666 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XI. No. 278. 



session in honor of the late John Eugene 

 Davies, a charter member of the Club and for 

 more than thirty years a professor in physics in 

 the University. From 1877 to 1890 Mr. Davies 

 was in charge of the Wisconsin work of the 

 United States Coast and Geodetic Survey. The 

 base line of three miles which he measured, 

 and upon which the triangulation system of the 

 southern part of the State is based, has stood 

 as a model of accuracy. Addresses were made 

 by J. B. Parkinson, who gave a biographical 

 sketch of Mr. Davies ; by B. W. Snow, who 

 spoke of physics in the University previous to 

 1891 ; by W. W. Daniells, who spoke of the 

 sciences in the early days ; by L. S. Smith, 

 who discussed the work on the Coast and Geo- 

 detic Survey, and by A. S. Flint, whose subject 

 was Dr. Davies' connection with the Wash- 

 burn Observatory. At the close of the meet- 

 ing the following resolution was unanimously 

 adopted by a rising vote : 



"In the death of Professor Davies the University 

 has lost another of those teachers vfhose devoted ser- 

 vices in the years following its reorganization were 

 the foundation of its present prosperity. In the 

 earlier years of his professorship he was obliged to 

 teach many subjects and only to elementary classes. 

 Yet in the distraction of these multifarious tasks, 

 imposed by the necessities of a struggling institution, 

 his love for the higher ranges of scholarship in his 

 own department remained clear and strong. Through- 

 out a professorship of more than thirty years he wel- 

 comed with eager interest every advance in mathe- 

 matical physics and was in full appreciative sympathy 

 with the development of that science, even in its 

 remoter aspects. He loved his science for its own 

 sake and was successful in imparting to his chosen 

 students his own interest and pleasure in its pur- 

 suits. His kindly and serene personality endeared 

 him to his associates, whether in the faculty or among 

 the students. They desire by this minute to record 

 their feelings of the loss in his death, both to them- 

 selves and to the University in whose service he 

 spent his life." 



A REGULAR meeting of the Club held March 

 22d, was devoted to a symposium on the micro- 

 scope and its use in the various departments of 

 science. The following program was presented : 

 Construction of the compound microscope and its 

 use in physics, B. W. Snow ; its use in general 

 biology, B. A. Birge ; in cytology, E. A. Har- 



per ; in bacteriology, H. L. Russell ; in chemis- 

 try, S. M. Babcock ; in petrology, Wm. H. 

 Hobbs ; and in engineering, J. G. D. Mack. 

 An exhibition of the diflferent types of instru- 

 ment and of accessory apparatus served to il- 

 lustrate the subjects presented. 



William H. Hobbs. 



chemical society of washington. 



The 116th regular meeting was held Thurs- 

 day, February 8, 1900. 



The following program was presented : 



J. K. Haywood — ' The Adulteration of the Arsen- 

 ical Insecticides.' 



C. A. Crampton and F. D. Simmons— ' Uncom- 

 pounded Chemicals under the War Revenue Act ' 

 (with exhibition of specimens). 



Wirt Tassin — ' The Eelation of the Chemical So- 

 ciety to the Municipality.' 



F. K. Cameron — ' The Genesis of Hardpan..' 



The 117th regular meeting was held Thurs- 

 day, March 8, 1900. 



The program was devoted to a symposium on 

 Iron and Steel, as follows : 



Iron — The raw material ; chemistry of iron-ore 

 smelting, cast iron, properties of iron. 



Steel — The raw materials, converting methods, the 

 mill, castings, forgings and plates, special steels. 



The participants were Messrs. Dewey and 

 Tassin. 



William H. Krug, 



Secretary. 



THE philosophical SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. . 



At the 516th meeting of the Society held 

 March 31st at the Cosmos Club, Mr. Marcus 

 Baker read an obituary notice of Samuel Shel- 

 labarger. Mr. H. S. Davis, by invitation, de- 

 scribed the present ' State of Progress on the 

 New Reduction of Piazzi's Observations.' 

 This paper appeared in the issue of Science 

 for April 13th. Mr. Alexander Macfarlane's 

 paper on ' Vector Differentiation ' was sum- 

 marized and presented by Mr. Radelflnger, and 

 finally Mr. Wead discussed the discontinuity in 

 functions arising from an infinite exponent, 

 and the use of such discontinuous functions 

 to limit the range of a given equation : e. g., to 

 the surface within a circle and outside a square; 

 to the black squares of a checkerboard ; to the 

 surface of a parallelopipedon, etc. The title 



