408 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
561st Meeting. January 17, 1903. 
President Gore in the chair. 
Thirty-six persons present. 
The evening was ’devoted to Reports of the Committee on 
Mathematical Science. 
Mr. C. Abbe spoke on Burkhardt and Meyer’s Encyclopadie 
der Mathematischen Wissenschaften, now being issued by the 
German Mathematical Union in conjunction with the Gottingen 
Scientific Association and the Academies of Munich and Vienna. 
Fifteen parts have been published thus far, and the work will 
extend to 10,000 pages, requiring five or six years more. The 
parts issued were passed around for inspection. [Not pub¬ 
lished.] 
Remarks on the subject were made by Mr, Hagen. 
Mr. F. H. Bigelow summarized the Applications of mathe¬ 
matics to meteorology. There has been serious misapplication 
of theories to the explanation of cyclones and anti-cyclones; for it 
is now known that Ferrel’s vortex and Oberbeck’s vortex do not 
agree with the modern observations of the local circulation of the 
air. Similarly the theory of least squares and probability curves 
is misapplied in discussing periodic cycles observed in the solar 
and terrestrial atmospheres. [Published in this volume, p. 215.] 
The paper was discussed by Messrs. Spillman, Hai^ford, and 
Abbe. 
Mr. Radelfinger read a paper presented by invitation by 
Professor H. F. Stecker, of Cornell University, on The founda¬ 
tions of geometry and on possible systems of geometry. Since 
geometry is founded on assumptions, there are many possible 
geometries. A rapid review was given of Hilbert’s two important 
papers, and the criticisms on them. Of all known systems, the 
Euclidian is the simplest. [ Published in this volume, p. 205.] 
Messrs. Baker, Wead, and Gore discussed the paper. 
