- 

 fessor Coulter, consisted of a discussion by 

 Dr. J. M. Prather, of Loeb's investigations 

 on and theories concerning the prolongation 

 of life in unfertilized eggs and a review by 

 Mr. J. Arthur Harris of the essential features 

 of the mutation theory as elaborated by Pro- 

 fessor De Vries. At the third meeting, with 

 the society as the guests of Dr. Budgett, April 

 28, Dr. Oscar Riddle discussed the papers of 

 Dr. Eigenmann on the eyes of the blind verte- 

 brates of North America. Dr. Riddle had 

 assisted Dr. Eigenmann in much of this work 

 and in more yet to be published, and conse- 

 quently the general discussion of the broad 

 outlines of the problems involved and their 

 relation to the whole perplexing question of 

 degeneration were of especial interest. At 

 this meeting, Mr. W. L. Eikenberry discussed 

 the literature of the synthesis of carbohydrates 

 in chlorophyll-bearing plants in the light of 

 recent work on ' extra-organic ' photosynthesis 

 - — a paper calling forth considerable discus- 

 sion, because of the fundamental importance of 

 work on enzymes. On June 2, the society was 

 the guest of Mr. Eikenberry. Mr. J. B. Lillard 

 reviewed Dr. Lillie's work on the refusion of 

 blastomeres and an electrical explanation of 

 mitosis, and Professor S. M. Coulter reviewed 

 the treatise of Livingston on the role of dif- 

 fusion and osmotic pressure in plants. The 

 society adjourned for the summer months. 



On September 26, the society convened at 

 the residence of Dr. Budgett. The host pre- 

 sented a review and discussion of the recent 

 work of Hardy on the behavior of protoplasm 

 and artificial colloidal solutions. October 28, 

 the society was the guest of Drs. Eyeleshy- 

 mer. Potter, Wilson and Ransom. An ex- 



tensive business session in which several im- 

 portant points in the policy of the society were 

 discussed and fixed, was followed by the scien- 

 tific papers of the evening. Mr. Perley 

 Spaulding reviewed Ewart's work on proto- 

 plasmic streaming in plants, and Dr. Peter 

 Potter discussed his own work toward the 

 establishment of a norm-plate of the human 

 body. By new methods of hardening, it is 

 possible to retain the organs in the position 

 occupied during life while serial sections are 

 made, and from measurements and tracings 

 made from these, norm-charts may be pre- 

 pared which illustrate with a high degree of 

 accuracy the relative positions of the various 

 organs. Numerous charts to serve as data 

 for the completed work were exhibited. De- 

 cember 2, the society held its session at the 

 residence of Mr. Drayer. Among other busi- 

 ness matters, the report of a committee on 

 membership, recommending that election of 

 new members, duly proposed and recommended 

 by sponsors at a previous meeting, should be 

 by unanimous ballot of members present, was 

 accepted. The scientific program consisted of 

 three original papers. Dr. E. C. Eycleshymer 

 exhibited and discussed the more important 

 features of the plates so far prepared toward 

 the norm-plates of Necturus on which he is 

 working for Kief el's ' Normaltaf eln zur Ent- 

 wickelungsgeschichte der Wirbeltiere.' Dr. 

 J. Arthur Harris presented preliminarily the 

 results obtained from a study of apically de- 

 hiscent anthers. It seems that there is a re- 

 lation not only between this mode of dehis- 

 cence and the form of the anther and other 

 floral parts as well, but between these and the 

 geographical distribution of the genera and 

 species in which it occurs. Professor S. M. 

 Coulter discussed the establishment of the new 

 biological station in the Bermudas and gave 

 the resiilts of his ecological reconnoissance 

 of the islands. All of these papers will appear 

 later. January 6, 1904, the meeting was held 

 at Hotel Granville. Dr. G. H. Holferty pre- 

 sented his paper on the development and 

 phylogeny of the archegonium of Mnium cus- 

 pidatum, which has since been published in 

 the Botanical Gazette. Dr. A. W. Greeley 

 discussed his work on the structure of proto- 



