December 9, 1904.] 



SCIENCE. 



813 



in wliicli Messrs. Williston, McGregor, Osborn 

 and others will participate. Titles of papers 

 should be sent to Dr. 0. P. Hay, secretary, 

 American Museum of Natural History, New 

 York. 



THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS. 

 The twenty-third annual meeting of the 

 American Society of Naturalists will be held 

 at Philadelphia on Tuesday, December 27, and 

 Wednesday, December 28. The following 

 program is announced : Tuesday, 8 :00 p.m., il- 

 lustrated lecture by Professor Henry F. Os- 

 born, ' Recent Discoveries of Extinct Animals 

 in the Rocky Mountain Region and their 

 Bearings on Present Problems of Evolution,' 

 at the lecture hall of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences, Nineteenth and Race Streets ; 9 :00 

 P.M., smoker of the Affiliated Scientific Socie- 

 ties, University Club, Fifteenth and Walnut 

 Streets. On Wednesday a business meeting 

 will be held at 2 p.m. in the Laboratory of 

 Physiology and Pathology at the University 

 of Pennsylvania, and in the same place at 3 

 p.m. the annual discussion will take place. 

 The topic, ' The Mutation Theory of Organic 

 Evolution,' will be discussed from the follow- 

 ing standpoints : Plant breeding, by Dr. D. T. 

 MacDougal, of the New York Botanical Gar- 

 den; animal breeding, by Professor W. E. 

 Castle, of Harvard University; cytology, by 

 Professor E. G. Conklin, of the University of 

 Pennsylvania; paleontology, by Professor W. 

 E. Scott, of Princeton University; anatomy, 

 by Professor Thomas Dwight, of the Harvard 

 Medical School; taxonomy, by Professor Lib- 

 erty H. Bailey, of Cornell University; and 

 ethology, by Dr. W. M. Wheeler, of the Amer- 

 ican Museum of Natural History. Each 

 speaker is limited to fifteen minutes. At 6 :45 

 a business meeting for the election of officers 

 will be held at the Hotel Walton, while at 7 :00 

 p. m. the dinner of the Naturalists, in which 

 members of the affiliated societies may par- 

 ticipate, will be held. At the dinner the presi- 

 dent of the society, Professor E. L. Mark, of 

 Harvard University, will give his address. 

 Hotel headquarters of the society are to be at 

 the Colonnade Hotel, Fifteenth and Chestnut 

 Streets. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The trustees of the Carnegie Institution 

 will meet at Washington on December 13, 

 when it is expected that a president will be 

 elected to fill the vacancy caused by the resig- 

 nation of Dr. D. C. Gilman. 



The former students of Professor Charles 

 E. Bessey who are connected with the Office 

 of Vegetable Pathological and Physiological 

 Investigations, Department of Agriculture, 

 have had an enlarged copy of his photograph 

 framed and presented to the office. The por- 

 trait, which had been covered with an Ameri- 

 can flag, was unveiled by Professor Bessey's 

 son. Dr. E. A. Bessey. The picture was hung 

 at a gathering of the office force on November 

 28. Miss Carrie Harrison presented the pic- 

 ture, and appropriate remarks were made by 

 Mr. A. F. Woods, chief pathologist and physiol- 

 ogist, who spoke especially of Professor 

 Bessey's work in promoting the establishment 

 of the pathological and physiological work of 

 the department and of his constant interest in 

 its progress and welfare. Dr. H. J. Webber, 

 physiologist in charge of plant breeding, spoke 

 of the important part that Professor Bessey 

 had taken in introducing laboratory methods 

 of teaching botany in this country and of his 

 great success as a teacher. Mr. C. L. Shear, 

 pathologist, spoke briefly of his students, re- 

 ferring especially to those who are now hold- 

 ing important positions as professors of botany 

 in various universities and colleges. All testi- 

 fied to the intimate and friendly relation 

 which existed between Professor Bessey and 

 his students and to their great admiration and 

 affection for him. 



The seventieth birthday of Dr. George H. 

 Howison, Mills professor of philosophy in the 

 University of California, was celebrated on 

 November 29. A Festschrift has been issued 

 by the university press containing contribu- 

 tions by his former pupils. 



At the last meeting of the Rumford Com- 

 mittee of the American Academy of Arts and 

 Sciences the following grants for research were 

 made: To Professor R. W. Wood, of Johns 

 Hopkins University, $350, in aid of a research 

 on the optical and physical properties of so- 



