The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-17
MEN OF. SCIENCE
Prof. F. |. Stevens Acad-
emy's New President.
Retiring Address of DR.. Charles Bas-
kerviIIe---Prof. Poteat's Orig
inal Paper on Blood
Circulation.

The third annual meeting of the
North Carolina Academy of Science
was held at Wake Forest college on
Friday and yesterday. The member
ship of the academy includes workers
in various branches of scientific re-
search, including medicine, physics,
chemistry, civil engineering, biology,
mathematics astronomy and phar-
macy. The academy was organized n
little over two years ago and the
growth in membership and interest
has been satisfactory, although there
is room for much further advance
mcnt, especially among the medical
profession.
Aside from the excellent address of
the retiring president of the academy
DR.. Charles Baskerville, there were
interesting papers on Seeing the Red
Corpuscles of the Hook worm" by Dr.
w S. Rankin. and 1.-THE Phenomena
of Fever" by DR.. Fred K. Cooke
Among other papers of general in
terest was Forecasts of the Sky, or
Expected Notable Objects" by Prof.
John f. Lannean. Prof Lannean eX-
l-plained the autumnal showers of
meteors or Shooting stars and
showed that they were due to the fact
that the earth passes closely in the
path of a comet known as Bella s
comet, every thirteen years the earth
| comes quite near to tho path of the
/ comet and at such times there is an
unusual display of the meteors. Such
was the case in November, 1892, and
will ocur again i'm the autumn of
| 1905. The meteors are simply small
| particles of ore. rocks, etc. that are
| left i'm the trail of the comet and are
attracted to the earth when it comes
near.
Prof. Poteat's paper on Seeing the
Red Corpuscles in Ones Own Capil-
! laries," was of special interest, and
! showed a great amount Of original
work Beginning with the we'll
! known little white disks which one
may often observe floating across the
! vision, especially when gazing into
! u clear sky, Professor POteat traced
out the lines along which they pass,
and by a beautiful series of expert
ments and observations showed that
they accord exactly with the channels
| of the capillaries in the eye itself, thus
proving that these disks are really
| images or reproduced shadows of the
| corpuscles as they pass along before
! the retina.
Prof. Fred K. Cooke in his paper
on The Phenomena of Fever "
brought out many interesting facts,
one of the most surprising of which
was that after taking violent exer-
else, as after running for one-half
mile, the actual temperature OF the
| body taken from thermometer read
| ings was considerably lower than nor
! NAL, and that the temperature rose
| again after resting. Many other in
| teresting points were brought out in
I the discussion.
! DR.. Watson s. Rankin gave Dem
onstrations of the hook worm" and
! illustrated his remarks most admira-
| bly, with carefully prepared sketches,
| specimens and miscroscopical prepaE-
atoms. The full grown worm is
| about one-QuaTter inch in length, and
is one cause of languor. loss of APP
| petite, and general debility among
humans. 1t has apparently been
proven that this parasite is more
abundant in the low, sandy portions
of the Southern States, and that per-
| sons living under conditions of poor
! sanitation are more likely to become
! infested with it, hence what has often
| been declared to be simply willful
! lazfness among many of the poorer
| classes appears in manX cases to be a
! really serious pathological condition,
the physician and victim being equally
! ignorant of the true cause. The dis
| coNery OF Hook-worms is not new, but
| the association OF this species, with
! the troubles indicated and the discov-
! cry of its true relationship with them,
| is a recent accomplishment.
Aside fromtne papers just reviewed,
the following were also presented at
the sessions of the academy:
Fertilization of Albugo SpomOla
Pandurata. DIR. f. l.. Stevens.
Solution OF a New Mathematical
Curve James L. Lake.
Some Common Birds and Their
Nests, T. Gilbert Pearson.
Working up the chronological
Fauna of North Carolina. f. Sher-
man. Jr.
on Friday morning the academy