498 



SCIENCE. 



[X. S. Vol. XXI. Xo. y.io. 



the surroimdings sho-\ved them not liable to 

 pollution. These, for the most part, are 

 through the eastern section of Massachu- 

 setts. Most of the samples contained forms 

 liquefying gelatin so rapidly as to make the 

 counting of numbers impossible after forty- 

 eight hours at 20° C. The most striking 

 fact is the prevalence in these open waters 

 of the development of red colonies on lac- 

 tose-litmus-agar, sixty of the samples show- 

 ing distinct red colonies either on the sur- 

 face or imbedded in the medium. All 

 tj'pical growths have been differentiated 

 and found to give more or less fiilly the 

 colon reactions. Open brooks such as 

 would be used for any impounding reser- 

 voir give often the most questionable data 

 when rigidly interpreted; for example, 

 from a small br(!ok flowing through wood- 

 land and abandoned pasture with no tillage 

 land above gave as high as six red colonies, 

 differentiating out as modified colon forms, 

 to the cubic centimeter. In but two cases, 

 however, has the writer been able to isolate 

 the streptococci— once in an open brook 

 near Whitman, Mass., and once near the 

 mouth of Elmer's Brook in South Hadley, 

 a famous trout stream. Neither of these 

 are polluted waters as we understand them, 

 but the above determinations should not be 

 accepted as final until further study of the 

 area may have removed all possibility of 

 contamination from animals. So far as we 

 have gone in this inquiry the statements of 

 Houston appear to be justified. It is of 

 .some importance, therefore, that careful 

 incjuiry as to the occurrence of the strepto- 

 cocci forms in nature be continiied. Any 

 considerable pollution of a natural water 

 by fecal material will show these forms, 

 which are readily distinguishable on the 

 litmus-laetose-agar plate ; and if continued 

 examinations may show them not to be 

 present in normal country waters their 

 significance from the sanitary point of view 

 is evident. 



Tlie Steam Still: F. C. Hakrison and B. 

 Barlow, Ontario Agricultural College. 



Some Large hut Inexpensive Incubators 

 for Teaching and Working Lah oratories: 

 S. C. Prescott, ]\Iassachusetts Institute 

 of Technology'. 



Some Experiences iciih Test-tubes: H. A. 

 Harding, Experiment Station, Geneva, 

 X. Y. Frederic P. Gorham, 



Secretary. 



Beowx University, 

 Providence, R. I. 



THE SOCIETY FOR PLANT MORPHOLOGY 

 AXD PHYSIOLOGY. 



The eighth annual meeting of this so- 

 ciety was held, in conjunction with the 

 meetings of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science and the affili- 

 ated societies, at the University of Penn- 

 sylvania, Philadelphia, December 28-30, 

 1904, under the presidency of Dr. George 

 T. Moore. The meeting was large in point 

 of numbers, and in all ways successful. 

 The following officers were elected for the 

 ensuing year: 



President — Professor E. C. Jeffrey, of Harvard 

 University. 



Vice-President — Dr. C. 0. Townsend, of the 

 United States Department of Agriculture. 



Secretary-Treasurer — Professor W. F. Ganong, 

 of Smith Collejie. 



The following new members were elected : 

 Dr. G. P. Burns, of the University of Mich- 

 igan; Dr. A. L. Dean, of Yale University; 

 and JMessrs. C. F. Kellerman, W. M. Scott 

 and D. B. Swingle, of the United States 

 Department of Agriculture. As its dele- 

 gate to the International Botanical Con- 

 gi-e.ss in June the society elected Professor 

 Farlow, and made provision for an alter- 

 nate if he can not be present. The society 

 accepted the principles, recommended by 

 its committee of conference (published in 

 this journal, XXI., 197), upon which it 

 will merge, along with the Botanical So- 

 ciety of America and the American Myco- 



