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the Black Rot of Cabbage in Europe, by H. A. Harding; A Summary of our Knowledge of the Fig, with Illustrations, by Walter T. Swingle; and The Classification of Botanical Publications, by William Trelease.

Columbus was the home of William S. Sullivant and Leo Lesquereux, the first and most famous bryologists, and on Aug. 23 the students of mosses and hepatics gathered to honor their name and fame. Their portraits were exhibited and their works were shown. Twelve North American mosses have been named for Sullivant, and specimens from these were loaned from the Sullivant collection belonging to the Gray Herbarium through the courtesy of Dr. Benjamin L. Robinson. Plates from Sullivant's Icones were exhibited with each species. The special exercises were as follow: William A. Kellerman read Dr. Asa Gray's tribute to Sullivant from the Supplement to the Icones; Mrs. Nathaniel L. Britton gave a brief account of the species named for Sullivant; Charles R. Barnes read a tribute to Leo Lesquereux from the Botanical Gazette; Lucien M. Underwood gave a brief outline of the progress in the study of the hepatics, illustrated by books and pamphlets; the plates illustrating twelve new species of hepatics from California, described by M. A. Howe, were exhibited, and the specimens shown by F. E. Lloyd; Prof. Earle read Some Notes on the Moss Flora of Alabama, by Dr. Charles Mohr; Mrs. Britton gave a brief historical record of the study of mosses, illustrated by books and pamphlets; Abel J. Grout presented some suggestions for a more satisfactory classification of the pleurocarpous mosses, and exhibited a set of his revisions of Pleurocarpous genera, also a set of The Bryologist; George N. Best exhibited a set of his publications and a summary of his work; William A. Kellerman exhibited a set of drawings and mosses formerly the property of Mr. Schrader, who made the drawings for Sullivant's Icones; Mrs. Britton and Prof. Underwood exhibited a set of 45 photographs of American students and collectors whose names are perpetuated in those of American mosses; Mrs. Britton showed a set of maps with starred regions where collections had been made, and lists of the names of collectors; reports were received from the Sullivant moss chapter, with a list of members from the secretary, Mrs. Annie M. Smith, and also a list of the species of mosses named by Sullivant; reports were received from Mr. McElwee, of the Philadelphia moss chapter, with lists of collections and books on mosses which may be found in the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia; and Arthur Hollick gave information as to the publication of the later work of Lesquereux.

H. Anthropology. This section was presided over by Dr. Thomas Wilson, curator of prehistoric archæology in the United States National Museum, Washington city. Dr. Wilson presented to the section an address on Beginnings of the Science of Prehistoric Anthropology. He said in part: "Up to the beginning of this century the science of prehistoric anthropology had been an unknown one. Prior to that time the origin of man and his first occupation of the earth had belonged either to history or else it was detailed in tradition. In 1806, in Denmark, the beginning of this science took place. The King organized a commission to investigate the surface of the earth in his kingdom. He appointed a zoologist, a geologist, and an archaologist, and the three started over the work." After discussing the work in Denmark, he passed to a description of the Swiss lake dwellings, the

discovery of which at once stimulated a search for similar remains in other parts of Europe. From the discoveries of the dolmens by the commission in Denmark and from the works of the lake dwellers described by Kellar investigators soon came to the conclusion that there had been a prehistoric human existence, and thus the science of prehistoric anthropology was established on a firm basis. Dr. Wilson also described the development of a belief in the prehistoric origin of paleoliths, and mentioned the impetus given to the new science in 1859 by Darwin's publication of the origin of the species by evolution. Continuing his historical summary of the development of prehistoric anthropology, he referred to the international congresses that have been held since 1872, and alluded, as he reached his close, to the discovery in Java in 1894, by Dr. Dubois, of what he claimed was a being midway between man and ape, and the missing link so often and long talked of."

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The following-named papers were then read and discussed before the section: In Memoriam: Remarks on the late Daniel G. Brinton; The Beginnings of Mathematics, by W J McGee; Report of the Committee on the White Race in America, The Scientific Societies and Institutions of the United States, and New Anthropometric Methods, by J. McKeen Cattell; Researches in Experimental Phonetics, with Demonstration of Results, Inadequacy of the Present Tests for Color Blindness, with Demonstrations of a New Test, Observations on After-images and Cerebral Light, and Observations on the Economy of Sleep, by Edward W. Scripture; Regarding the Evidences of Ancient Prehistoric Man in the Maumee River Basin, by Charles E. Slocum; The Latest Discoveries of Traces of Glacial Man at Trenton, N. J., and the Light thrown upon them by a Comparative Study of the Gravels of the Delaware and Susquehanna Valleys, by G. Frederick Wright; Recollections of M. Boucher de Perthes, by Thomas Wilson; The Aboriginal Quarries and Shops at Mill Creek, Miami Co., Illinois, by William A. Phillips; The National Diatonic Scale: A Chapter of Musical History, by Charles K. Wead; A Comparative Study of the Physical Structure of the Labrador Eskimos and the New England Indians, by Frank Russell; The Cherokee River Cult, by James Mooney; Extent of Instruction in Anthropology in Europe and America, by George G. McCurdy; Allan Stevenson's Trance and Prehistoric Settlement, Big Kiokee Creek, Columbia Co., Georgia, by Robert Steiner; and Evolution, by Eliza T. Houk.

I. Social and Economic Science. The presiding officer of this section was Dr. Marcus Benjamin, editor in the United States National Museum, Washington city. In accordance with a request made to Dr. Benjamin at the council meeting held in April, he delivered an historical address on The Early Presidents of the Association. This address began with a brief history of the formation of the association, in which it was shown that the organization was a development of the Association of American Geologists and Naturalists, which was founded in 1840, and which in turn had its beginning in the Geological Society founded in New Haven in 1819. The influence of the National Institute in Washington was also pointed out. Subsequently Dr. Benjamin gave brief but pointed biographies of the first 25 presidents. These included William C Redfield, whose theory of storms marked the beginning of the science of meteorology; Joseph Henry, the first secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, whose discoveries in physics made possible the

magnetic telegraph; Alexander D. Bache, superintendent of the United States Coast Survey; Louis Agassiz, famous as a teacher and as a naturalist; Benjamin Peirce, teacher of mathematics in Harvard University, who demonstrated the fluid constitution of the rings of Saturn; James D. Dana, noted for his text-books on mineralogy and geology; James Hall, palæontologist and State geologist of New York; Alexis Caswell, meteorologist and physicist, President of Brown University; Jacob W. Bailey, an early worker on infusoria with the microscope, teacher of science at West Point; Jeffries Wyman, the comparative anatomist of Harvard, a distinguished worker in American anthropology; Stephen Alexander, Professor of Astronomy in Princeton; Isaac Lea, the conchologist and student of unios; Frederick A. P. Barnard, physicist, educator, author, President of Columbia University; John S. Newberry, naturalist, State geologist of Ohio; Benjamin A. Gould, astronomer; John W. Foster, geologist, President of the Chicago Academy of Sciences; William Chauvenet, mathematician, President of Washington University, St. Louis; T. Sterry Hunt, of the Canadian Geological Survey; Asa Gray, botanist, author of botanical text-books; J. Lawrence Smith, chemist and mineralogist; Joseph Lovering, physicist, long a teacher in Harvard; John L. Le Conte, entomologist; Julius E. Hilgard, physicist, superintendent of the Coast Survey; and William B. Rogers, founder of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Benjamin's address was illustrated with portraits of all the presidents of the American Association.

The following-named papers were read and discussed; Natural Distribution as modified by Modern Agriculture, by John Hyde; Federal Guarantees for maintaining Republican Government in the States, by Cora A. Benneson; Calculations of Population in June, 1900, by Henry Farquhar; Power of the Consumer economically Considered, by Florence Kelley; The Basis of War and Peace, by Michael A. Clancy; The Increase in the Median Age of the Population of the United States since 1850, by Mansfield Merriman; Trusts: A Study in Industrial Evolution and The Spoils System in Theory and Practice, by Harry T. Newcomb; Moral Tendencies of Existing Social Conditions, by Washington Gladden; Hysteresis in Social, Economic, and Vital Phenomena, by Reginald A. Fessenden; Defective Vision of School Children, by A. G. Field; Science and Art in Social Development, by John S. Clark; The Personal Equation as a Psychological Factor, by Laura O. Talbott; Positive Science and Methods in Education, by Mrs. Daniel Folkmar: Some New Aspects of Educational Thought, by Thomas M. Balliet; and The Manual Element in Education, by Calvin M. Woodward.

On Aug. 23 this section met in joint session with Section D to listen to the paper by Gilbert B. Morrison mentioned under Section D.

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. The American Microscopical Society held its twenty-first annual meeting on Aug. 17, 18, and 19, with William C. Krauss, of Buffalo, N. Y., as president, and Henry B. Ward, of Lincoln, Neb., as secretary. Sixteen or more papers were read, and at the close of the meeting Albert M. Bleile, of Colum

bus, Ohio, was chosen president. The Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education held its sixth annual meeting on Aug. 17, 18, and 19, with John B. Johnson, of St. Louis, Mo., as president, and Albert Kingsbury, of Durham, N. H., as secretary. A number of papers were read, and the election resulted in the selection of Ira O. Baker, of Mason, Ill., as president. The Botanical Society of America held its fifth annual meeting on Aug. 18 and 19, with Lucien M. Underwood, of New York city, as president, and George F. Atkinson, of Ithaca, N. Y., as secretary. Five papers were read in full and several by title. The president of last year, Dr. Nathaniel L. Britton, delivered his retiring address on Report of Progress of Development of the New York Botanical Garden. Prof. Benjamin L. Robinson, of Harvard University, was chosen president for the ensuing year, and Secretary Atkinson continued in office. The eleventh annual meeting of the Association of Economic Entomologists was held on Aug. 18 and 19, with Charles L. Marlatt, of Washington city, as president, and Archie H. Kirkland, of Malden, Mass., as secretary. A number of papers were read, and for the ensuing year Laurence Bruner, of Lincoln, Neb., was chosen president, while the secretary remained unchanged. Simultaneously the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science held its meetings, and its final sessions were held jointly with those of the entomologists. Byron D. Halsted, of New Brunswick, N. J., was its president, and Charles S. Plumb, of Lafayette, Ind., its secretary. For the ensuing year William T. Beal, of Lansing, Mich., was chosen president, and Thomas F. Hunt, of Columbus, Ohio, as secretary. The American Chemical Society held its nineteenth general meeting in conjunction with Section C of the American Association. Its president is Edward W. Morley, of Columbus, Ohio, and its secretary, Albert C. Hale, of Brooklyn, N. Y. Nearly one hundred members were registered as present. The Geological Society of America, of which Benjamin K. Emerson, of Amherst, Mass., is president, and Herman L. Fairchild, of Rochester, N. Y., is secretary, met in joint session with Section E. The papers read. by the members, both of the chemical and geological societies, are incorporated with the list given under Sections C and E. The second summer meeting of the American Forestry Association was held on Aug. 22 and 23, with James Wilson, of Washington city, as president, and George P. Whittlesey, of Washington city, as secretary. The American Mathematical Society, of which Albert S. Woodward is president, and F. N. Cole, secretary, both of New York city, The Botanical Club of met on Aug. 25 and 26. the association, of which Byron D. Halsted, of New Brunswick, N. J., is president, and Augustus D. Selby, of Wooster, Ohio, secretary, met at intervals during the meeting, and twenty-seven papers were read and discussed before its members.

Final Session. This was held on Aug. 25, when it was announced that a grant of $50 was made to the Committee on the White Race in America for the establishment of an anthropometric laboratory. A second grant of $50 was made for the quantitative study of biological variation under Dr. Charles B. Davenport, and to report and extend this work a committee was appointed, consisting of Drs. Boas, Cattell, Minot, Eigenmann, and Davenport. The only other grant made for research was one of $100 for the purpose of stocking pools with different species of blind vertebrates where they may be reared and studied in the light, the work being carried out

by Prof. Carl H. Eigenmann. Reports were made by the committees on the library, on standards of measurement, and on the United States Naval Observatory. Several committees that had accomplished the work for which they had been appointed were discharged. President Orton announced the gift of $1,000 from Emerson McMillin, who is well known for his generous benefactions to science, and Mr. McMillin was elected a patron of the association. New amendments to the constitution were proposed by W J McGee, making the term of office of the treasurer five years, and by J. McKeen Cattell, adding a section of physiology and experimental medicine. Section A was given permission to arrange for a joint meeting with the American Mathematical Society. Also Section H was authorized to hold a winter session at such place as the sectional committee should decide, and an appropriation not exceeding $25 from the current funds was allowed such section to cover the expenses of printing.

The usual resolutions of thanks were proposed by a committee and presented by Past-President Thomas C. Mendenhall.

The attendance was 352 members and associates, which gives the Columbus meeting the rank of 15 among the 48 meetings thus far held. There were 273 papers presented before the association, distributed as follow: Section A, 14; B, 40; C, 55; D, 15; E, 33; F, 19; G, 33 (Botanical Club, 27); H, 20; and I, 17.

The treasurer's report showed a gratifying increase in the funds of the association. In addition to the income derived from investment, the permanent secretary was able to turn over to the treasurer $1,000 derived from membership fees to be added to the permanent fund.

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The Next Meeting.-Invitations were ceived from Ithaca, N. Y., Philadelphia, Pa., Saratoga Springs, N. Y., New York city, Niagara Falls, N. Y., Jacksonville, Fla., and Denver, Col. It was decided to meet in New York city during the week of June 25-30, at Columbia University. It was urged that, as a large number of the members would be going to the Paris Exposition or for travel in other parts of Europe, it would be of the greatest convenience for them to meet in the metropolis. The following officers were chosen: President, Robert S. Woodward, Columbia University, New York city. Vice-presidents of sections: A, Asaph Hall, Jr., University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich.; B, Ernest Merritt, Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y.; C, James Lewis Howe, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, Va.; D, John A. Brashear, Pittsburg, Pa.; E, James F. Kemp, Columbia University, New York city; F, Charles B. Davenport, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass.; G, William Trelease, Shaw's Botanical Garden, St. Louis, Mo.; H, Amos W. Butler, Indianapolis University, Indianapolis, Ind.; I, Calvin M. Woodward, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. Permanent secretary, Leland O. Howard, Cosmos Club, Washington city. General secretary, Charles Baskerville, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C. Secretary of the council, William Hallock, Columbia University, New York city. Secretaries of the sections: A, Wendell M. Strong, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.; B, Reginald A. Fessenden, Western University of Pennsylvania, Alleghany, Pa.; C, Arthur A. Noyes, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass.; D, William T. Magruder, Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio; E, Joseph A. Holmes, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N. C.; F, Carl H. Eigenmann, Indiana University, Bloom

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Section presidents: A, Mathematics and Physics, John H. Poynting; B, Chemistry, Horace T. Brown; C, Geology, Sir Archibald Geikie; D, Zoology, Adam Sedgwick; E, Geography, John Murray; F, Economic Science and Statistics, Henry Higgs; G, Mechanical Science, Sir William H. White; H, Anthropology, Charles H. Read; I, Physiology, John N. Langley; K, Botany, Sir George King. General treasurer, Carey Foster. 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. 13, presided over by Sir Archibald Geikie, when the report of the council for the year 1898-'99 was presented. In this it was suggested that the meeting this year would be memorable from the fact that for the first time in the history of the association the time and place of meeting had been fixed in conjunction with and in response to an invitation of the French Association for the Advancement of Science, with the object of affording an opportunity for the members of the sister associations to exchange visits and to participate in scientific discussions. The death of Past-President Sir Douglas Galton was mentioned, and it was reported that Sir William Crookes had been nominated as a delegate to represent the association at the jubilee of Sir George Gabriel Stokes, and that he presented an address on that occasion. The various resolutions referred to the general committee by the council were acted upon, notably one authorizing the council to make a grant of £1,000 out of the accumulated fund of the association to the national antarctic expedition. It was reported that satisfactory arrangements

had been made with the British Museum for the establishment of a bureau for ethnology. The treasurer reported that the total receipts for the year were £5,083, and the total expenditure £1,430. The annual subscriptions amounted to £800, and the sale of the associates' tickets realized £1,028, and of ladies' tickets £639. The usual vote of thanks was adopted for the retir ing president, Sir William Crookes, concerning whom it was said that, while the presidential addresses were often valuable contributions to the literature of science, it was seldom that one of them held the public interest and attention so closely and so long as the address delivered by Sir William Crookes last year had done. In the evening the association met in the town hall of Dover for the purpose of listening to the inaugural address of the president. The retiring president, Sir William Crookes, introduced his successor with the following words: "To abdicate is not usually considered the height of human felicity; but when I consider how admirably fitted my successor is to sit in the president's chair, I can assure you abdication becomes a positive pleasure. Sir Michael Foster can have no good wishes more eager and sincere than mine, but I must wish him something special for the sake of his peace of mind, his time, and his credit. May he escape the dilemma that has befallen me! I trust his year of office may not be checkered by the necessity of writing a book to defend the sanity of his address."

Sir Michael Foster has held the chair of Physiology at Cambridge since 1893, and his scientific attainments have recently been recognized by the Queen, who knighted him. Also, he is secretary of the Royal Society.

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Inaugural Address of the President. In beginning his address Sir Michael Foster paid a well-deserved tribute to Sir Douglas Galton, who presided at the Ipswich meeting in 1895, and who died during the year, referring especially to the earnest efforts made by the deceased scientist toward securing the foundation of a national establishment for the prosecution of prolonged and costly physical researches. He said: The National Physical Laboratory has been found ed," and expressed his regret that Sir Douglas was not spared to see the formal completion of the scheme whose birth he did so much to help, and which, to his last days, he aided in more ways than one." Then, contrasting the scientific conditions in 1799 with those of to-day, he said: "In the year 1799 the knowledge of oxygen, of the nature of water and of air, and, indeed, the true conception of chemical composition and chemical change, was hardly more than beginning to be, and the century had to pass wholly away before the next great chemical idea, which we know by the name of the atomic theory of John Dalton, was made known." Concerning electricity, which he called the "bright child of the nineteenth century," he told of the crude knowledge of its properties that existed a century ago, and how we were to-day proud, and justly proud, both of the material triumphs and of the intellectual gains which it has brought us, and we are full of even larger hopes of it in the future. "In 1799," he said, "the science of geology, as we now know it, was struggling into birth." Since then "its practical lessons have brought wealth to many, its fairy tales have brought delight to more, and round it hovers the charm of danger, for the conclusions to which it leads touch on the nature of man's beginning." After describing the knowledge of biology in 1799, he said: "To-day the merest beginner in

biologic study is aware that every living being, even man himself, begins its independent existence as a tiny ball, of which we can, even acknowledging to the full the limits of the optical analysis at our command, assert with confidence that in structure, using that word in its ordinary sense, it is in all cases absolutely simple. It is equally well known that the features of form which supply the characters of a grown-up living being, all the many and varied features of even the most complex organism, are reached as the goal of a road, at times a long road, of successive changes; that the life of every being, from the ovum to its full estate, is a series of shifting scenes, which come and go, sometimes changing abruptly, sometimes melting the one into the other, like dissolving views, all so ordained that often the final shape with which the creature seems to begin, or is said to begin, its life in the world is the outcome of many shapes, clothed with which it in turn has lived many lives before its seeming birth. If we wish to measure how far off in biologic thought the end of the last century stands, not only from the end but even from the middle of this one, we may imagine Darwin striving to write the Origin of Species in 1799. We may fancy him being told by philosophers how one group of living beings differed from another group because all its members and all their ancestors came into existence at one stroke when the first-born progenitor of the race, within which all the rest were folded up, stood forth as the result of the creative act. We may fancy him listening to a debate between the philosopher who maintained that all the fossils strewn in the earth were the remains of animals or plants churned up in the turmoil of a violent universal flood, and dropped in their places as the waters went away, and him who argued that such were not really the spoils of living creatures,' but the product of some playful plastic power which out of the superabundance of its energy fashioned here and there the lifeless earth into forms which imitated, but only imitated, those of living things. Could he amid such surroundings by any flight of genius have beat his way to the conception for which his name will ever be known?" This portion of his address concluded with: "I am content to have pointed out that the two great sciences of chemistry and geology took their birth, or at least began to stand alone, at the close of the last century, and have grown to be what we know them now within about a hundred years, and that the study of living beings within the same time has been so transformed as to be to-day wholly different from what it was in 1799. Not only have the few driven far back round the full circle of natural knowledge the dark clouds of the unknown which wrap us all about, but also the many walk in the zone of light thus increasingly gained. The span between the science of that time and the science of to-day is beyond all question a great stride onward." Of the man of science he said: "He is not creative like the poet or artist, but he is created. His work, however great it be, is not wholly his own; it is in part the outcome of the work of men who have gone before. Again and again a conception which has made a name great has come not so much by the man's own effort as out of the fullness of time. From the mouth of the man of old the idea dropped barren, fruitless; the world was not ready for it, and heeded it not; the concomitant and abutting truths which could give it power to work were wanting. Coming back again in later days, the same idea found the world awaiting it; things

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were in travail preparing for it; and some one, seizing the right moment to put it forth again, leaped into fame. It is not so much the men of science who make science as some spirit which, born of the truths already won, drives the man of science onward, and uses him to win new truths in turn." Concerning results, he continued: "The material good which mankind has gained and is gaining through the advance of science is so imposing as to be obvious to every one, and the praises of this aspect of science are to be found in the mouths of all. Beyond all doubt science has greatly lessened and has markedly narrowed hardship and suffering; beyond all doubt science has largely increased and has widely diffused ease and comfort. The features of the fruitful scientific mind are in the main three: In the first place, the seeker after truth must himself be truthful, truthful with the truth fulness of Nature. In the second place, he must be alert of mind. In the third place, scientific inquiry, though it be pre-eminently an intellectual effort, has need of the moral quality of courage. In no branch of science during these later years has there been greater activity and more rapid progress than in that which furnishes the means by which man brings death, suffering, and disaster on his fellow-men." The brotherhood of science was referred to, and he told how the great need of mutual knowledge and of common action felt by men of science of different lands is being manifested in a special way. In almost every science inquirers from many lands now gather together at stated intervals in international congresses to discuss matters which they have in common at heart, and go away each one feeling strengthened by having met his brother." In closing he said: Looking back, then, in this last year of the eighteen hundreds, on the century which is drawing to its close, while we may see in the history of scientific inquiry much which, telling the man of science of his shortcomings and his weakness, bids him be humble, we also see much, perhaps more, which gives him hope. The past points not to itself, but to the future; the golden age is in front of us, not behind us; that which we do know is a lamp whose brightest beams are shed into the unknown before us, showing us how much there is in front and lighting up the way to reach it. We are confident in the advance because, as each one of us feels that any step forward which he may make is not ordered by himself alone, and is not the result of his own sole efforts in the present, but is, and that in large measure, the outcome of the labors of others in the past, so each one of us has the sure and certain hope that as the past has helped him, so his efforts, be they great or be they small, will be a help to those to come."

Proceedings of the Sections. A. Mathematics and Physics.-This section was presided over by John H. Poynting, Professor of Physics in Mason College, Birmingham. His address began with a reference to the establishment of the National Physical Laboratory, of which he said "it was absolutely necessary for the due progress of physical research in this country." He then discussed the methods of investigation as practiced by the physicist, saying: "His method consists in finding out all likenesses, in classing together all similar events, and so giving an account as concise as possible of the motions and changes observed. His success in the search for likenesses and his striving after conciseness of description lead him to imagine such a constitution of things that likenesses exist

even where they elude his observation, and he is thus enabled to simplify his classification on the assumption that the constitution thus imagined is a reality. He is enabled to predict, on the assumption that the likenesses of the future will be the likenesses of the past. A portion of his address was devoted to a description of the various "hypotheses as to the constitution of matter and the connecting ether." Finally, he referred to the limitations of the physical method, saying: "The discussion of the physical method, with its descriptive laws and explanations and its hypothetical extension of description, leads us on to the consideration of the limitation of its range. The method was developed in the study of matter which we describe as nonliving, and with nonliving matter the method has sufficed for the particular purposes of the physicist." His closing sentences were: "If we have full confidence in the descriptive method, as applied to living and nonliving matter, it appears to me that up to the present it teaches us that, while in nonliving matter we can always find similarities, while each event is like other events, actual or imagined, in a living being there are always dissimilarities. Taking the psychical view-the only view which we really do at present take in the living being there is always some individuality, something different from any other living being, and full prediction in the physical sense and by physical methods is impossible. If this be true, the loom of Nature is weaving a pattern with no mere geometrical design. The threads of life, coming in we know not where, now twining together, now dividing, are weaving patterns of their own, ever increasing in intricacy, ever gaining in beauty."

Subsequently the following-named papers were read and discussed before the section: Spectroscopic Examination of Contrast Phenomena, by G. J. Burch; Variation of the Specific Heat of Water, by Hugh L. Callendar and H. T. Barnes; Results of Experiments on the Expansion of Porcelain with Rise of Temperature, by T. G. Bedford: On the Energy in a Turbulent Liquid transmitting Lamina Waves, by George F. Fitzgerald; Permanence of Certain Gases in the Atmospheres of Planets, by G. H. Bryan; The Thermo-electric Properties of Some Iron Alloys, by W. F. Barrett; On the Production in Rarefied Gases of Luminous Rings in Rotation about Lines of Magnetic Force, by C. E. S. Phillips; A Note on Deep-sea Waves, by Vaughan Cornish; Existence of Masses Smaller than Atoms, by Joseph J. Thomson; A Short Account of the Controversy regarding the Seat of Volta's Contact Force, by Oliver J. Lodge; Sun Spots and Temperature, by Dr. Van Rijckevorsel; Seismology in Mauritius, by J. F. Claxton; An Account of the Work done at the Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, by A. Lawrence Rotch, of Boston, Mass., U. S. A.; A Description of the Hydro-aërograph, by F. Napier Denison; Rainfall of the Southeastern Countries of England, by John Hopkinson; Description of a Gravity Balance, by Henry S. Threlfall; Platinum Thermometry, by Hugh L. Callendar; An Account of the Recent Magnetic Work in the United States and Canada, by Louis A. Bauer, of Washington city, U. S. A.; Special Sensitiveness of Mercury Vapor in an Atmosphere of Hydrogen, and its Influence on the Spectrum of the Latter, by E. Percival Louis; The Theory of Electrolytic Solution Pressure, by Robert A. Lehfeldt; and Temperature and Dispersion in Quartz and Iceland Spar, by J. William Gifford.

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