8U6 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XX. No. 519. 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 

 NORTHEASTERN SECTION. 



The fifty-fifth regular meeting of the sec- 

 tion "was held Friday evening, November 18, 

 at the ' Teeh Union,' Massachusetts Institute 

 of Technology, with President W. H. Walker 

 in the chair. About 150 members and guests 

 were present. The following officers were 

 elected for 1904:-5: 



President — James F. Norris. 



Vice-President— Wsdter L. Jennings. 



Secretary — Arthur M. Comey. 



Treasurer — John W. Brown. 



Executive Committee — Gregory P. Baxter, Ed- 

 gar F. Billings, Robert S. Weston, Carl 0. Weber, 

 Lyman C. Newell. 



Councillors — Charles R. Sanger, Charles L. 

 Parsons, Albert E. Leach. 



The annual reports of the secretary and 

 treasurer were read. 



President W. H. Walker opened the dis- 

 cussion of the subject of the ' Future Supply 

 of Available Nitrogen,' by giving a resume of 

 the methods, by which the nitrogen, taken up 

 by plants, is replaced by a fresh supply ob- 

 tained fi;om the air by chemical and electrical 

 processes, describing the formation of calcium 

 and barium carbamides, and the process and 

 apparatus used for the direct conversion of 

 nitrogen into nitric acid by using an electric 

 arc. 



Dr. George T. Moore, Director of the Labo- 

 ratory of Plant Physiology of the U. S. De- 

 partment of Agriculture, described the recent 

 work carried on under his direction on the 

 fixation of atmospheric nitrogen by means of 

 bacteria, in which he described how the nod- 

 ules formed on the roots of leguminous plants 

 have been found to contain bacteria, which are 

 able to fix the nitrogen of the air, and make 

 it available for the use of the plants. These 

 nodules are not formed naturally in all soils, 

 owing to the lack of the presence of bacteria, 

 and in order to make up for this deficiency, 

 pure cultures of the bacteria in the nodules 

 have been made. and added to the soil. It was 

 found if this was done, using the ordinary me- 

 dia containing nitrogen, that the bacteria were 

 weakened, and no longer possessed the power of 

 forming nodules, but if no nitrogen was pres- 



ent in the media used, the new organisms pos- 

 sessed the power of 'forming nodules to a high 

 degree, when the seed or ground in which it was 

 sown was inoculated with the cultures. These 

 cultures have been dried on cotton, and dis- 

 tributed with the necessary food and directions 

 for their development to about 10,000 farmers 

 during the past year. The results so far sent 

 in have been very satisfactory, the crop being 

 increased in almost all instances by the use 

 of the cultures, in some cases as high as 

 1,000 per cent. The lecture was fully illus- 

 trated with lantern slides, showing sections of 

 the nodules, specimen plants, etc. 



Arthur M. Comey, 

 Secretary. 



THE ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 



The 156th meeting of the Elisha Mitchell 

 Scientific Society of the University of North 

 Carolina was held in the chemical lecture 

 room, Tuesday, November 8, 7 :30 p. m., the 

 following program being rendered: 



Professor J. E. Mills : ' Molecular Attraction.' 

 Professor H. V. Wilson : ' Experiments on the 

 Development of the Skeleton in Sponge Larvse.' 



Professor A. S. Wheeler : ' The Theories of 

 Dyeing with Special Reference to the Constitu- 

 tion of Cellulose.' 



Alvin S. Wheeler, 

 itecording Secretary. 



DI8CVS8I01Sf AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



STYLE IN SCIENTIFIC COMPOSITION. 



The employment of a direct and perspicu- 

 ous style is of immense advantage in scientific 

 writing, perhaps more so than in other forms 

 of literature. In scientific composition, as 

 elsewhere, the art of writing well depends 

 primarily upon right thinking, this being, as 

 was said by Horace centuries ago, ' the begin- 

 ning and fount of excellence ' ; and in scarcely 

 inferior degree it depends upon correct ex- 

 pression. Concede with Pope that ' expression 

 is the dress of thought,' and it follows that 

 careless or faulty expression detracts as much 

 from our appreciation of an author as slovenli- 

 ness of apparel. 



Superelegance of style is neither necessary 

 nor desirable in every-day science, any more 



