226 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. 528. 



macognosy, where the study of improved proc- 

 esses of handling the products is given espe- 

 cial attention ; and in cooperation with poison- 

 ous plant investigations, laboratory of phar- 

 macology, where the physiological action of 

 drug plants and products is tested. In addi- 

 tion to these laboratories, for all routine 

 chemical work, cooperation with the bureau 

 of chemistry is afforded. 



Among the problems under investigation 

 are, first, the domestication aiad cultivation 

 of valuable native drug plants now being de- 

 pleted, such as hydrastis and cascara sagrada ; 

 second, the cultivation of drug plants furnish- 

 ing products now exclusively or chiefly pro- 

 duced abroad and imported, as, for example, 

 belladonna, licorice, capsicum, opium poppy 

 and many others; third, a careful scientific 

 study of processes involved in curing and 

 fermentation or in otherwise treating the 

 fresh material in order to bring it in best 

 condition to the market. 



Do Segregations of Character Pairs Occur at 

 Other Points in the Development of Organ- 

 isms than the Maturation of Germ Cells: 

 Professor W. J. Spillman. 

 The speaker pointed out that the distribution 

 of color on spotted animals could be explained 

 on the assumption that the color potentialities 

 separate in cell divisions concerned only in the 

 somatic development of the animal, and that 

 bud variation might possibly be due to the 

 same thing. If such separations do occur, 

 very distinct cases of mutation might arise in 

 consequence thereof. In this connection it 

 is interesting to note the conclusions of biolo- 

 gists who have investigated the subject of 

 embryology. They conclude that in some em- 

 bryos the cells resulting from the first one or 

 two divisions in the embryo have almost iden- 

 tically the same inheritance, and that a single 

 one of these cells is capable of developing 

 into a complete embryo, usually, however, 

 dwarfed in character. In other embryos, if 

 one of the two cells resulting from the first 

 division is destroyed, the other cell develops 

 into a portion of the embryo, presumably that 

 portion that would have developed from that 

 cell if the other cell had lived, indicating that 

 in the first division a separation of characters 



was made that gave the two cells a different 

 inheritance. 



H. J. Webber, 

 Corresponding Secretary. 



THE CHEMIC.\L SOCIETY Of WASHIXGTOX. 



The 155th regular and twenty-first annual 

 meeting of the society was held Thursday 

 evening, January 12, in the assembly hall of 

 the Cosmos Club. The business of the even- 

 ing consisted in the presentation of the an- 

 nual reports of the secretary and treasurer 

 and of the election of officers for the ensuing 

 year. The election resulted as follows: 



President — S. S. Voorhees. 



First Vice-President — L. M. Tolman. 



Second Vice-President — Allan Wade Dow. 



(Secretary — Atherton Seidell. 



Treasurer — Fred. P. Dewey. 



Four additional memhers of the Executive Com- 

 mittee — Messrs. E. T. Allen, Frank K. Cameron, 

 Edwin A. Hill and L. S. Munson. 



Professor F. W. Clarke was nominated on 

 behalf of the Chemical Society as vice-presi- 

 dent of the Washington Academy of Sciences. 



At the conclusion of the election of officers. 

 Dr. W. A. Noyes, of the National Bureau of 

 Standards, delivered an address upon ' The 

 Work of the Bureau of Standards.' 



A. Seidell, 

 Secretary. 



the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. NORTH- 

 EASTERN SECTION. 



The fifty-sixth regular meeting of the sec- 

 tion was held Friday evening, December 16, 

 in the Lowell building, Massachusetts Insti- 

 tute of Technology, with President Xorris in 

 the chair. About 150 members and guests 

 were present. 



Professor Edwin J. Bartlett, of Dartmouth 

 College, gave an address entitled ' An Even- 

 ing with the Alchemists,' in which he de- 

 scribed the processes and apparatus used by 

 the alchemists, and showed a large number of 

 lantern slides of contemporaneous pictures of 

 alchemical utensils and interiors of the labo- 

 ratories of the middle ages. 



Arthur M. Comev, 



Secretary. 



