March 31, 190.3.] 



SCIENCE. 



513 



THE CONFERENCE OF NEUROLOGY AND A'ERTEBRATE 

 ZOOLOGY OF CORNELL UNIVERSITY. 



At the conference of the department of 

 neurology and vertebrate zoology at Cornell 

 University, February 7, Alfred C. Weed, '05, 

 presented the results of his study of the Bra- 

 zilian Siluridse or cat-fishes in the museum. 

 They were collected in 1870 by Charles 

 Frederick Hartt, the first Cornell professor 

 of geology and paleontology; he was a 

 pupil of the elder Agassiz, whom he accom- 

 panied on the Thayer expedition in 1865 ; 

 in 1870 he organized the Morgan expedi- 

 tion from Cornell University, and in 1878 

 died in Brazil of yellow fever. Among 

 the numerous valuable specimens obtained 

 by Hartt and his associates were ninety 

 siluroids. Some years ago they were sent for 

 identification to Professor C. IT. Eigenniann, 

 of the Indiana University, with the privilege 

 of retaining some duplicates and describing 

 tlie new species. There were found two new 

 species, described by Kindle in 1894 as Hassar 

 u'ilderi and Hemiancistrus longipinnis. Of 

 the latter, through inadvertence, but one ex- 

 ample was sent. In the Cornell museum, in 

 addition to a mounted specimen that had been 

 mounted so as to display the tufts of inter- 

 opercular bristles and the tail, ' obliquely 

 trancated, the lower lobe produced,' Mr. Weed 

 has found two alcoholic examples; one will be 

 ?cnt to Dr. Eigenmann and the other to the 

 ]^^i;seum of Comparative Zoology at Cam- 

 bridge. Burt G. Wilder. 



the AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 



northeastern section. 



The fifty-eighth regular meeting of the sec- 

 tion was held on Friday evening, February 

 24, in the Lowell building, Massachusetts In- 

 stitute of Technology, with President Norris 

 in the chair. About seventy-five members 

 were present. 



Mr. Charles A. Kraus, of the Massachusetts 

 Institute of Technology, gave an experimental 

 lecture on ' The Chemistry of Liquid Am- 

 monia Solutions,' in which he described the 

 solubility of various bodies in liquid ammonia 

 which possesses a high solvent power for many 

 substances, especially those containing carbon. 



with many of which it gives brilliant colored 

 solutions. Electrolytic dissociation in am- 

 monia solutions was discussed, and it was 

 shown that ammonia was a much weaker elec- 

 trolytic agent than water, the ions traveling 

 2.8 times faster in it than in the latter solvent. 

 The alkali metals sodium and potassium are 

 very soluble in NIL, and the solutions conduct 

 electricity like a metallic conductor. 



Arthur M. Comey, 



Secretary. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 



literary production above FORTY. 



To THE Editor of Science: Your making 

 available, by quotation in the last issue of 

 Science, the precise form of Professor Osier's 

 much discussed ' obsessions ' concerning the 

 comparative uselessness of men above 40 years 

 of age suggested an inquiry into the period 

 of production in the lives of American men 

 of letters, literature being one of the fields of 

 achieve. nent from which. Dr. Osier believes, 

 we could well spare the work done by men 

 above 40. 



Even in poetry, , where there might be 

 especial reasons for the view, the case is doubt- 

 ful. Bryant, indeed, wrote his most noted 

 poems before 40, but wrote others quite as 

 good at 70. Poe and Lanier died at 40 and 

 39, so their evidence is inconclusive. But 

 Longfellow wrote ' Evangeline ' at 40, ' Hia- 

 watha' at 48, and ' Miles Standish' at 51 ; Whit- 

 tier wrote ' Snow Bound,' his best and most 

 characteristic poem, at 59 ; Whitman had done 

 but little before his first considerable volume 

 at 41. Lowell, alone of the more noted Amer- 

 ican poets, produced practically all of his best 

 verse before 40; practically all of his best 

 prose was written afterwards. 



In prose, everything goes to disprove an 

 age limit of 40. Except Jefferson's draft 

 of the ' Declaration of Independence ' (written 

 at 33), Irving's 'Sketch-Book' (at 36), 

 Thoreau's ' Walden ' (at 37), Cooper's best 

 novels, and, for the reason given above, all 

 of Poe's prose, almost every notable piece of 

 American prose was written after its author 

 had reached 40. Some came much later — 

 Edwards's 'Freedom of the Will' at 51, 



