May 18, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



789 



elusion is drawn from the fact that the whole 

 eggs did not fertilize in a drop of water as well 

 as the enucleated fragments. His conclusions 

 were criticised, for the whole eggs in abundant 

 water all fertilized as usual. The only justifi- 

 able conclusion would be that confinement in 

 a drop of water prevents fertilization of normal 

 eggs, while it is not an unfavorable condition 

 for enucleated fragments. The small available 

 supply of oxygen may account for this. The 

 second conclusion above given is drawn from 

 contradictory results. The proper inference to 

 draw is that the possibility of entrance of the 

 sperm is determined in hybridization by other 

 things than the presence or absence of the 

 nucleus. 



At the session of March 14th, a paper entitled 

 ' The Derivation of Annelid Nephridia ' was 

 read by Mr. R. S. Lillie, consisting of a resume 

 and discussion of the various theories regard- 

 ing the morphological significance of annelid 

 nephridia. 



C. M. Child. 



THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



At the 517th meeting of the Society, held 

 April 14th at the Cosmos Club, Professor Geo. 

 L. Raymond, of Princeton Universitj' read a 

 paper on 'Some ^Esthetic Aspects of Music' 

 He showed that the one distinction between 

 talking and singing lay in the sustained char- 

 acter of the tones of the latter. Birds, dogs or 

 men chirp, bark or talk in unsustained tones at 

 those who have interrupted them. They sing, 

 howl or hum in sustained tones, subjectively 

 and spontaneously. This explains why music 

 need not convey definite intelligence, nor imi- 

 tate external conditions. But natural music, 

 as when a man hums, does represent moods, 

 and may repeat what has been heard. Artistic 

 music develops, according to the laws of form, 

 phrases of natural music ; and what these mean 

 may be determined by the meanings of time, 

 pitch, force and quality as manifested in intona- 

 tions of speech as distinguished from the articu- 

 lations of words. 



Mr. R. H. Strother spoke on the ' Physics 

 of the Phonograph,' and C. K. Wead dis- 

 cussed 'Modern Problems in Acoustics.' 



The 518th meeting, held April 28th, was de- 



voted to a paper by Mr. Lyman J. Briggs ' On 

 the Absorption of Salts by Organic and Inor- 

 ganic Substances,' followed by 'An Unscien- 

 tific Account of a Scientific Expedition to 

 Hawaii,' illustrated by lantern slides, by Mr. 

 E. D. Preston and the exercises closed with a 

 statement by Mr. R. A. Harris of ' A new way 

 of indicating the Acceleration of a point re- 

 ferred to Polar Co-ordinates.' The author 

 showed how the ordinary expression for the 

 acceleration of a point moving in a circle, or 

 how the resolution of the acceleration with 

 reference to tangent and normal for any path 

 (plain or twisted), does by its form indicate the 

 resolution with reference to polar co-ordinates. 

 E. D. Preston, 



Secretary. 



NOTES ON PHYSICS. 



ANALYSIS OF VOWEL SOUNDS. 



Peofessob. Louis Bevibe, Jr., describes in 

 the Physical Review, for April, some interesting 

 work in vowel analysis. The author magnifies 

 the ordinary phonograph record by a mechan- 

 ical-optical device, thus obtaining tracings 

 which he subjects to harmonic analysis. He 

 has thus far analyzed only the vowel a (as in 

 father). He finds two mouth tones in this 

 vowel. The higher and more characteristic 

 mouth tone has a pitch of about 1150 ± 150 vi- 

 brations per second. The lower mouth tone 

 has a pitch of about 675 ± 125 vibrations per 

 second. The resonance corresponding to the 

 higher tone is the more pronounced, and this 

 tone varies less in pitch than the lower tone, 

 with different voices. 



DISSOCIATION THEOEY OF THE ELECTEIC ARC. 



Peofessor C. D. Child applies the theory 

 of ionic dissociation to the explanation of some 

 of the more prominent of the phenomena of the 

 electric arc in the Physical Revieiv, for March, 

 1900. Professor Child explains the curve ob- 

 tained by Mrs. Ayrton (representing the fall of 

 potential from carbon to carbon). He explains 

 the peculiar light clouds which N. H. Brown 

 found advancing at different velocities from 

 positive and negative carbons in an alternating 

 current arc, and he verifies the drag of the 

 ions upon the vapors of the arc by the method 



