August 26, 1887.] 



SCIENCE 



99 



•on the significance of ' bonds ' in structural formulas, by Spencer B. 

 Newberry ; on positive and negative units of valence, by Albert B. 

 Prescott. Physiological Chcmislry, on the percentage of ash in 

 human bones of different ages, by W. P. Mason ; on chemical 

 <;hanges accompanying osmose in living organisms as illustrated by 

 the oyster, by W. O. Atwater ; on the delicacy of the sense of taste, 

 by E. H. S. Bailey and E. L. Nichols ; on the scientific basis of 

 feeding infants, by A. R. Leeds. Medical Chemistry, on the 

 causes, progress, and cure of a recent great outburst of typhoid-fever 

 at Mount Holly, N.J., by Albert R. Leeds. Committee Reports, on 

 methods of stating water-analysis, by G. C. Caldwell ; on indexing 

 chemical literature, by H. C. Bolton. 



Prof. L. M. Norton, in his e.xperiments in drying oils, has detected 

 the presence of several fatty acids, which are not mentioned in 

 the books. Especially is this the case with cottonseed-oil, which 

 contains several acids in addition to oleic. Owing to easy oxida- 

 tion, it is difficult to separate these acids. The method of distilla- 

 tion in a vacuum was found most effective. Prof. T. H. Norton's 

 papers on organic chemistry disclosed numerous lines of original 

 investigation undertaken in connection with advanced students, and 

 emphasized the growmg importance of mingling original researches 

 with instruction, which is now practised so successfully by the lead- 

 ing laboratories of the world. The papers on analytical chemistry 

 contained nothing of general scientific interest. The alloys of cop- 

 per and antimony and of calcium and zinc presented by Professor 

 Norton disclosed many important facts. He found it impossible by 

 any known method to obtain an alloy of zinc and calcium contain- 

 ing more than five or six per cent of the latter metal. The proper- 

 ties of the compound are also profoundly affected by the proportion 

 of calcium present. 



Dr. Wiley presented, in the paper on sorghum, the means of all 

 the recorded analyses of sorghum-juices. The important fact is 

 brought to light that this average juice is unfit for sugar-making, 

 containing at the rate of a little over twenty pounds of available 

 sugar to the ton of cane. In many instances, however, the percent- 

 age of sucrose in the juice is remarkably high. The successful 

 solution of the problem of sugar-making from sorghum depends 

 on the production of a uniform grade of sorghum reasonably rich in 

 sucrose. This should be the work of the agricultural experiment- 

 stations. 



The sense of taste, as shown by the experiments of Professors 

 Bailey and Nichols, is in general more delicate in females than in 

 males. Bitter is detected in far greater dilutions than sweet or 

 ■saline tastes. 



This session of Section C was remarkable in being almost free 

 from papers of a ' cranky ' nature. No lurid schemes for the re- 

 generation of the human race by chemical affinity were presented, 

 and no intensely improbable properties of matter were described. 

 While many of the papers were crude and some of them quite ele- 

 mentar)', it is nevertheless true that the Chemical Section is pro- 

 gressing in numbers and influence and the character of its work. 



The Section of Economic Science and Statistics this year exer- 

 cised its usual latitude in the consideration of a great variety of 

 subjects ; but, under the close scrutiny of its sectional committee 

 and the rulings of its chairman, everything objectionable was ex- 

 cluded and a high standard maintained. Thus, while all the sub- 

 jects presented were treated in a scientific manner, the proceedings 

 were so conducted as to meet with popular favor. Although in- 

 conveniently located on the upper floor of Hamilton Hall, so that 

 those unacquainted with the ways of the association had difficulty 

 in finding the place, the sessions of this section opened with a room 

 nearly full, on Thursday, and the attendance daily increased until 

 the closing session on Tuesday (Aug. 23), when the hall was un- 

 comfortably crowded by the largest audience present at any sec- 

 ■tional meeting during the week. 



' The Food-Question ' was, by special arrangement, made the 

 sole topic for Thursday. The sessions, both forenoon and after- 

 noon, were opened by Prof. W. O. Atwater of Connecticut, who 

 treated the subject much after the style of his articles in current 

 issues of The Century Magazine. He was enabled to add much 

 interest by a fine collection of illustrative material, some of the 



charts being his own, but the rest prepared at the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, and loaned for this occasion by The 

 Industrial Education Association of No. 9 University Place in this 

 city, through the kindness of Miss H. R. Burns. Much interest 

 was manifested at both sessions, and the discussion took a wide 

 range, including the economy of food in its physiological and pecu- 

 niary aspects, the food of workingmen in its relation to work done, 

 and the preparation of food, together with the ' cooking-schools ' 

 and their results. The most prominent participants in the discus- 

 sions of the day were Prof. W. H. Brewer of New Haven, E. J. 

 James of Philadelphia, S. A. Lattimore of Rochester, J. M. Ord- 

 way of New Orleans, Dr. D. E. Salmon of Washington, Mrs. 

 Richards and Mrs. Lincoln of Boston, and R. T. Colburn of this 

 city. 



On Friday the section gave its attention to statistical and finan- 

 cial questions. The leading paper was by Prof. Edmund J. James 

 of the University of Pennsylvania, and was mainly a sharp and 

 well-presented criticism of the recent essays of Mr. Edward Atkin- 

 son upon the growth and rapidly increasing wealth of this country. 

 Dr. James showed grave omissions in Mr. Atkinson's figures, 

 which greatly modified the deductions from them, and, by mar- 

 shalling the same statistics in a different form, reached very differ- 

 ent conclusions, both as to tlie country's accumulating wealth as a 

 whole, and the earnings of laborers. Charles S. Hill of Washing- 

 ton followed with a statistical paper somewhat similar in character. 

 Then E. B. Elliott, actuary of the Treasury Department, continued 

 his last year's exhibit of the rates of interest realized by investors 

 in the bonded securities of the United States. He showed, that, 

 based upon the market-prices of the government 4 and 4^ per cent 

 bonds, the actual interest during the past year has never exceeded 

 3|- per cent, and at times it has fallen below 2 per cent. He pre- 

 dicted a net rate for some time to come, closely approximating 2 

 per cent. 



As with the other sections, business was suspended from Friday 

 noon till Monday morning, by the various excursions, — an inter- 

 ruption emphatically disapproved by many active members. 



The morning session of Monday took a rather philosophic turn, 

 although the title of the paper which gave rise to most discussion 

 made a claim to belonging within the realm of science : it was 

 ' The Science of Civics,' by Dr. Henry Randall Waite, and while 

 covering broader ground, served especially as an argument and 

 justification for the American Institute of Civics, of which Dr. 

 Waite is president, and its work. An animated discussion ensued, 

 dealing with ethics, politics (in its best sense), and economics, and 

 their relations to one another. Monday afternoon. Section I joined 

 with that of Mechanical Science in considering the question of 

 Isthmian transit. This subject in its various bearings was clearly 

 presented by Commodore Taylor, Surgeon Bransford, and En- 

 gineer Peary, of the United States Navy, and Mr. J. W. Miller of 

 this city ; and the interested audience seemed well convinced of 

 the superiority of the ship-canal and the Nicaragua route over all 

 other schemes, and the certainty of the early completion of this 

 enterprise by American capital, and to be under the control of the 

 United States. 



Manual training, its methods and results, in public schools and 

 special institutions, from economical, industrial, and educational 

 aspects, formed the principal subject of the final session of the 

 section on Tuesday. Prof. Calvin M. Woodward of St. Louis, and 

 Prof. James of Philadelphia, read papers, and a general discussion 

 followed entirely favorable to manual training in every form. 



Yan Phou Lee of New Haven closed the session with an elo- 

 quent address upon the Chinese question from a Chinese stand- 

 point, delivered before as large and enthusiastic an audience as any 

 assembled at Columbia College during the meeting of the asso- 

 ciation. It was a telling arraignment of the policy and conduct of 

 the United States in reference to the Chinese, and reminded one of 

 an epitome of Helen Hunt Jackson's ' Century of Dishonor.' 



HEALTH MATTERS. 

 Cure of Consumption. 



Among the first to use Bergeon's treatment for the cure of con- 

 sumption by gaeous enemata in this country, and certainly the first in 

 Philadelphia, was Dr. E. T. Bruen. As a result of the treatment 



