APEIL27, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



663 



The Unknown. Camille Flambiaeion. New York 



and London, Harper & Brothers, 1900. Pp. xii + 



488. $2.00. 

 Brief Guide to the Commoner Butterflies of the Northern 



United States and Canada. Samuel Hubbaed 



ScuDDEB. New York, Henry Holt & Co., 1899. Pp. 



xi+210. 

 'Commercial Organic Analysis. Alfeed H. Allen. 



P. Blakiston's Son & Co., 1900. Vol. II., Part II. 



Pp. viii+330. 

 Inorganic Evolution as studied by Spectrum Analysis. 



New York and London, The Macmillan Co., 1900. 



Pp. x+191. $1.75. 



Dwight notes a case of ' Absence of the In- 

 ferior Vena Cava below the Diaphragm.' 



SCIENTIFIC lOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 



The March number of the Bulletin of the 

 American Mathematical Society contains the 

 following articles : ' Mathematical instruction 

 in France,' by Professor James Pierpont ; a 

 review, by Professor E. W. Brown, of Poin- 

 care's Cin^matique et M6canismes, Potential et 

 Mdcanique des Fluides ; ' Shorter Notices ' ; 

 ' Notes ' ; and ' New Publications. The April 

 number of the Bulletin contains a report of the 

 February meeting of the Society, by the Secre- 

 tary ; ' Some theorems concerning linear differ- 

 ential equations of the second order,' by Pro- 

 fessor Maxime B6cher ; ' Note on the enumer- 

 ation of the roots of the hypergeometric series 

 between zero and one,' by Dr. M. B. Porter ; 

 ' The summer meeting of the Deutsche Mathe- 

 matiker-Vereinigung, at Munich, September, 

 1899,' by Professor James Pierpont ; reviews 

 of Hubert's Gruudlagen der Geometric, by 

 Dr. J. Sommer, and of Konig's Legons de 

 ■Cin6matique, by Professor E. O. Lovett ; 

 ' Notes ' ; and ' New Publications.' 



The Journal of the Boston Society of Medical 

 .Sciences for March 20th, is largely devoted to 

 abstracts of the papers read at the first meet- 

 ing of the Society of American Bacteriologists, 

 held at New Haven, Dec. 27-30, 1899. Several 

 of these dealt with the question of purification 

 of sewage and contamination of water supply. 

 Charles S. Minot has a paper ' On the Solid 

 Stage of the Large Intestine in the Chick, with 

 a Note on the Ganglion Coli. ' W. T. Council- 

 man discusses ' The Lobule of the Lung and 

 its Relation to the Lymphatics,' and Thomas 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



The annual stated session of the National 

 Academy of Sciences was held in Washington, 

 April 17-19, 1900, with Dr. Wolcott Gibbs in 

 the chair, and the following members in at- 

 tendance : Messrs. Abbe, Agassiz, Allen, Barns, 

 Beecher, Bell, Billings, Boss, Brewer, Brooks, 

 Brush, Chandler (S. C), Chittenden, Comstock 

 (G. B.), Dall, Dana, Duttou, Elkiu, Emmons, 

 Farlow, Gibbs (W.), Gilbert, Gill, Hague, Hall, 

 Hill(G.W.), Langley, Mitchell (S. W.), Morse, 

 Powell, Putnam, Remsen, Rowland, Schott, 

 Smith (E. F.), Walcott, Welch, White and 

 Wilson. 



The resignation of Dr. Wolcott Gibbs as Pres- 

 ident of the Academy was reluctantly accepted 

 to take effect at the close of the session. Hi- 

 successor will be elected at the next April sess 

 sion. 



Six additional members of the Council were 

 chosen for the ensuing year, as follows : Messrs. 

 J. S. Billings, H. P. Bowditch, G. J. Brush, 

 Wolcott Gibbs, Arnold Hague, Simon New- 

 comb. 



The following gentlemen were elected mem- 

 bers of the Academy : James E. Keeler, Di- 

 rector of the Lick Observatory, Mt. Hamilton, 

 Cal. ; Henry F. Osborn, of Columbia Univer- 

 sity, New York City; Samuel L. Penfield, of 

 Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; Franz 

 Boas, of Columbia University, New York City. 



The Academy adopted a report from the 

 Trustees of the Barnard Medal recommending 

 that the medal be awarded to Wilhelm Conrad 

 Rontgen for his discovery of the X-rays. This 

 medal is awarded at the close of every quin- 

 quennial period to such person as shall, within 

 the five years next preceding, have made such 

 discovery in physical or astronomical science, 

 or made such novel application of science to pur- 

 poses beneficial to the human race, as, in the 

 judgment of the National Academy of Sciences 

 of the United States, shall be esteemed most 

 worthy of such honor. 



Mr. Agassiz offered to give to the Academy 



