388 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 348. 



twelve to ninety hours after feeding with proteids. 

 The secretion is poured into the intestine, where it 

 acts by means of its ferments on the three classes of 

 foods : proteids, carbohydrates and fats. 



■ Mr. Murlin is unanimously recommended by Group 

 Committee XV. as a candidate for the degree of Doctor 

 of Philosophy. 



Professor Crawley, Presentor. 



Roxana Hayward Vivian was born at Hyde Park, 

 Mass., December 9, 1871. She received her early 

 education in the public schools of Hyde Park, gradu- 

 ating from the High School in 1890. She entered the 

 freshman class of Wellesley College the same year, 

 receiving the degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1894. 

 From 1895 to 1898 she taught Greek and mathemat- 

 ics in a preparatory school, and from 1896 to 1898 

 pursued graduate work in the same subjects at "Wel- 

 lesley college. She entered the Department of Phi- 

 losophy of this University October 10, 1898, as 

 alumnse fellow in mathematics. This appointment 

 carried with it candidacy for the degree of Doctor of 

 Philosophy. She was twice reappointed to her fel- 

 lowship, holding it for three successive years. She 

 elected her major and one minor in mathematics, and 

 the other minor in astronomy. She has completed 

 thirty standard courses, and has satisfactorily passed 

 written examinations in astronomy with Professor 

 Doolittle and Mr. Eric Doolittle, February 14, 1901 ; 

 in mathematics with Professor Crawley, Assistant 

 Professors Fisher and Schwatt and Dr. Hallett, on 

 April 4 and 13, and May 11, 1901 . She has presented 

 a thesis entitled ' The Poles of a Eight Line with 

 Respect to a Curve of Order n.' The thesis will be 

 printed at once. Pending its appearance Miss Vivian 

 has deposited with the Dean a copy of the manuscript 

 and the money necessary to print it. The scope of 

 the thesis may briefly be outlined as follows : 



The general subject of poles and polars with respect 

 to Higher Plane Curves has been studied by numer- 

 ous mathematicians, notably by Steiner, Cremona 

 and Clebsch. Steiner gave in Crelh^s Journal, Vol. 

 XLVII., a large number of theorems relating to this 

 subject, but he omitted the proofs. They were all 

 proved subsequently by Cremona. Cremona's method 

 was peculiar to himself, that is, he adapted a some- 

 what more general theory, that of the loci of har- 

 monic means, to the theory of poles and polars. In 

 discussing these problems Miss Vivian uses the ana- 

 lytic method. The particular line of discussion which 

 she has taken up is one which has not been treated in 

 any detail by any former writer. She has handled 

 the subject ably, and has arrived at some very inter- 

 esting results. In one or two instances her results 

 show that the statements of former writers must be 



taken with certain limitations, which do not appear 

 to have been considered. Her principal object is to 

 establish the ways in which the poles of a line are 

 limited when the line has certain prescribed relations 

 to the fundamental curve of the »th order, and to its 

 allied curves, the Hessian and Steinerian. Under 

 particular conditions certain points in the plane will 

 be poles for all lines in the plane, while the other 

 poles, called by the candidate ' free poles,' vary with 

 the line. Many writers do not class the first as poles 

 at all, but it seems more reasonable to class them 

 with the other poles, since they have all the required 

 properties of such points ; and, besides, it is more in 

 keeping with the present tendency of thought on 

 these subjects to do so. The subdivisions of the 

 paper are as follows : 



1. The pencil of curves of which the poles are base 

 points. 



2. The related curves. 



3. Poles when the curve u-o has no singularities. 



4. The inflection locus. 



5. Poles when the curve u-o has double points and 

 cusps. 



6. Intersections of higher order with the Steinerian. 



7. u-o with triple points and higher multiple points. 

 Miss Vivian is unanimously recommended to the 



Faculty of Philosophy, by Group Committee XI. for 

 the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 



We publish in this issue of Science the ad- 

 mirable presidential address given before the 

 American Association, at Denver, on Tuesday, 

 by Professor Woodward, and the vice-presiden- 

 tial address given by Professor Davenport be- 

 fore the Zoological Section, which is also a 

 model of what such an address should be. We 

 hope to publish next week an account of the 

 meeting and one or two further addresses by 

 the vice-presidents. 



Professor Theodore Wm. Richards, of 

 Harvard University, has been invited to fill the 

 newly established professorship of inorganic 

 chemistry in the University at Gottiugen. The 

 position is entirely free from routine teaching, 

 being confined to research work with the as- 

 sistance of such advanced students as may be 

 selected. It will be remembered that Professor 

 J. H. van't Hoflf was called from Holland to 

 fill a similar position at the University of Berlin. 

 The fact that Germany should invite two for- 



