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sayer at Cheyenne, 1887-8; superintendent of mines, Colorado and Wyoming, 1888-93; state geologist, 1898-9; for many years consulting expert to the Union Pacific Railroad Company upon mineral and oil lands and upon artesian basins; at the time of his death, on leave from the university, consulting expert for the BelgoAmerican Oil Company.

Among the honors that had come to him, membership in the following learned societies should be noted: Fellow of the Geological Society of America, member of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, member of the National Geographical Society.

Of his home relations it may be said that they illustrated the best in American domestic and social life. His parents survive him and are justly proud of the work that he had accomplished-for in his brief forty-four years he had more to his credit than most of the scientific men who are permitted to round out their three score years and ten.

He was married in 1889 to E. Emma Howell, a delightful and talented young woman whom he had known during his college career. The union proved a most happy one and the four promising children (one daughter and three sons) are the joy of the loving wife that mourns the loss of a tender and devoted husband.

The home of Mr. and Mrs. Knight was always open to their friends, and they took great pleasure in providing social occasions that should serve other purposes than merely that of killing time.

In the passing away of Professor Knight, on July 28, 1903, after a few days' illness from peritonitis, the family lost its hero, the community a choice citizen, the university an honored member, the state an important agent in its industrial development, the scientific world one who, having done much, was just on the threshold of

greater things, and the church a member who lived the religion that he professed. AVEN NELSON.

UNIVERSITY OF WYOMING,
LARAMIE, WYO.

A LIST OF PAPERS PUBLISHED BY WILBUR C. KNIGHT.

Bulletin No. 14, Wyoming Experiment Station, University of Wyoming; Geology of the Wyoming Experiment Farms, and Notes on the Mineral Resources of the State,' October, 1893.

'The Coal Mines of Wyoming,' Mineral Industry, 1894.

'Coal and Coal Measures of Wyoming,' 16th Annual Report, U. S. G. S., Part IV., 1894. 'A New Jurassic Plesiosaur from Wyoming,' SCIENCE, October 4, 1895.

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The Mining Industry of Wyoming,' Mining Industry (Denver), June, 1896.

Bulletin No. I., Petroleum Series, School of Mines University of Wyoming; 'The Petroleum of the Salt Creek Oil Field, its Technology and Geology,' June, 1896.

'The Salt Creek Oil Field,' Engineering and Mining Journal, January, 1896.

'The Petroleum Fields of Wyoming,' Mineral Industry, 1896.

'The Petroleum Industry of Wyoming,' American Manufacturer and Iron World, May 29, 1896. Bulletin No. II., Petroleum Series, School of Mines, University of Wyoming; The Petroleum Oil Fields of the Shoshone Anticlinal, Geology of the Popo Agie, Lander and Shoshone Oil Fields,' January, 1897.

'The Wyoming Natural Soda Deposits,' Mineral Industry, 1897.

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The Origin of the Soda Deposits of Wyoming,' Mining Industry (Denver), November, 1898. 'Prehistoric Quartzite Quarries of Eastern Central Wyoming,' SCIENCE, March 4, 1898.

'Some New Jurassic Vertebrates from Wyoming,' American Journal of Science, Vol. V., 1898. First and second papers.

'Description of Bentonite, a new variety of Clay,' Engineering and Mining Journal, LXIII. and LXVI.

Bulletin No. III., Petroleum Series, School of Mines, University of Wyoming; The Geology of the Oil Fields of Crook and Uinta Counties,' November, 1899.

'Some New Data for Converting Geological Time into Years,' SCIENCE, October 4, 1899.

'The Permian of Nebraska,' Journal of Geology, May-June, 1899.

'Jurassic Rocks of Southeastern Wyoming,' Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, Vol. XI., 1900.

'The Present Outlook of the Coal Industry in Wyoming,' Wyoming Industrial Journal, June, 1900.

'Some New Jurassic Vertebrates from Wyoming,' Third Paper, American Journal of Science, August, 1900.

Bulletin No. 45, Wyoming Experiment Station, University of Wyoming; 'A Preliminary Report of the Artesian Basins of Wyoming, June, 1900.' "The Fossil Field Expedition of 1899,' National Geographical Magazine, December, 1900.

'Potassium Nitrate in Wyoming,' SCIENCE, January 25, 1901.

'Geology of Bates's Hole,' Bulletin Geological Society of America, Vol. XII., 1901.

Special Bulletin, School of Mines, University of Wyoming; 'The Swetwater Mining District.' Bulletin No. IV., Petroleum Series, School of Mines, University of Wyoming, Geology of the Oil Fields of the Natrona Country, excepting Salt Creek.'

'The Laramie Plains Red Beds and Their Age,' Journal of Geology, Vol. X., No. 4, 1902.

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Bulletin No. V., Petroleum Series, School of Mines, University of Wyoming; The Newcastle Oil Field.'

'Discovery of Platinum in Wyoming,' Engineering and Mining Journal, LXII., 845.

'Petroleum Fields of Wyoming,' Engineering and Mining Journal, LXII., 358 and 628.

'Wyoming Oil,' Petroleum Review, London. 'Rare Metals in the Ore from The Rambler Mine, Wyoming,' Engineering and Mining Journal, LXIII., No. 2.

'Epsom Salts Deposits of Wyoming,' Engineering and Mining Journal, February 14, 1903.

Petroleum Fields of Wyoming,' Engineering and Mining Journal, May 24, 1902.

'Mining in Wyoming in 1902,' Engineering and Mining Journal, January 3, 1903.

Bulletin No. 55, Wyoming Experiment Station, University of Wyoming; 'The Birds of Wyoming.' 'The Geology of the Leucite Hills of Wyoming.' (In collaboration with Dr. J. F. Kemp.) Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 1903.

'Fossil Elephants in Wyoming,' SCIENCE, 1903. 'Notes on Baptanadon marshi, n. s.,' American Journal of Science, July, 1903.

Bulletin No. VI., Petroleum Series, School of Mines, University of Wyoming; The Bonanza, Cottonwood and Douglas Oil Fields,' July, 1903.

SCIENTIFIC BOOKS.

Lehrbuch der vergleichenden Histologie der Tiere. Von Dr. KARL CAMILLO SCHNEIDER, Privatdozent an der Univ. Wien, mit 691 Abbildungen im Text. Jena, Verlag von Gustav Fischer. 1902.

This comparative histology is another instance of the astonishingly brief time in which, in Vienna, a great work may be brought to completion. The heavy volume of 939 pages contains also a bibliography of 36 pages and an index.

The work is divided into a general and a special part. The plan has been to bring together in the general part the weightiest results for comparison by a presentation of the leading points of view, while in the special part leading groups are treated by taking up typical representatives in detail.

This plan has not been carried out completely, however. A number of groups, especially the Tunicata, and still further the Trematoda, Acanthocephala, Rotatoria, Siphunculoidea, Cephalopoda, Myriapoda, Arachnoidea, Scyphomedusa, Ophiuroidea, Echinoidea, Bryozoa, Brachiopoda, typical fishes, reptiles and birds, have not been considered at all or only superficially. Even the remaining types have not been worked up with the completeness one might wish. Still the work is a remarkable and valuable one. The text, to a considerable extent, is based on the researches of the author, while the literature, to which extensive reference is made, has control. served chiefly as Wherever the author has been dependent on literature

alone for his view, credit is given and the literature cited.

In the general part, the incompleteness of the chapter on Organology' is noticeable. While in many respects the material has not been sufficiently worked up, in other respects it has been carried beyond the borders of comparative histology. In the general part, the chapter on 'Architectonics,' the different planes of organization of the Metazoa have been discussed, and at the close of the chapter a system (page 238) has been devised which is the key to the systematic arrangement of the special part.

Histology, in this book, is not considered entirely in the sense of microscopic anatomy, but primarily as morphological cytology. Tissues are associations of cells of the same sort. In discussing tissues the author concerns himself first with their structural characteristics, but secondly, also with their relation to the composition of the entire organism.

The dividing of the Metazoa into two principal groups, the Pleromata and the Cœlenterata, is based, for a great part, on histologic grounds.

It is very evident the author has worked with a plan or outline in hand which has enabled him to produce a well-written, usable book. Of the 691 illustrations many are excellent, while only a few give one the feeling that the work was done under pressure. As a work of reference the book is very valuable, for it embodies not only much that is original, but the results of hundreds of investigators have been worked over and embodied in the text. As a text-book it is, of course, entirely too bulky to be considered. Still when one considers the remarkable activity in Germany in the field of microscopic anatomy as illustrated in Oppel's 'Vergleichende Mikroskopische Anatomie der Wirbeltiere,' three large volumes with a total of 2,400 pages in which the author has but completed his consideration of the alimentary tract, one is led to feel that in another decade Schneider's work may be a primer.

INDIANA UNIVERSITY,

BURTON D. MYERS.

BLOOMINGTON, INDIANA.

SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY.

THE tenth summer meeting and fourth colloquium of the American Mathematical Society were held at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology during the week August 31 to September 6, 1903. Forty-seven members of the society attended the sessions of the regular meeting, which occupied the first two days of the week. The colloquium opened on Wednesday morning, with a total attendance of thirty-one. Three courses of lectures were given, as follows: Professor E. B. Van Vleck, of Wesleyan University, six lectures on 'Selected Topics in the Theory of Divergent Series and of Continued Fractions'; Professor H. S. White, of Northwestern University, three lectures on 'Linear Systems of Curves on Algebraic Surfaces'; Professor F. S. Woods, of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, three lectures on 'The Connectivity of Non-Euclidean Space.'

The following persons were elected to membership in the society: Professor D. P. Bartlett, Massachusetts Institute of Technology; Professor C. E. Comstock, Bradley Polytechnic Institute, Peoria, Ill.; Mr. H. N. Davis, Harvard University; Mr. W. J. Graham, New York, N. Y.; Mr. N. J. Lennes, Chicago, Ill.; Mr. T. J. McCormack, La Salle, Ill.; Dr. L. I. Neikirk, University of Pennsylvania; Dr. A. B. Pierce, University of Michigan; Professor W. J. Rush, Iowa College; Miss M. E. Trueblood, Mt. Holyoke College; Mr. C. B. Upton, Columbia University; Dr. Oswald Veblen, University of Chicago; Mr. R. H. Williams, Columbia University. Seventeen applications for membership were received.

The committee on definitions of college entrance requirements in mathematics, appointed at the summer meeting of 1902, presented a report, which was received and recommended for publication. The report will appear in the Educational Review and in the Bulletin of the society. A committee was appointed to prepare for the October meeting a list of nominations of officers and members of the Council for the year 1904.

The following papers were read at this meeting.

I. J. SCHWATT: On the length of curves.' T. J. I'A. BROMWICH: Similar conics through three points.'

D. R. CURTISS: 'Binary families in a triply connected region, with especial reference to hypergeometric families.'

JOHN EIESLAND: On a certain system of conjugate lines on a surface transformable into asymptotic lines by means of Euler's transformation.'

EDWARD KASNER: A class of conformal transformations.'

EDWARD KASNER: Notes in the theory of surfaces.'

E. R. HEDRICK: Note on the existence of a continuous first derivative.'

G. A. BLISS: 'Jacobi's condition in the calculus of variations when both end points are variable.' ARNOLD EMCH: 'Note on the p-discriminant of ordinary differential equations of the first order.' HELEN A. MERRILL: On a notable class of linear differential equations of the second order.'

FLORIAN CAJORI: On the circle of convergence of the powers of a power series' (preliminary communication).

E. T. WHITTAKER: An expression of certain known functions as generalized hypergeometric functions.'

W. H. YOUNG: On a test for non-uniform convergence.'

J.. I. HUTCHINSON: On the automorphic functions of signature (0, 3; 2, 6, 6).'

B. O. PEIRCE: On the lines of certain classes of solenoidal or lamellar vectors symmetric with respect to an axis.'

H. T. EDDY: The multiplication of complex numbers and of vectors compared.'

J. N. VAN DER VRIES: 'On monoids.' JACOB WESTLUND: On the congruence ${P} = 1 mod. P".'

ALFRED LOEWY: Zur Gruppentheorie mit Anwendungen auf die Theorie der linearen homogenen Differentialgleichungen.'

SAUL EPSTEEN: Semireducible hypercomplex number systems.'

L. E. DICKSON: On the subgroups of order a power of in the quaternary abelian group in the Galois field of order p".'

L. E. DICKSON: The subgroups of order a power of 2 of the simple quinary orthogonal group in the Galois field of order p = 81 ± 3.’

L. E. DICKSON: Determination of all groups of binary linear substitutions with integral coeffi

cients taken modulo 3 and of determinant unity.' L. E. DICKSON: 'Determination of all the subgroups of the known simple group of order 25920.' L. E. DICKSON: The systems of subgroups of the quaternary abelian group in a general Galois field.'

C. N. HASKINS: On the invariants of quadratic differential forms.'

FRANK MORLEY: 'On projective coordinates.' FRANK MORLEY: 'On a skew quadrangle covariant with six points of space' (preliminary communication).

E. B. WILSON: The projective definition of area.'

R. S. WOODWARD: On the values of the stretches and the slides in the theory of strain.' R. S. WOODWARD: 'The radial compressibility of the earth compatible with the Laplacian law of density distribution.'

E. O. LOVETT: Periodic solutions of the problem of four bodies.'

E. O. LOVETT: Central conservative systems with prescribed trajectories.'

S. E. SLOCUM: Rational formulas for the strength of concrete-steel beams.'

A. S. CHESSIN: On a class of linear differential equations.'

C. M. MASON: On certain systems of differential equations: generalization of Green's functions, analytic character of the solutions.'

E. V. HUNTINGTON: A set of independent postulates for the algebra of logic.'

Pleasant social features of the meeting were the reception tendered to the society by Professor and Mrs. Pickering, at the Harvard College Observatory, where the rich collection of stellar photographs was visited under Professor Pickering's guidance; several informal and well-attended dinners and evening gatherings; and on Thursday afternoon an excursion to Nantasket in Boston harbor.

The next meeting of the society will be held at Columbia University, on Saturday, October 31. F. N. COLE, Secretary.

DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.

TOXIC EFFECT OF ACIDS ON SEEDLINGS.

IN a recent number of SCIENCE (Vol. XVIII., p. 453, September 4, 1903) there is a communication describing the effect of solutions of certain bases and acids upon seedlings

of Indian corn. This paper is remarkable in that no mention is made of the previous work of Heald* upon this plant, although the work of Kahlenberg and True, suggesting Heald's work, and published at the same time, in the same journal,† is freely quoted. This omission is the more remarkable since the author's results, when working with acids, are widely different from those obtained by Heald. undersigned, in collaboration with Mr. J. F. Breazeale, had occasion last winter to repeat the work of Heald, working to closer limits than that investigator had found desirable. It may be worth while to state the results of these three investigations as to the limit of dilution for various acids with seedlings of corn.

Hydrochloric acid..n/512

The

Cameron and Breazeale. n/3,000. n/3,000.

Loew.

Heald. n/3,200

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n/2,250.

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Just what is meant by 'toxic limit' seems to be somewhat indefinite judging from the printed descriptions of the work of this kind, but in the three investigations under consider ation the same methods of work and the same, or very similar, criteria have been used, and the comparison seems to be fair. The confirmation of the results of Heald by those obtained in my own laboratory makes those of Loew the more inexplicable.

The author expresses astonishment that the limits for maize should vary so widely from that found for Lupinus albus by Kahlenberg and True. The work in my own laboratory, as well as that of Heald, has shown that very much greater differences exist when other plants are involved, and that a priori predications upon this point are at present impossible.

*Bot. Gazette, 22, 125 (1896). + Bot. Gazette, 22, 81 (1896).

So stated in Heald's tabulation, but from the description of his experiments it seems probable that this is a typographical slip, and should be n/800.

He also seems to have difficulty in understanding the relative action of kations in the presence of more toxic anions. The literature of this subject is now fairly large, as witness the work of Loeb in Chicago, Coupin in France, not to mention a number of other investigators, and this particular point has been specifically discussed in connection with agricultural plants by Kearney and myself, and more recently by True and Gies, although no reference is made to any of these investigations in the paper under discussion. It may be well to state here that the work done in my laboratory, which I have already communicated to the American Chemical Society at its meeting in Cleveland, Ohio, June 30, 1903, will be described shortly from a technical point of view in the Journal of Physical Chemistry, and its value for and bearing upon certain important agricultural questions will be fully discussed in an early publication from the Department of Agriculture. F. K. CAMERON.

U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE, BUREAU OF SOILS, Washington, D. C., September 7, 1903.

SHORTER ARTICLES.

PRIMITIVE FLAGEOLETS.

THERE is a kind of primitive flageolet made by the western tribes of North American Indians as follows: A section of cane is open at both ends, but has a joint between the ends; the septum of this joint closes the tube. Two holes from three sixteenths to one fourth of an inch in diameter are made from the outside into the cavity, close to and on opposite sides of the septum. A shallow air channel is cut in the outside of the cane from one hole to the other, and three, four or six finger holes are made in the cane in the part below the septum. The Rees and Shoshones make a septum of wax. When so constructed and nothing further added the mystery flute,' described by early writers, is completed when the upper of the two holes at the septum and the air channel are covered by a finger. Blowing through the cane from the upper end produces a sound whose pitch is changed by the finger holes. * Report 71, U. S. Dept. of Agriculture (1902) Torrey Botanical Club, 30, 390 (1903).

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