Decembee 27, 1901.] 



SCIENCE. 



1007 



Dr. A. F. A. King read a paper on the ' Eti- 

 ology of Intermittent Fever,' in which he dis- 

 cussed sunlight as a factor in promoting sporu- 

 lation of the malarial parasite, which he main- 

 tained would not take place in continued 

 darkness. Hence ' chills ' do not occur at 

 night ; races with non-translucent skins are 

 immune ; sunshine increases fever, cloudiness 

 decreases it ; spontaneous cures were explained 

 by the shade of hospitals ; the red light of the 

 blood promoted the vital activity of the para- 

 site, violet light restricted it, hence the cure 

 by Prussian and methylene blues ; quinine 

 cured by its fluorescence accentuating the violet 

 rays. (The paper will appear in the American 

 Journal of Medical Sciences.) 



Charles K. We ad, 



Secretary. 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 344th meeting was held on Saturday 

 evening, November 30. 



William Palmer read some extracts from an 

 illustrated article in one of the Sunday papers, 

 on the alleged occurrence of toads in solid 

 rock, and exhibited plaster molds from which 

 some of the illustrations had been made. One 

 of these molds, made over a dead frog, ap- 

 peared in the picture labeled, ' a mold in which 

 a frog lived for four days, ' while the cast of a 

 salamander was figured as ' a salamander 

 emerging from a plaster mold in which it had 

 remained for several days.' 



E. W. Nelson presented a paper entitled ' A 

 Naturalist in Yucatan,' describing the country 

 and its flora, touching also on the ruins at 

 Chichenitza, Uxmal and other points. The 

 little known east coast was partly explored and 

 Cozumel Island visited during Mr. Nelson's 

 trip, and a number of colored lantern slides il- 

 lustrated some of the most interesting features 

 of plant and animal life observed. 



H. J. Webber spoke of ' Strand Flora of Flor- 

 ida,' illustrating his remarks with many views 

 of both the eastern and western coasts and de- 

 scribing the manner in which certain plants 

 aided in forming sand dunes, and others such 

 as the mangroves, in making small islets which 

 later on were added to the mainland. The 

 characteristic plants of various portions of the 



coast were noted, and the speaker drew atten- 

 tion to the marked difference shown by some 

 plants, the grape nut for example, according as 

 they grew inland or were exposed to the salt 

 winds from the ocean. F. A. LucAS. 



THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY, NEW YORK 

 SECTION. 



An unusual degree of interest has been mani- 

 fested in the work of the Section during the 

 present season. Very full programs have been 

 offered at every meeting, and the attendance 

 has been unprecedented. It has been neces- 

 sary to hold a special meeting in order to 

 dispose of the great number of available papers, 

 and other special meetings will probabl'y have 

 to be held in the spring. The membership of 

 the Section has increased steadily, and is now 

 over four hundred and fifty. The committee to 

 secure funds for the endowment of the research 

 medal and for the encouragement of research 

 among the members of the Section consists of Mr. 

 Clifibrd Richardson, Professor C. F. Chandleri 

 Mr. Maximilian Toch, Dr. Theron C. Stearns and 

 Dr. William Jay Schieffelin. It shall be the en- 

 deavor of this committee to secure a large en- 

 dowment fund and to suggest an appropriate 

 name for the Section medal, as well as the de- 

 tailed conditions governing its award. Since the 

 last report of our meetings appeared in Science, 

 the following papers have been presented : 



Special Meeting, November 1. — Edmund H. 

 Miller, ' On the Composition of the Ferrocya- 

 uides of Cadmium ' ; Marston Taylor Bogert 

 and David C. Eccles, ' On the Production of the 

 Imides of Succinic and Glutaric Acids by the 

 Partial Hydration of the Corresponding Ni- 

 triles ' ; W. G. Lindsay, ' On a Colorimetric 

 Method for the Estimation of Sulphur in Pig- 

 iron ; ' Thomas F. Hildreth, 'On the Determi- 

 nation of Manganese in Spiegel ' ; John A. 

 Mathews and William Campbell, ' The Alloys 

 of Aluminium.' This paper was profusely il- 

 lustrated by lantern photographs. It was pre- 

 sented in two parts. The first part being a re- 

 view of recent work upon the constitution of 

 alloys, with explanation of the nature of solid 

 solutions, eutectics, pyrometric and metallo- 

 graphic methods of alloys, research, etc., the 

 second part embodied the results of the re- 



