30 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



President Knight referred to a paragraph from the pen of Prof. Kapteyn, 

 published in a European journal, relative to a theory accounting for the 

 new star in Perseus. Mr. Knight compared it with his own theory as stated 

 before the section at the December meeting. 



The lecture of the evening was then delivered by Prof. Larkin director 

 of the Lowe Observatory., being an exposition of the nature, law, and prac- 

 tical applications of Spectrum Analysis. Prof. Larkin, by the aid of many 

 diagrams, illustrated the development and the construction of the spectro- 

 scope, and gave a most lucid and instructive account of the important dis- 

 coveries due to its use, and of the invaluable place it occupies in astro- 

 nomical investigation and calculation. The evening was one of unusual 

 profit and interest. 



Melville Dozier, Secretary. 



BIOLOGICAL SECTION. 



Los Angeles, Cal., Feb. i8, 1902 



Prof. Ulrey of the University of Southern California, addressed the Sec- 

 tion. He gave an interesting sketch of the history of Biological research. 

 Beginning with Aristotle, he traced the evolution of the science through 

 Pliny, Wotton, Linaeus, Lamarck, Lyell and Agassiz. 



Finally, he said the researches and convincing arguments of Darwin 

 and Wallace gave us "Natural Selection." These in their turn were fol- 

 lowed by Weissman who opposed the idea of acquired characters being in- 

 herited. 



The comparatively new line of research in experimental embryology 

 and comparative physiology is well illustrated by the experiments of Roux. 

 He destroyed one part of the developing egg of the frog and the remaining 

 part developed, first into a half embryo and later this half produced the 

 whole animal. 



Herbst showed that by changing the composition of sea water, sea 

 urchins' eggs wonld develop into a form very different from the species 

 from which it came. Loeb's researches are along the same lines. 



Some of the problems suggested for local study were: (i) Variations 

 under known environment. (2) Inheritance of acquired characters. (3) 

 Hybridization. (4) Effects on developing embryos of abnormal conditions. 

 (5) Regeneration experiments. 



Besides this, such pioneer work should be carried on as: (i) making 

 lists of species in this region with particular reference to the data of their 

 environment and (2) distribution of certain forms and their abundance. 



In the discussion which followed plans were considered as to these- 

 practical lines of work which the section might undertake. 



