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rank as the standard tests, and so introduce order into the existing confusion, and make the future results of different workers in this field comparable with one another. The principal difficulty to which the authors address themselves is the selection of materials and conditions which can be described with such scientific precision as to be reproducible from the mere description by any other worker. For example, in a specially difficult test to standardize, that for sensitiveness to faint colors, the authors use aqueous solutions of analin dyes; light passes through the solutions, under definite conditions, to the subject's eye, and his sensitiveness is measured by the strength of the weakest solution in which he detects the color. This seems, on the whole, the most ingenious of the authors' innovations, of which there are many. In addition to determinations of the least noticeable sensations and differences in sensation, the authors suggest a system of tests on memory, association, imagination, judgment, reasoning, attention, etc. They frankly point. out the gaps in their system, which they are as yet unable to fill satisfactorily. A chapter is devoted to the general technique of experi

mentation, the necessity of noting the condition of the subject, and of excluding certain subjects as unsuited to psychological tests, the proper attitude toward working hypotheses and toward the literature of a question, the necessity, in addition to quantitative tests, of less rigorous observation, which should, however, be brought up as nearly as possible to the exact standard of experimentation. appendix of sixty pages is devoted to the reprinting of tests which can be fully presented in alphabetical or musical notation.

An

In view of the slack attention to standard conditions that characterizes much work in psychology, this book should do considerable good. As the most serious attempt to present a standard series of tests, it is worthy of attention and a large measure of acceptance. It can not hope, of course, to be definitive, and, indeed, the authors repudiate any such claim. More is to be gained, perhaps, by insistence on the general principle of standard and exactly reproducible conditions, than by

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SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. THE first number of Economic Geology, a semi-quarterly journal devoted to geology as applied to mining and allied industries has been issued under the editorship of John Duer Irving, of Lehigh University. The associate editors are: Waldemar Lindgren, Washington, D. C.; James Furman Kemp, Columbia University; Frederick Leslie Ransome, Washington, D. C.; Heinrich Ries, Cornell University; Marius R. Campbell, Washington, D. C., and Charles Kenneth Leith, University of Wisconsin. The contents of the first number are: "The Present Standing of Applied Geology,' Frederick Leslie Ransome; 'Secondary Enrichment in Ore-Deposits of Copper,' James Furman Kemp; Hypothesis to Account for the Transformation of Vegetable Matter into the Different Varieties of Coal,' Marius R. Campbell; Ore-Deposition and Deep Mining,' Waldemar Lindgren; 'Genesis of the Lake

Superior Iron Ores,' Charles Kenneth Leith; The Chemistry of Ore-Deposition-Precipitation of Copper by Natural Silicates,' Eugene C. Sullivan; Editorial; Discussion; Reviews; Recent Literature on Economic Geology; Scientific Notes and News.

The American Museum Journal for October is termed the Batrachian Number, its major portion being devoted to an illustrated synopsis of the salamanders, toads and frogs that have been found within a radius of fifty miles of New York City. The text is by R. L. Ditmars, illustrations from photographs by Herbert Lang, mainly of animals living in the New York Zoological Park. W. M. Wheeler tells 'How the Queens of the Parasitic and Slave-making Ants establish their Colonies,' and announcements are made of three courses of lectures, for members, pupils and teachers, in October-December. There are, besides, many notes concerning additions to the collections and other features of interest at the museum. The figures of the batrachians are

excellent, the nearly life-size picture of a bullfrog that forms the frontispiece being particularly fine.

THE special feature of the Zoological Society Bulletin for October is the announcement of the reception at the park of a young African elephant of the small-eared species, from West Africa known as Elephas cyclotis. Few realize that specimens of the African elephant are far more uncommon in this country than mastodons and it is quite probable that this specimen is the first of the species seen in the United States. Other interesting animals on exhibition are the great anteater, echidna, crested screamers and ruffs.

The Museum News (Brooklyn) for October has for its longest article an account of the rearrangement of the insect room at the Children's Museum, to better adapt it to the needs of teachers and children. The collections comprise a very considerable number of the local insects, examples of the largest and smallest insects in various orders, and instances of striking differences between the males and females. These are supplemented by small groups showing life histories, interesting habits, protective coloration and mimicry. There is an extended series of lectures at the Children's Museum for pupils. Various changes are noted at the Central Museum, in the main already announced in SCIENCE. An interesting addition to the collection illustrating variation is a group of eleven ruffs, Pavoncella pugnax, in full breeding plumage, showing the striking differences found among these birds.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.

THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. NEW YORK

SECTION.

THE first regular meeting of the season was held at the Chemists' Club, Friday evening, October 6, 1905. The program of the evening was as follows:

R. H. WILLIAMS and H. C. SHERMAN: The Detection, Determination and Rate of Disappearance of Formaldehyde in Milk.

Using a method which permits approximate estimation of any amount of formaldehyde

greater than 1:160,000, it was found that even aqueous solutions of formaldehyde of 1:10,000 to 1:40,000 lose strength steadily on standing at room temperature, the loss being due to an actual destruction, and not merely to polymerization, of the formaldehyde; while when added to milk in the same proportion formaldehyde disappears ten to twenty times as rapidly as from water.

The hydrochloric acid and ferric chloride test is capable of showing 1 part of formaldehyde in 250,000 parts of milk. Sourness of the milk does not in itself diminish the delicacy of the reaction, but when milk is preserved by means of formaldehyde the latter will have largely disappeared before the milk becomes sour. Considerable data regarding the time required for the disappearance of the reaction is given.

The gallic acid test, applied to the distillate obtained from the milk after acidulation with sulphuric acid, is much more delicate than the hydrochloric acid and ferric chloride test, and gives more conclusive results with samples which have stood until the formaldehyde has largely disappeared.

J. B. WHITNEY and S. A. TUCKER: Observations on the Preparation of Metallic Calcium by Electrolysis.

The method used was that of J. H. Goodwin, and the attempt was made to improve the yield of the metal. The electrolyte was molten calcium chloride. The apparatus used

at first was similar to Goodwin's and the results obtained agreed satisfactorily with his. It was found that the proper temperature limits were so difficult to maintain that a new form of kathode was devised, in which the temperature of the iron rod was kept down by water cooling. With this improvement the yield of calcium was increased to sixty per

cent.

A modification of the kathode was tried in which the iron kathode was inclosed by an insulated graphite bell, the object being to prevent the oxidation and chlorination of the calcium as formed, but it was not found to work well in operation. F. H. POUGH,

Secretary.

SAN FRANCISCO SECTION OF THE AMERICAN

MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY.

THE eighth regular meeting of the San Francisco Section of the American Mathematical Society was held at the University of California on September 30, 1905. During the morning session the following officers were elected for the ensuing year:

Chairman-R. E. Allardice. Secretary-G. A. Miller. Program Committee-E. J. Wilczynski, D. N. Lehmer and G. A. Miller.

Seventeen members of the society were in attendance; in addition to these there were present a number of high school teachers of mathematics who are not members of the society. The following papers were read and discussed during the two sessions of the section.

PROFESSOR C. A. NOBLE: 'Note on Loxodromes.' DR. W. A. MANNING: Groups in which a large number of operators may correspond to their inverses.'

PROFESSOR M. W. HASKELL: A new canonical form of the binary sextic.'

PROFESSOR A. O. LEUSCHNER: On a new method of determining orbits.'

PROFESSOR ARTHUR RANUM: The representation of linear fractional congruence groups with a composite modulus as permutation groups.'

PROFESSOR E. J. WILCZYNSKI: On a system of partial differential equations in involution.'

PROFESSOR G. A. MILLER: The groups which contain only three operators which are squares.’

PROFESSOR R. E. MORITZ: On logarithmic involution, the commutative arithmetic process of the third order.'

PROFESSOR L. E. DICKSON: The abstract group simply isomorphic with the general linear group in an arbitrary field.'

PROFESSOR L. E. DICKSON: 'The abstract group simply isomorphic with the symmetric group.'

PROFESSOR M. W. HASKELL: On a class of covariants which give rise to birational transformations.'

The next meeting of the section will be held at Stanford University on February 24, 1906.

G. A. MILLER, Secretary of the Section.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. STEGOMYIA AND YELLOW FEVER-A CONTRAST.

THE magnificent work done in New Orleans this summer and autumn in fighting the yellow fever outbreak on the sole basis of the transfer of the disease by Stegomyia fasciata, and which has resulted in the practical extirpation of the epidemic long before the first frost, has convinced the most stubborn among the citizens of New Orleans and many other cities and towns throughout the south of the fact that only in this way can an epidemic successfully be handled. The acceptance of what has been termed 'the mosquito theory' is now almost universal, and this brings us to the contrast.

In the New Orleans States of May 2, 1902, appeared an article with the following scare headlines: Taxpayers to Protest Against Passage of Anti-mosquito Ordinance. Has been Resurrected. A Meeting To-night. Property Holder Discusses Taxation without Benefit.' In the body of the article the following statements are made:

An effort will be made to resurrect the antimosquito ordinance at the next meeting of the committee on police and public buildings to which are entrusted for consideration all questions pertaining to public health. The measure was introduced last November by Mr. Cucullu at the request of Dr. Q. Kohnke, president of the city board of health. The measure was not popular, as the taxpayers contended that its enactment was but another form of enforced taxation. * Because of its evident unpopularity, the promoters of the ordinance requested that it be not pressed, and for that reason it has remained untouched before the committee ever since.

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A special meeting of this taxpayers' protective association has been called to be held this evening at 7:30 o'clock.

The passage of the proposed ordinance,' said a prominent taxpayer this forenoon,' would be nothing short of an outrage.'

I wonder what this 'prominent taxpayer' thinks about the ordinance now. It is a sad thing to suggest, but possibly he himself or some member of his family has died as a result of the senseless opposition, in which he took part, to a reasonable and public-spirited health measure.

In an evening paper of March 28, 1902, there appeared a note to the effect that a correspondent of the Associated Press had a talk with the State Health Officer of Texas, regarding the mosquito theory. He was reported as of the opinion that The theory won't hold water,' and stated that he would not accept it. He stated that he had been familiar with yellow fever from childhood and knew enough to keep rigid quarantine and disinfecting rules in effect.' A little more than a year later, however, he had a new lesson in the Texas outbreak of yellow fever in the late summer and autumn of 1903, and he too changed his mind in regard to mosquitoes. L. O. HOWARD.

THE POSSIBILITY OF ABSORPTION BY HUMAN BEINGS OF NITROGEN FROM THE ATMOSPHERE.

ANY one reading this article would conclude that it has been proved that plants can absorb free nitrogen from the atmosphere without the aid of bacteria, and that Dr. Wohltmann is a believer in this. The quotation which the writer gives does not bear out this interpretation of Dr. Wohltmann's work:

The association of the plant with the bacteria is not a necessity but an expedient, and whenever there is a rich supply of nitrogenous elements in the soil, they (the plants) dispense with the bacteria and with the free nitrogen, which the latter make available, by directly secreting it from the chemical combination of soil or air in which it is held suspended.

The italics are mine, but the translation is by Mr. Gibson. Dr. Wohltmann is far from saying that plants absorb free nitrogen in the

absence of bacteria; but distinctly says, in the above quotation, that in the absence of the bacteria they dispense with the free nitrogen and take the nitrogen necessary for their growth in combination from the soil.

This is no new discovery, for Hellriegel, in 1886 and later, showed by decisive experiments that when the bacteria are absent, Leguminosæ, like other plants, can only take their nitrogen in compounds, and their growth, within limits, is a function of the combined nitrogen presented. In the presence of bacteria Leguminosæ can utilize the free nitrogen of the air, and build it up into organic compounds.

Before speculating on the possibility of the absorption of free nitrogen by human beings, it is well to remember that there is no evidence that higher plants can assimilate nitrogen of the air without aid of bacteria.

G. S. FRAPS.

A TREE'S LIMB WITHOUT BARK. TO THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In the summer of 1902 a large ash tree, some two feet in diameter, on the university campus was struck by lightning. The current, after knocking off a few branches, passed down on both sides of the main trunk leaving here merely two small furrows in the bark. From one limb, some six inches in diameter and perhaps ten feet from the ground, the bark all around was completely stripped for a distance of about five feet. To the surprise of some of us the leaves on this branch did not wither, nor fall to the ground till the leaves of the rest of the tree fell in the autumn. The next spring the leaves put out on this branch as on the rest of the tree; so again in 1904 and again the present year. In other words, the vegetation of this branch, wholly girdled for a space of several feet, differs from that of the rest of the tree only in being slightly less vigorous. The wood of the girdled portion looks much like a seasoned log of ash wood. The tree itself is rather less vigorous than the neighboring ashes, and will probably survive but a few years longer. Is it common for a limb,

stripped of its bark, to thus survive for three seasons? JAS. LEWIS HOWE.

WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY,

LEXINGTON, VA.

SPECIAL ARTICLES.

PHYSICAL CHARACTERS AND HISTORY OF SOME NEW YORK FORMATIONS.1

WE are accustomed to define historical geology as the history of the earth and its inhabitants, and this definition no doubt fully covers the subject. But it may be questioned if, in the ordinary treatment of the subject, such as it receives in our current text-books and lecture halls, we do it justice to the full extent suggested by our definition. Is it not too often merely the history of the inhabitants of the earth that we are treating, giving the history of the earth itself, i. e., its physical development, only scant recognition? I believe I am not going too far when I say that we give proportionately too much attention to the biologic or paleontologic side, and too little to the physical or stratigraphic. I do not wish to be understood to say that paleontology receives too much attention in our institutions of learning. Far from it. Far from it. Paleontology is not receiving a fraction of the attention it requires, and which it will receive in the future when our curricula are more normally balanced. But paleontology is not the whole of historical geology. Stratigraphy, or the physical characters and physical history of the rocks of the earth's crust-paleophysiography (if I may use a pet term, in spite of objections raised against it)-is fully one half of historical geology.

It is true, of course, that historical geology reposes on a foundation of paleontology-the divisions of the earth's history are based on the progress of life, and not, as has been too often assumed, on breaks in the sedimentary series, extensive and important as these may be. The standard of comparison must be a series of sediments which contain a continuous record of development, and since it is only in

1 An address delivered before Section E, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Syracuse meeting, July 21, 1905.

marine sediments that we get a continuous series, only marine formations, and such as do not represent merely local conditions, must be selected as our standard of reference.

Much as we prize, and justly prize, the classical standard of our North American Paleozoic series-the incomparable column furnished by the strata of the state of New York-and loath as we may be to attack any part of it, yet we must confess that it is not a perfect column throughout, and that the imperfection which it embodies can not be overlooked. Indeed, the sworn guardians of this monument have themselves recognized that it is an incomplete structure, and have introduced such foreign elements as the Cincinnatian group and the Richmond formation, besides accepting emendations proposed by others, such as Acadian and Georgian. They have, however, sought consolation for this forced recognition of the imperfections of the New York series, by proposing that the world. at large accept the broader terms of the New York classification-Taconic, Champlainic, Ontaric-in place of the better known, though not always prior, terms Cambric, Ordovicic and Siluric.

But it is one thing to recognize the absence of an element in the standard series and to fill the gap by a foreign representative, and another to regard an old and well-known formational unit as imperfect, and as inexpressive of the time element which it represents, and to acquiesce in its replacement by another. Yet I believe this is what we shall come to in the case of such old standards as the Medina sandstone and the Salina group, not to speak of the Oneida conglomerate, formations which are still tolerated in the standard scale of North American Paleozoic formations, but which in a very imperfect manner represent the chronologic epochs for which they are commonly used. This is due to the fact that they were not deposited in the open sea, but rather under peculiar conditions, i. e., estuarine, if not continental, in the case of the Oneida and Medina, and salt sea, if not desert, conditions in the Salina. Moreover, it is now pretty well ascertained that the typical Oneida

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