Notes. 
7i3 
1879.] 
was continued in office. The Chairman of the Sub-sedlion of 
Chemistry, Dr. Ira Remsen, of Baltimore, was, unfortunately, 
prevented from attending, and Prof. F. W. Clarke, of Cincinnati, 
took the position. One of the features of these meetings is the 
address of the Retiring President. On this occasion Prof. O. 
C. Marsh, of New Haven, had the duty to perform. His sub- 
ject was “ The History and Methods of Palaeontological Dis- 
covery.” Vice-President Langley gave an address on “ Solar 
Physics,” a subjedt to which he himself has materially contri- 
buted. And Major J. W. Powell gave an address on “ Mytho- 
logic Philosophy, having special reference to the mythologies of 
the Indian tribes. Dr. Ira Remsen’s address was a plea for 
the study of Organic Chemistry, a branch which he claims is 
too often negledted in the courses prescribed in colleges and 
scientific schools. These addresses will appear in full in the 
annual volume of Proceedings. Heartily welcomed by the 
meeting was the distinguished astronomer, Dr. Otto Struve, 
Director of the Pulkowa Observatory, Russia, who is in 
America for the purpose of securing a larger objedl lens for a 
refradling telescope than has yet been made in the world. The 
lens is to be made by Alvan Clark and Son, of Cambridge, 
Mass. The lion of the gathering was, undoubtedly, Dr. Thomas 
A. Edison, of Menlo Park, N.J. He exhibited on Saturday 
evening, to a delighted audience of 1500 persons, his recently- 
invented Eledtro-Chemical Telephone. Speech, music, &c., 
was transmitted from a distant room, and the sounds issuing 
from the telephone were heard by every individual in the hall. 
Perhaps the most remarkable discovery announced is one by Dr. 
Edison, which will necessitate an entire revision of the physical 
constants of all known metals. His paper was entitled, “The 
Phenomena of Heating Metals in Vacuo by means of an Eledtric 
Current,” and demonstrated that platinum heated in vacuo by 
eledtricity becomes denser, harder, more infusible, and less liable 
to disintegration when heated in a flame. Iron treated in 
a similar manner becomes as hard as steel and just as elastic. 
Aluminium melts only at a white heat. 
The Meeting of the French Association for the Advancement 
of Science for 1879 was held, in August, at Montpellier, under 
the presidency of M. Bardoux, the late Minister for Public 
Instrudtion. The speaker chose for his subjedt “ Education,” 
viewed chiefly from a literary and a moral point of view. Still 
he declared that “ henceforth the memory must no longer be 
made the basis of education.” He denounced the too great 
importance attached to words, and quoted Montaigne to the 
effedt that the pupils of many pedagogues were simply “ asses 
loaded with books.” The financial statement showed that the 
capital of the Society amounts to about 300,000 fr. The grants 
for research last year amounted to 10,000 fr. One of the ledtures 
Was given by M. Denayrouze, on “ The Progress of Elcdtricity.” 
