186 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. No. 527. 



American Mathematical Society, by F. N. 

 Cole ; ' The Fundamental Conceptions and 

 Methods of Mathematics,' by Maxime Bocher; 

 ' The History of Mathematics in the Nine- 

 teenth Century,' by James Pierpont ; * De 

 Scguier's Theory of Abstract Groups ' (Re- 

 view of de Seguier's Elements de la Theorie 

 des Groupes Abstraits), by L. E. Dickson; 

 Shorter Notices (Cajori's Introduction to the 

 Modern Theory of Equations, by L. E. Dick- 

 son; Annuaire Astronomique pour 1905, by 

 E. W. Brown) ; Notes ; New Publications. 

 The January number of the Bulletin con- 

 tains the following articles : ' The Group of a 

 Tactical Configuration,' by L. E. Dickson; 

 ' Application of the Theory of Continuous 

 Groups to a Certain Differential Equation,' 

 by J. E. Wright; 'On the Quintic Scroll 

 having a Tacnodal or Oscnodal Conic,' by 

 Virgil Snyder ; ' On the Deformation of Sur- 

 faces of Translation,' by Burke Smith; Re- 

 port of the International Congress of Mathe- 

 maticians at Heidelberg, by H. W. Tyler; 

 Report of the Sectional ^Meetings of the 

 Heidelberg Congress, by E. B. Wilson ; Notes ; 

 New Publications. 



TiiK contents of the December issue of the 

 Journal of Terrestrial Magnetism and At- 

 mospheric Electricity are as follows: 



Portrait of Ettriek W. Creak, Frontispiece. 



F. BiDLiNGMAiER: ' Ueber den Einfluss der 

 Torsion bei den Ablenkungen eincs hiingenden 

 !Magneten.' 



L. A. Bauer and G. W. Littlehales : ' Pro- 

 posed Magnetic Survey of the North Pacific 

 Ocean by the Carnegie Institution.' 



W. SiTUERLAND: 'On the Cause of the 

 Earth's Magnetism and Gravitation.' 



T^. A. Baver: 'The Physical Decomposition 

 of the Earth's Permanent Magnetic Field. No. 

 v.: Systems of Magnetic Forces Causing the 

 Secular Variation of the Uniform Portion of 

 the Earth's Magnetism.' 



Biographical Sketch of Ettriek W. Creak. 



Ix'tters to Editor: Interruptions lo Telegraph 

 Lines in New South Wales, Australia, as ob- 

 served from the Chief Office (Sydney), <.n Octo- 

 ber 31, 1003, 0. J. Klotz; Principal Magnetic 

 Disturbances recorded at Cheltenham Magnetic 

 Observatory, Sept. 1 to Nov. 30, 1904, W. F. 

 Wallis; Some Observations of the Diurnal Varia- 



tion of the Magnetic Declination at Cuajimalpa, 

 Mexico, M. Morenoy Anda. 



Notes, Abstracts, Reviews, and list of recent 

 publications. 



The Journal of Infectious Diseases (Vol- 

 ume 2, No. 1) contains the following articles : 



David J. Levy: 'Some Physical Properties of 

 Enzymes.' 



ISIaximilian Herzog : ' Fatal Infection by a 

 Hitherto Undescribed Chromogenic Bacterium, 

 Bacillus Aureus Foetidus.' 



E. 0. Jordan and Mary Hefferan : ' Observa- 

 tions on the Bionomics of Anopheles.' 



George H. Weaver, E. M. Tunnicliff, P. G. 

 Heinemann, May Michael: 'Summer Diarrhoea 

 in Infants.' 



Albert Woelfel: 'Identification of Alcohol- 

 Soluble Hemolysins in Blood Serum.' 



Richard P. Strong: 'Protective Inoculation 

 against Asiatic Cholera.' 



L. Hektoen and G. F. Ruediger: 'Studies in 

 Phagocytosis.' 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 392d regular meeting was held Decem- 

 ber 5, 1904. G. K Gilbert spoke briefly of 

 observations of the marks of the claws of bears 

 and other animals upon the bark of the aspen 

 in the Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. 

 Photographs of the trunks of trees so marked 

 and specimens of the bark were exhibited. 



Henry Oldys, under the title ' Some New 

 Bird Songs,' gave an account of interesting 

 songs noted by him in the spring of 1904. 

 Most of these offered additional evidence of 

 the use by birds of rules of construction that 

 govern human music. The speaker reproduced, 

 among others, several chewink songs, all of 

 which were sung by one chewink. Two songs 

 of a wood thrush, which were given, the 

 speaker declared the most remarkable songs 

 he had heard in years of experience. Each 

 followed a form common in the modern four- 

 line ballad and each was a model of melody. 

 Hitherto, this four-phrase form had been 

 found only in the morning and evening song 

 of the wood pewee and in the usual song of the 

 summer tanager, and neither had the melodic 

 beauty that characterized the two wood thrush 



