772 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XIV. No. 359. 



mining factor for the form of the plant, whether 

 the cells are immersed in solution or supported 

 upon gelatin or upon porous plates ; and as 

 darkness has no eflfect upon the form of this 

 plant, its polymorphism does not depend upon 

 photosynthesis. His physiological experiments 

 have been supplemented by a considerable 

 series of physico-chemical tests in order to 

 determine whether error had been introduced 

 into his experiments by assumption that com- 

 plete ionization occurred in his solutions of 

 electrolytes. He finds that the osmotic pressure 

 calculated by the freezing point method, and in 

 some cases also by the boiling point method, 

 conforms so closely to the osmotic pressure cal- 

 culated on the assumption of complete ioniza- 

 tion, that no error had been introduced, the 

 differences between the calculated and de- 

 termined pressures lying entirely within the 

 range of the pressure limits found for the sev- 

 eral responses of the plant. 



T. C. Johnston publishes some results in con- 

 nection with intramolecular respiration, and 

 Dr. J. Schneck records some interesting obser- 

 vations on Aquilegia Canadensis and A. vulgaris. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 

 AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 



A REGULAR meeting of American Mathemat- 

 ical Society was held at Columbia University on 

 Saturday, October 26, extending through the 

 usual morning and afternoon sessions. The first 

 part of the afternoon session was devoted to a 

 joint meeting with the American Physical So- 

 ciety at which a paper ' On the Theory of 

 Elastic Plates ' was read by Professor J. Hada- 

 mard, the representative of the University of 

 Paris at the recent Yale Bicentennial. About 

 forty persons were present at the joint session, 

 which was presided over by President Michel- 

 son, of the Physical Society. At the separate 

 session of the Mathematical Society, at which 

 Vice-President Thomas S. Fiske occupied the 

 chair, thirty-three members of the Society were 

 in attendance. Twelve persons were elected to 

 membership : Mr. C. H. Ashton, Harvard Uni- 

 versity ; Professor H. Y. Benedict, University 

 of Texas ; Dr. William Findlay, Columbia Uni- 

 versity ; Dr. W. B. Fite, Cornell University ; 



Professor G. W. Greenwood, McKendree Col- 

 lege ; Professor F. W. Hanawalt, Iowa Wes- 

 leyan University ; Dr. E. V. Huntington, Har- 

 vard University ; Professor H. W. Kuhn, Ohio 

 State University ; Dr. I. E. Rabinovitch, New 

 York City ; Professor W. D. Tallman, Montana 

 State Agricultural College ; Mr. H. M. Tory, 

 McGill University ; Mr. A. H. Wilson, Prince- 

 ton University. Seven applications for mem- 

 bership were received. The By-laws of the 

 Society were amended to provide that the pres- 

 idential address shall hereafter be delivered at 

 the last meeting of the presidential term. As 

 the amendment takes effect at once, President 

 Moore's address will be postponed to the annual 

 meeting of December, 1902. 



The following papers were presented at this 

 meeting : 



Professor G. A. Miller : * On the abelian groups 

 which are conformal with non-abeliau groups.' 



Dr. H. F. Stecker : ' Concerning the elliptic f 

 {ff-i\ ffs] 2) -functions as coordinates in a line com- 

 plex, and certain related theorems. ' 



Miss I. M. Schottenfels : * Generational defi- 

 nition of certain groups of order 960. ' 



Professor Otto Stolz : ' Zur Erklarung der 

 Bogenlange und des Inhaltes einer kriimmen Flache. ' 



Dr. L. P. Eisenhart : ' Conjugate rectilinear 

 congruences. ' 



Professor S. E. Slocum : * The symbols of the 

 infinitesimal transformations which generate the par- 

 ameter groups corresponding to all possible types of 

 structure of two-, three- and four-parameter complex 

 groups. ' 



Dr. E. V. Huntington and Dr. J. K. Whitte- 

 MORE : 'Some curious properties of conies touching 

 the line infinity at one of the circular points. ' 



Professor J. Hadamard : 'On the theory of 

 elastic plates. ' 



Professor E. B. Van Vleck : ' On the zeros of 

 fundamental integrals of regular linear differential 

 equations of the second order, with a determination 

 of the number of imaginary roots of the hypergeo- 

 metric series.' 



Dr. E. J. WiLCZYNSKi : ' Reciprocal systems of 

 linear differential equations. ' 



Dr. I. E. Rabinovitch : ' On some contradictions 

 involved in the elliptic geometry in a point space.' 



Dr. Edward Kasner : ' Determination of the 

 integrals in the calculus of variations leading to an 

 assigned system of extremals.' 



The members of the two societies lunched 

 together at the University restaurant, and in 



