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History and Characteristics of the Pear-Blight Bacillus," by Merton B. Waite; "Effect of Fertilizers on the Germination of Seeds," by Gilbert H. Hicks; "Development of the Pollen Grain in Symplocarpus and Peltandra," by Benjamin M. Duggar; The Embryology of Taxus," by Elias J. Durand; "Notes on Some Monocotyledonous Embryo Sacs and "Studies Relative to the Perigynium of the Genus Cayex," by Karl M. Wiegand; "Observations on Some Hybrids between Drosera intermedia and Drosera filiformis," by John M. Macfarlane; "On the Rapidity of Circumnutation Movements in Relation to Temperature," by E. Simons and R. E. B. McKenney; "General Characteristics of the Dune Flora of Southeastern Virginia" and "Vegetation of the Wooded Fresh-Water Swamps of Southeastern Virginia," by Thomas H. Kearney, Jr.: "Notes on Arctic Willows," by W. W. Rowlee; "Some Steps in the Life History of Asters," by Edward S. Burgess; "The Pleistocene and Plant Distribution in Iowa," by T. H. Macbridge: A Self-registering Transpiration Machine," by Edward B. Copeland; "Methods of studying the Sap Pressure of the Sugar Maple," by Lewis R. Jones; "The Seeds and Seedlings of Some Amentiferæ," by W. W. Rowlee and George T. Hastings; "The Morphology and Taxonomic Value of the Fruits of Grasses," by P. Beveridge Kennedy; "The Caryopsis of the Graniniæ” and The Ecological Distribution of Colorado and Wyoming Plants," by L. H. Pammel; "Fertilization of the Muskmelon Flower," "Notes on destroying Comptonia Asplenifolia," and "Length of Time from Blossoming until Seed Development of Leucanthemum vulgare," by William Rane.

was

H. Anthropology-The presiding officer of this section was Prof. J. McKeen Cattell, of Columbia University, New York, who is also well known as the editor of "Science." The subject of his address The Advance of Psychology." He said in part: "It is not strange that psychology should be among the later born of the sciences, for sciences dealing with man, life, and matter must rest one upon another, the last at the bottom; so psychology is willing to grant the past to the others, but claims the twentieth century for its own. The development of colleges into universities gave a chance for freedom of election in studies, thus opening the field for psychology. The present popularity of the study is shown by the 365 students in Dr. Munsterberg's classses in empirical psychology in Harvard last year. Eighteen doctorates, with psychology as a major subject, were given in American universities this year, more than in any other science except chemistry, and six times as many as in physies. Under the guidance of philosophy, psychology became at times unreal and imaginative, and needed to be crossed with natural science. This has been done by the developments of physiological psychology, in which Prof. Munsterberg, of Harvard, has played a notable part. England has had worthy successors to Locke, Berkeley, and Hume, in Bain, Ward, and Stout. The first laboratory in Cambridge University was founded by the author. Psychology in America before 1800 has as brief a history as the alleged chapter on snakes in the natural history of Iceland. Twenty years ago Prof. James, of Harvard, published his series of striking articles culminating in the issue of his Principles of Psychology.' The first American laboratory was started in Johns Hopkins in 1883 by Prof. Hall. The first chair of Psychology was founded in Johns Hopkins for me. The department at Harvard is now unequaled in any university on earth. With James, Munsterberg, Royce, Santozona, McDougal, and others, there is more reason for a German student to come to Harvard than for American students to go to Germany to study psychology."

6.

The following-named papers were then read and discussed: "Typological Analysis" and "Anthropological Terminology," by Daniel G. Brinton; Sophiology, or the Science of the Evolution of Opinion," by John W. Powell; "Papago Medicine" and "Some Definitions in Anthropology," by W J McGee; "Anthropological Problems of the Pacific Slope" and "Museum Presentation of Anthropology," by William H. Holmes; "The Significance of the Garinent: A Study of the Omaha Tribe," by Miss Alice C. Fletcher: The Earth Lodge," by Miss Alice C. Fletcher and Washington Matthews; “The Harmonic Structure of Indian Songs," by J. C. Fillmore; "Ritual of the Sacred Pole of the Omahas." by Francis La Flesche; "The Survival of African Music in America," by Mrs. Jeanette Robinson Murphy: "Some of the Evidences that Northmen were in Massachusetts in Pre-Columbian Times," by Miss Cornelia Horsford; "Subjects relating to the Physical Anthropology of North American Indians," by George A. Dorsey; "The Smith Sound Eskimo," by Alfred L. Kroeber; "The Maori of New Zealand: His History and Country," by Hugh H. Lusk; "Moros, or Malay Pirates of the Southern Philippines" and "The Philippine Islands and their People." by Dean C. Worcester; "The Tools of the American Pioneer and "The Origin of Domesticated Animals," by Henry C. Mercer; "Burial Customs of the Ancient Zapotecans of Southern Mexico" and "Notes on the Lacandon Indians of Mexico," by Marshall H. Saville; Tomahawk and Shield" and "Examples of Primitive Fire Working from Florda," by Frank H. Cushing; "Art in Prehistoric Times,' "Prehistoric Musical Instruments," and Arrow Points, Spearheads, and Knives,” by Thomas Wilson; "Problem of the Rechahecrian Indians of Virginia" and "The Swastica and other Marks among the Eastern Algonkins: A Preliminary Study," by William W. Tooker; "The Water Burial Time." by Stansbury Hagar; "Time Reckoning among Early People and The Rite of Circumcision among the Early Races," by Robert J. Floody; "Anthropology, not Sociology, as an Adequate Philosophy," by Daniel Folkmar; "Science the Basis of Morals," by M. A. Clancey; "Variations of the Normal Tibia" and "Anthropological Differences between Typical White and Negro Girls of the Same Age," by Arles Hrdlicka; "Résumé of Recent Studies on the Origins of European Races" and Presentation of a Bibliography of the Anthropology and Ethnology of Europe," by William Z. Ripley; "Typical American Students, Illustrated by Charts and Statues," by Dudley A. Sargent; "A New Kymographion, a New Chronoscope," by George W. Fitz; "Anthropometric Instruments," by J. McKeen Cattell;

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Psychology and Art," by Hugo Munsterberg; "The New Theory of the Light Sense," by Mrs. C. Ladd Franklin; "In Man, what Factors are due to Heredity and what to Environment?" a discussion by Daniel G. Brinton, W J McGee, and William Z. Ripley; "Social Organization and Laws of the Moki Indians" and "Korean Clan Organization," by Walter Hough; "The Otomies of Mexico," by Frederick Starr; "The Illusions of Craniometry," by Frank Baker; "Zuñi Witchcraft," by Mrs. Matilda C. Stevenson; "Origin of the Confederacy of the Five Nations," by Charles H. Henning; "Is the Stringed Musical Instrument Pre-Columbian?" by Edward S. Morse: "The Norsemen the Conquerors of Britain," by Paul Du Chaillu; “The Disappearance of the Cliff Dwellers," by Désiré Charnay; and “Report of Committee on the Establishment of an Anthropological Journal in America."

1. Economic Science and Statistics.-The presid ing officer of this section was Archibald Blue, director of the Bureau of Mines, Toronto, Canada.

The subject of his address was "The Historic Method in Economics." The opening portion of Mr. Blue's address was devoted to a historic summary of the conditions that led to the organization of the various associations for the advancement of science, beginning with the German Union of Natural Philosophers, which was founded in 1822 by Dr. Lorenz Oken. He continued with the history of the British Association, which was organized in 1831: and then passing to the American Association, he gave its history, with special reference to the section on economic science and statistics. In concluding the first portion of his address he said: "The subjects of papers read in the economic sections of the British and American associations have usually appertained to the industrial life of the human race under varying conditions and circumstances, and the method of treatment has largely partaken of the concrete form. This was the case almost without exception in the first quarter of a century of the British Association, when, indeed, the only method allowed was the statistical. But ever since the enlargement of the scope of the section in 1856, the abstract or deductive method has had its exponents, and at least upon one occasion was ably represented by a president of the sectionby Prof. Henry Sidgwick at the Aberdeen meeting in 1885. Personally, I favor the historical method of investigating economic subjects, which includes the use of statistics, because I find it easier to work that way. But I do not say it is the best for every one, for I think something depends on the mental bias. The man with a strong turn for philosophy prefers to study, criticise, and develop theories rather than to collect and systematize facts." Quoting eminent authorities like James Bryce, John Stuart Mill, and others, he showed their belief in the historic method of considering economical questions. "Let us not forget that society, or the state," he said. " is a developed organism, wherein every human will and passion have play and every constituent individual acts and reacts upon every other, and that to understand it aright we must know its life history. The story of nations abounds with events of every kind, transpiring under an infinite variety of conditions, each event the product of some antecedent thought or act, and each making its impress for good or ill upon the life of the community, of the nation, or of the world, according to its own intensity or impact. To study such events and their operation and influence, in so far as they relate to inquiries into the provision of subsistence for the people and the supply of revenue for the state, according to Adam Smith; or into the nature of wealth and the laws of its production and distribution, according to Mill; or into the way the wants of the people in food, clothing, shelter, fuel, etc., may be satisfied, and how the satisfaction of these wants influences the national life, and how they are in turn influenced by it, according to Roscher-this is the office of the political economist. It is not merely to discover facts, but to collate them and discover the method for ascertaining the laws of the facts." This point of view he still further emphasized by illustrations taken from historic sources, and in conclusion he called attention to the fact that in all quarters of the world "events have transpired during the lifetime of this association that are probably destined to influence society powerfully throughout the twentieth century." These he summarized, and concluded with: "All these events have quickened the world's life, and when affairs are finally adjusted we shall move, I trust, on a measurably higher plane in the twentieth century than we have moved in the nineteenth. It is inevitable that there will be social and economic changes, and it ought to be the business of econoVOL. XXXVIII. 3 A

mists to shape them in the light of experience to secure permanency, progress, and peace.'

The following-named papers were read and discussed before the section: The College of Forestry at Cornell University," by Bernhard E. Fernow; "High Wages in Money; or, What Money will buy, the Consequent of Low Cost of Production," "How to increase Exports and how not to," and "The Inherent Vice of Legal Tender," by Edward Atkinson: "Local Life by Local Times" and "A Study of Competition and Suburban Prices," by S. Edward Warren; Executive Discretion in the United States," by Cora A. Benneson; "The Short Duration of School Attendance: Causes and Remedies," by Mrs. Daniel Folkmar; "The Progress of the Maritime Commerce of the World during the Past Fifty Years," by Edward L. Corthell; “Cuba: Past, Present, and Future" and "Nicaragua and the Canal," by Wolfred Nelson; "Examination of the Theory of Rent," by Edward T. Peters; "The Price of Wool," by Henry Farquhar; “The Transportation Problem," by John S. Willison; "The Formative Period of a Great City: A Study of Greater New York,” by William H. Hale; "Deviations from the Normal in the Annual Rate of Agricultural Production," by John Hyde; "Railway Rates and Competition," by H. T. Newcomb; "Å Sufficient Social Principle," by Charles A. Eaton; "Why not try a North American Zollverein?" by Richard T. Colburn; "The Gold Standard and the Unemployed," by Charles B. Spahr;.“The Effect of Tariff Legislation on the Importation and Domestic Production of Sugar in the United States," by Frank R. Rutter; "The Ethical Function of the Economist" and "The Development of Colonial Policy," by John Davidson; "The Economic Status of the Nurse," by Mrs. Helen Davidson; American Industrial Expositions, their Purposes and Benefits," by Marcus Benjamin; "Scientific Bookmaking," by Charles W. Felt; "A Plea for Manual Industrial Training in Horticulture," by William R. Lazenby; "On the United States's Alleged Policy of Imperialism, so-called, and in Connection therewith Some Reasons for and against the Proposed Anglo-Saxon Alliance," by W. Lane O'Neill; The Economic Possibilities of Cuba," by Robert T. Hill; "The Economic Value of Good Roads," by A. W. Campbell; "The Study of Political Economy in Canada," by S. Morley Wickett; "The Agricultural Statistics of Ontario," by Charles C. James; Canadian Forests and the Paper Industry," by Thomas Southworth; and "A Catalogue of Scien tific and Technical Periodicals, 1665 to 1885," by Henry C. Bolton.

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Affiliated Organizations.-Other scientific bodies, taking advantage of the gathering of so many members at the meeting of the American Association, have adopted the practice of holding meetings at the same place and contemporaneous with the American Association, but at such hours as not to interfere with the regular sessions of the larger body. This plan, which has been growing in practice, was found to be of conspicuous value in Boston, for by combining the public meeting of the society with those of the association a much larger number of papers were presented, and at the strictly business meetings a greater number of officers were usually in attendance. A conference of astronomers and physicists, similar to that which met at the dedication of the Yerkes Observatory, was held in the Harvard College Observatory on Aug. 18, 19, and 20. It adjourned to meet at a call of a committee appointed to organize a permanent national astronomical and astrophysical society. The Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education held its fifth meeting in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Aug. 18, 19, and 20, with

John B. Johnson, of St. Louis, Mo., as president, and Albert Kingsbury, of Durham, N. H., as secretary. The annual meeting of the Botanical Society of America was held in the Rogers Building on Aug. 19 and 20, when Lucien M. Underwood, of Columbia University, New York city, was chosen president, and George F. Atkinson, of Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., secretary. The tenth annual meeting of the Association of Economic Entomologists was held in the Natural History Building on Aug. 19 and 20, with Herbert Osborn, of Ames, Iowa, as president, and Charles L. Marlatt, of Washington city, as secretary. Simultaneously the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science met in Horticultural Hall with Byron D. Halstead, of New Brunswick, as president, and Charles S. Plumb, of Lafayette, Ind., as secretary. The American Mathematical Society held its annual meeting in the Rogers Building, on Aug. 19 and 20, with Simon Newcomb as president, and F. N. Cole, of New York city, as secretary. The seventeenth general meeting of the American Chemical Society was held contemporaneously with Section C of the association. Its president is Charles E. Munroe, of Washington city, and its secretary is Albert C. Hale, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Over 200 members were present. The Geological Society of America, of which John J. Stevenson, of New York city, is president, and Herman L. Fairchild, secretary, met in joint session with Section E on Aug. 23. The first summer meeting of the American Forestry Association was held in Horticultural Hall on Aug. 23 and 24. Its president is Francis H. Appleton, of Boston, Mass., and its secretary is George P. Whittlesey, of Washington, D. C. The American Folklore Society met with Section H on Aug. 23, and the National Geographic Society met with Section E on Aug. 25. The Botanical Club of the association, of which Daniel T. MacDougal, of Minneapolis, Minn., is president, and Arthur B. Seymour, of Cambridge, Mass., is secretary, met at intervals during the meeting, and ten papers were read and discussed before its members.

Final Sessions.-The amendments to the constitution having gone into effect at this meeting, there were in consequence but two general sessions, namely, the one with which the association began its formal meeting, and the one with which it terminated. Nearly all of the routine business was transacted by the council, and the same reported at the final session. Grants of $50 each were made to the Committee on Standards of Measurement for work being carried on by Henry S. Carhart and to the Committee on the Ethnology of the White Race in America for instruments to be constructed by J. McKeen Cattell. Section H (anthropology) was authorized to hold a winter meeting in December, 1898, which will probably be held in Columbia University in New York city in connection with the meeting of the American Society of Naturalists and affiliated societies. The customary resolutions of thanks were offered by W J McGee and addresses in support of the same made by Daniel G. Brinton, Horace C. Hovey, William T. Sedgwick, H. W. Tyler, Désiré Charney, Benjamin Howard, Edward Everett Hale, and President Putnam.

In point of members the Boston meeting ranks fourth in the history of the association, but as two of the earlier meetings were in conjunction with the British Association, the present meeting has only been exceeded in registration of members by the Boston meeting of 1880, when 997 members were present as compared with 903 this year. There were 443 papers read before the association, distributed as follow: Section A, 39; B, 51; C, 90; D, 20; E, 54; F, 35; G, 56 (Botanical Club, 10); H, 55; and I, 33. The meeting was therefore an

unusually successful one, and had it not been for the excessive heat on the first days of the meeting, a much greater attendance would have been had. The treasurer's report showed that during the year the receipts had been $231, the expenditures $100, and that the sum of $5,829 was on deposit in savings banks. There were 273 persons elected to membership, and about fifty members advanced to the grade of fellows.

The Next Meeting.-Pressing invitations were received by the American Association to hold its meeting in 1899 in Philadelphia, Penn., and in Columbus, Ohio, and the council decided that the meeting should be held in the last-named place. The following officers were chosen: President, Edward Orton, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Vice-presidents of sections: A, Alexander MacFarlane, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, Pa.; B, Elihu Thomson, Thomson-Houston Electric Company, Lynn, Mass.; C, Frank P. Venable, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C.; D, Storm Bull, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.; E, J. F. Whiteaves, Canadian Geological Survey, Ottawa, Ontario; F, Simon H. Gage, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.; G, Charles R. Barnes, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill.; H, Thomas Wilson, United States National Museum, Washington, D. C.; I, Marcus Benjamin, United States National Museum, Washington, D. C. General secretary, Frederick Bedell, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., Secretary of the council, Charles Baskerville, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. N. C. Secretaries of the sections: A, John F. Hayford, Washington, D. C.; B, William Hallock, Columbia University, New York city; C, Henry A. Weber, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; D, James M. Porter, Lafayette College, Easton, Pa.; E, Arthur Hollick, Columbia University, New York city; F. Frederick W. True, United States National Museum, Washington, D. C.; G, William A. Kellerman, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; H, George A. Dorsey, Field Columbian Museum, Chicago, Ill.; and I, Calvin M. Woodward, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo.

British. The sixty-eighth annual meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science was held in Bristol during Sept. 7-17. The officers of the association were: President, Sir William Crookes. Section presidents: A, Mathematics and Physics, William E. Ayrton; B, Chemistry, Francis R. Japp: C, Geology, Wilfrid H. Hudleston; D, Zoology (and Physiology), Walter F. R. Weldon; E, Geography, George Earl Church; F, Economic Science and Statistics, James Bonar; G. Mechanical Science, Sir John Wolfe-Barry: H, Anthropology, E. W. Brabrook; K, Botany, Frederick O. Bower. General treasurer, Arthur W. Rücker. General secretaries, Edward A. Schäfer and William C. Roberts-Austen. Assistant general secretary, G. Griffith, College Road, Harrow.

General Meeting.-The association began its proceedings with a meeting of the general committee on Sept. 7, presided over by Sir John Evans, when the report of the council was presented by Secretary Schäfer, and other business attended to. Seven foreign scientists were elected foreign corresponding members, among whom were Prof. Carl Barus, of Brown University, Providence, R. I.; Dr. George W. Hill, of Columbia University. New York city; Prof. Edward W. Morley, of Adelbert College. Cleveland, Ohio; and Prof. William B. Scott, of Princeton University, Princeton, N. J. Various resolutions referred to the council for consideration and action were reported, among which was one recommending the appointment of a committee to consider the desirability of approaching the Government with a view to the establishment

in Great Britain of agricultural experiment stations similar in character to those which are producing such satisfactory results in Canada. The committee reported the work that it had performed in seeuring results that led to its decision. A committee appointed to urge upon the Canadian Government

SIR WILLIAM CROOKES.

the desirability of continuing its tidal survey reported that the Canadian Government replied that it was deemed advisable "to defer the prosecution of the survey for the present and to confine the work to the maintenance and operations of the tidal gauges already established and the preparation of tide tables." The British Museum, in reply to a resolution, advised the council that a bureau for ethnology would be established" as soon as certain rearrangements affecting space, etc., now in progress, shall have been finished." The treasurer reported that the receipts for the past year were £4,623 188. 2d., and that there was a balance of £1,703 38. 8d. in the treasurer's hands. The investments now amount, according to his report, to £11,137. Various new members of the council were chosen and the secretaries and assistant secretary re-elected. Prof. Arthur W. Rücker, having been appointed a trustee in succession to the late Lord Lyon Playfair, Prof. G. Carey Foster was elected general treasurer. The usual vote of thanks, on motion of Prof. A. B. Macallum, of Toronto, was adopted for the retiring president, Sir

John Evans.

In the evening the association met in the People's Palace for the purpose of listening to the inaugural address of the president. The retiring president, Sir John Evans, occupied the chair and introduced the new incumbent as follows: He said that "he need hardly introduce his successor in the chair, for his name was known throughout the civilized world. At an early age he attained great eminence in chemistry, but he had not confined himself to chemical research, for he had experimented largely on various materials in vacuo, and the Crookes tube was known throughout the world. These experiments had led to more important results than the radiometer. From them had risen the Röntgen rays, the utility of which had lately been demonstrated by the application in the case of the Prince of Wales. They might look to Sir William

Crookes as the real originator of those rays." It may also be added that Sir William Crookes is a past president of the London Chemical Society and has for many years been the editor of the "Chemical News" of London.

Inaugural Address of the President.-In opening, Sir William Crookes said: "I propose first to deal with the important question of the supply of bread to the inhabitants of these islands, then to touch on subjects to which my life work has been more or less devoted. Many of my statements you may think are of the alarmist order; certainly they are depressing, but they are founded on stubborn facts. They show that England and all civilized nations stand in deadly peril of not having enough to eat. As mouths multiply, food resources dwindle. Our wheat-producing soil is totally unequal to the strain put upon it. After wearying you with a survey of the universal dearth to be expected, I hope to point a way out of the colossal dilemma. It is the chemist who must come to the rescue of the threatened communities. The consumption of wheat per head of the population (unit consumption) is over 6 bushels per annum; and taking the population at 40,000,000, we require no less than 240,000,000 bushels of wheat, increasing annually by 2,000,000 bushels, to supply the increase of population. Of the total amount of wheat consumed in the United Kingdom we grow 25 and import 75 per cent. Our stock of wheat and flour amounts only to 64,000,000 bushelsfourteen weeks' supply-while last April our stock was equal to only 10,000,000 bushels, the smallest ever recorded by Beerbohm' for the period of the season. Similarly, the stocks held in Europe, the United States, and in Canada, called 'the world's visible supply,' amounted to only 54,000,000 bushels, or 10,000,000 less than last year's sum total, and nearly 82,000,000 less than that of 1893 or 1894 at the corresponding period. The burning question of to-day is, What can the United Kingdom do to be reasonably safe from starvation in presence of two successive failures of the world's wheat harvest, or against a hostile combination of European nations? We eagerly spend millions to protect our coasts and commerce; and millions more on ships, explosives, guns, and men; but we omit to take necessary precautions to supply ourselves with the very first and supremely important munition of war-food. The problem is not restricted to the British Isles--the bread eaters of the whole world share the perilous prospect. In 1871 the bread eaters of the world numbered 371,000,000, and at the present time they number 516,500,000. To supply 516,500,000 bread eaters, if each bread-eating unit is to have his usual ration, will require a total of 2,324,000,000 bushels for seed and food. What are our prospects of obtaining this amount? The total supplies from the 1897-'98 harvest are 1,921,000,000 bushels. The requirement of the 516,500,000 bread eaters for seed and food are 2,324,000,000 bushels: there is thus a deficit of 403,000,000 bushels, which has not been urgently apparent owing to a surplus of 300,000,000 bushels carried over from the last harvest. We start with a deficit of 103,000,000 bushels and have 6,500.000 more mouths to feed. It follows, therefore, that one sixth of the required bread will be lacking unless larger drafts than now seem possible can be made upon early produce from the next harvest." Sir William Crookes then reviewed "the capabilities as regards available area, economic conditions, and acreage yield of the various wheatgrowing countries." Concerning the United States, he said: "For the last thirty years the United States have been the dominant factor in the foreign supply of wheat, exporting no less than 145,000,000

bushels. This shows how the bread-eating_world had depended, and still depends, on the United States for the means of subsistence. The entire world's contributions to the food-bearing area have averaged but 4,000,000 acres yearly since 1869. It is scarcely possible that such an average, under existing conditions, can be doubled for the coming twenty-five years. Almost yearly since 1885 additions to the wheat-growing area have diminished, while the requirements of the increasing population of the States have advanced, so that the needed American supplies have been drawn from the acreage hitherto used for exportation. Practically there remains no uncultivated prairie land in the United States suitable for wheat growing. The virgin land has been rapidly absorbed, until at present there is no land left for wheat without reducing the area for maize, hay, and other necessary crops. It is almost certain that within a generation the ever-increasing population of the United States will consume all the wheat grown within its borders, and will be driven to import, and, like ourselves, will scramble for a lion's share of the wheat crop of the world." Continuing, he described the conditions in Russia, Canada, Australasia, the various countries of Europe, South America, and Africa, and then claimed that "should all the wheat-growing countries add to their area to the utmost capacity, on the most careful calculation the yield would give us only an addition of some 100,000,000 acres, supplying, at the average world yield of 12.7 bushels to the acre, 1,270,000,000 bushels-just enough to supply the increase of population among bread eaters till the year 1931. By means of fertilizers containing nitrogen the yield of wheat per acre could be increased from 12.7 bushels to at least 20 bushels per acre, as had been shown by experiments at Rothamsted, where the high value of 36.4 bushels per acre had been obtained. The source and supply of nitrogen-yielding fertilizers was then discussed and the conclusion reached that it would be necessary to take it from the atmosphere by means of electricity. We start with a shortage of wheat, and the natural remedy is to put more land under cultivation. As the land can not be stretched, and there is so much of it and no more, the object is to render the available area more productive by a dressing with nitrate of soda. But nitrate of soda is limited in quantity, and will soon be exhausted. Human ingenuity can contend even with these apparently hopeless difficulties. Nitrate can be produced artificially by the combustion of the atmosphere. Here we come to finality in one direction; our stores are inexhaustible. But how about electricity? Can we generate enough energy to produce 12,000,000 tons of nitrate of soda annually? A preliminary calculation shows that there need be no fear on that score; Niagara alone is capable of supplying the required electric energy without much lessening its mighty flow."

The remainder of his address was devoted to a review of the recent advances in chemistry and physics. The brilliant researches in low temperatures by Dewar were mentioned. The new elements krypton, neon, and metargon, discovered by Ramsay, and coronium, discovered by Nasini, were alluded to. Electric signaling across moderate distances without connecting wires as introduced by Marconi and its future practical applications received attention. The phenomenon discovered by Zeeman, that a source of radiation is affected by a strong magnetic field in such a way that light of one refrangibility becomes divided usually into three components, two of which are displaced by diffraction analysis on either side of the mean position and are oppositely polarized to the third

or residual constituent, was referred to. The work on the relationship between ether and matter by Larmor received brief mention. At greater length he discussed the development of the researches that began with Röntgen's discovery of his peculiar rays of light, and in this portion of his address mentioned the growing acceptance of his own theory of a fourth state of matter announced in 1881. The fractioning of yttria, on which he began working in 1883, has been since continued and has recently culminated in absolute evidence that another member of the rare earth groups has been added to the list." For this new asteroid of the terrestrial family" he proposed the name monium. In closing he referred to his connection many years ago to certain psychic researches, and he boldly reiterated his belief that thoughts and images may be transferred from one mind to another without the agency of the recognized organs of sense-that knowledge may enter the human mind without being communicated in any hitherto known or recognized ways."

Proceedings of the Sections. A. Mathematics and Physics.-This section was presided over by Prof. William E. Ayrton, who is Professor of Applied Physics in the Guilds' Central Technical College, in London. In opening he referred to the fact that "Section A this year is very fortunate in having its meetings associated with those of an International Conference on Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity, which is attended by the members of the Permanent Committee for Terrestrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity of the International Meteorological Conference. It has been arranged that this permanent committee, of which Prof. Rücker is the president, shall form part of the general committee of Section A, and also shall act as the Committee of the International Conference, which will itself constitute a separate department of Section A." Continuing, he said: “Among the various subjects which it is probable that the conference may desire to discuss there is one to which I will briefly refer, as I am able to do so in a triple capacity. The earth is an object of much importance, alike to the terrestrial magnetician, the telegraph electrician, and the tramway engineer; but while the first aims at observing its magnetism, and the second rejoices in the absence of the earth currents which interfere with the sending of messages, the third seems bent on converting our maps of lines of force into maps of lines of tramway." Thus he showed how electric traction seemed destined to ruin magnetic observations near towns, indeed had already done so in the United States and British North America. The second topic which he presented before the section was concerning Science Abstracts," which, recently established, had for its aim to "produce in a single journal a monthly record in English of the most important literature appearing in all languages on physics and its many applications." The general proposition of the indebtedness of industry to pure science he demonstrated by several illustrations, after which he discussed with much interest some of his own studies on the laws that govern odors. He said: "There is a generally accepted idea that metals have smells, since if you take up a piece of metal at random, or a coin out of your pocket, a smell can generally be detected." Then, discussing the various odors from the metals, he concluded: "As regards the explanation of these metallic smells, which have hitherto been attributed to the metals themselves. This, I think," he said, "may be found in the odors produced when the metals are rubbed with linen soaked in dilute sulphuric acid. For here, apart from any contact of the metal with the skin, the aluminum, tin, and