372 
ASTRONOMY: C. P. OLIVIER 
If we assume with Heidenhain and others, as most physiologists now 
do, that urine is produced by a 'vital' activity of the cells of the glom- 
eruH and of the convoluted tubules, we may perhaps express our find- 
ings by the statement that morphin increases the 'physiological per- 
meability' of the kidney cells while it decreases the same kind of per- 
meability of the endotheha of the capillaries of other tissues of the body. 
1 Kleiner and Meltzer, ^wer. /. Physiol., SZ^ 17 (1914); also Kleiner, /. Exp. Medicine, 
23, 507 (1916). 
THE WORK OF THE AMERICAN METEOR SOCIETY IN 
1914 AND 1915 
By Charles P. Olivier 
LEANDER McCORMICK OBSERVATORY, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA 
Received by the Academy, May 29, 1916 
The year 1915 saw a very great increase in the interest in the study 
of meteors, which was evidenced by the large number of observations 
made by members of the American Meteor Society. This gratifying 
increase became largely possible on account of a grant to Dr. S. A. 
Mitchell of the Leander McCormick Observatory from the J. Lawrence 
Smith fund of the National Academy of Sciences. This appropriation, 
which was made in April, 1915, permitted the work of the Meteor Society 
to obtain wider publicity by the publicaion and distribution of bulletins, 
maps and blanks to prospective members. 
As a consequence, it is believed that the largest amount of systematic 
work ever done in one year in America, was sent in; the results of these 
observations have been prepared for publication and are now awaiting 
printing. Briefly, this publication will contain the results from 540 
observations made by 4 persons in 1914 and from 5003 observations 
made by 36 persons in 1915. While most of these 36 persons are ama- 
teurs, five have had astronomical training, one is a colonel in the U. S. 
Army, one is an observer of meteors in the U. S. Weather Bureau of 
wide experience, three are students in astronomy at the University of 
Virginia, and several others are trained in various scientific lines which 
would make their work the more valuable. The observers were sta- 
tioned in 17 states, 2 provinces of Canada, and one in the Argentine 
RepubHc. It might be added that the Meteor Society has members 
in several foreign countries and several dozen more in America from 
whom no reports have yet been received, while a week rarely passes 
without a new person applying for membership. 
From the 5543 observations of meteors mentioned, we have been able 
