May 5, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



699 



growing animals and tlie feeding of milking 

 animals. 



Part I., and especially the chapters upon 

 metabolism, will be of much interest to the 

 student of nutrition in general, but the special 

 value of the book is found in Part III., in 

 which is made the first serious attempt to 

 apply the more recent knowledge regarding 

 the energy relations of feeding stuffs to prac- 

 tical use. It abandons definitely the assump- 

 tion which has underlain nearly all previous 

 works of this character that the digestible 

 nutrients, so-called, of a feeding stuff are a 

 measure of its value. In place of this, 

 Kellner puts the actual productive value as 

 worked out by his own investigations and 

 which is shown to differ very widely in many 

 cases from the indications given by the digest- 

 ible nutrients. While he does not fail to 

 point out that the basis for an undertaking of 

 this sort is still somewhat narrow, yet he be- 

 lieves that the time is ripe for a beginning. 

 He has accordingly, in the appendix, given a 

 series of tables in which the productive value 

 of feeding stuffs is estimated, largely upon the 

 basis of his own results, while the so-called 

 feeding standards are also expressed upon the 

 same basis. 



While it is, perhaps, to be regretted that the 

 author has expressed his feeding values in the 

 form of starch equivalents instead of boldly 

 adopting the terminology of energy, and while 

 it can not be denied that his tables are based 

 to a considerable degree upon estimates, never- 

 theless the book promises to mark a distinct 

 stage of development in the theory of stock 

 feeding and will be welcomed by the large 

 number of those who have become dissatisfied 

 with the present conventional methods in this 

 subject. H. P. Armsby. 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

 The contents of the American Journal of 

 Mathematics are as follows: 



Alexander Chessin : ' On a Class of DiflFer- 

 onlial Equations.' 



L. P. EiSENHART: 'Surfaces Vvith the Same 

 Spherical Representation of their Lines of Curva- 

 ture as Pseudospherical Surfaces.' 



Virgil Snyder: 'On the Forms of Sextic 

 Scrolls having no Eectilinear Directrix.' 



Leonard Eugene Dickson : ' Determination of 

 the Ternary Modular Groups.' 



The April issue of the Journal of Nervous 

 and Mental Disease opens with a paper by 

 Dr. William P. Spratling and Dr. Roswell 

 Park, on ' Bilateral Sympathectomy for the 

 Relief of Epilepsy,' with report of three cases, 

 and notes on the physiologic effects of cutting 

 the sympathetic, and on the histologic changes 

 found in the cases in question. The micro- 

 scopical findings are illustrated by two plates. 

 Dr. F. W. Langdon follows with a paper on 

 myelomalacia, with especial reference to diag- 

 nosis and treatment, illustrated by charts, and 

 Dr. Arthur Conklin Brush discusses the 

 medico-legal aspects of traumatic epilepsy. 

 The Society Proceedings reported this month 

 include the meeting of the Boston Society of 

 Psychiatry and Neurology held November 17, 

 1904, and that of the Chicago Neurological 

 Society of the same date. 



SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 



THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



The 166th meeting was held on March 22. 

 The regular program included: 



The Coal Measures of Brazil: Dr. 1. C. White. 



Dr. White discussed the character and dis- 

 tribution of the coal-bearing beds of southern 

 Brazil. The series consists of coarse con- 

 glomerates, and gray sandstones at the base, 

 alternating with blue and gray shales up to 

 350 to 400 feet above the granite upon which 

 the measures rest in the states of Santa Cath- 

 arina and Eio Grande do Sul, where his prin- 

 cipal studies were prosecuted during the past 

 year. Above these basal sandstones, the coal 

 beds occur three to four in number through 

 a thickness of 200-250 feet of alternating gray 

 sandstones, clays and shales. There are two 

 principal coals, the ' Bonita ' bed at the base, 

 and the ' Barro Branco ' near the top of the 

 coal series. The coal is high in both ash and 

 sulphur, but can be used successfully for loco- 

 motives, stationary boilers, etc., in a region 

 where imported coal costs not less than $10 

 per ton at the seacoast. 



