Brown and White Vol. 16 no. 40

              mining society — meeting in williams hall wednesday march 17 at 8 p m arcadia — meeting in drown hall at 7.30 p m thursday march 18 band practice — in the physical laboratory at 7.30 thursday march 18 industrial meeting — lecture by mr pollock in drown hall thursday evening march 18 college lecture — by a parker smith 84 in physical laboratory 11.30 a m friday march 19 musical clues — concert in drown hall at 8.30 p m friday march 19 gyx\i team — l contest and exhibition in the gymnasium at 8 p m saturday march 20 base ball — the cage will be open for base ball practice this week all friday afternoon thurs day from 2 to 3.30 p m and wed nesday and saturday from 3.30 to 6 p m lacrosse — the cage will be open for lacrosse practice wednesday and saturday from 2 to 3.30 p m and thursday from 3.30 to 6 p m mustard and cheese the chemical society held its regular march meeting at the home of dr and mrs drinker on thurs day evening h e maddock 09 very ably discussed " alchemy in the university library citing numerous experiments which were believed by the ancients to uphold their theories there is much unauthentic history connected with alchemy its real history extending simply over the brief period be tween the eighth and sixteenth centuries at this latter time the theories of the philosopher's stone and the elements fire earth air and water were merged into the beginnings of modern chemistry w f lantz 10 in a further development of this interesting subject read apaper entitled " jos eph priestley mr lantz showed how our fore-fathers notwith standing the agitated conditions of england during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries developed the modern science of chemistry one of the greatest of the period was joseph priestley whose dis coveries of oxygen and other gases revolutionized the science priest ley however was such an ardent disciple of the phlogistonic theory that he failed to realize the impor tance of his own discoveries the final number on the program was an informal talk by prof joseph w richards concerning a few of the chemical and metallurgi cal industries of italy in opening his remarks professor richards stated that the present american chemical society was an outgrowth of the assemblage at the grave of priestley in cumberland pa the body of his remarks showed very plainly how modern is the technical development abroad the steel works in the production of electrolytic steel and use of by product gas engines are far in advance of american practice during the short business session which immediately followed the reading of the papers votes of thanks were extended to dr and mrs drinker for their kindness in entertaining the society and to professor richards for his active interest the members were then served with elaborate refreshments and enjoyed a short social hour mr stevenson 90 was present during the evening miners meeting the date of the mustard and cheese show has been definitely set for saturday night april 24 the baseball game with swarth more will be played here on the same date f v bechtel business manager and g w ham presi dent of the association have made extended trips to wilkes-barre scranton pottstown and williams port during the past week in an effort to arrange for performances to be given in these cities although nothing definite has been settled it is quite probable that the dramatic troupe this year will take a more extensive tour than has ever been known in its history the lehigh gym team closed its schedule on friday evening in a triangular meet with pennsylvania and haverford although the college team did excellent work against its stronger rivals it was awarded only third place the final score was pennsylvania thirty eight points haverford eleven points and lehigh five points the pennsylvania team was by far the star attraction of the meet and easily carried off the chief honors with a big margin the advantage of the larger institution in training was well marked in the work of their representatives and in this also they showed great superiority over that of the smaller colleges perm captured first place in five events second in three events and third in four events in addition to this the philadelphians took three places in two events haver ford secured one first place and two second places bley won third place on the horizontal bar for lehigh collins took second in club swing ing and tremlett made third place on the parallel bars the meet was by far the largest and one of the most successful ever held at haverford it was attended by a large crowd and in every manner reflected credit upon the three institutions which took part immediately following the meet a reception w r as held at which the two visiting teams were guests a number of the members of the lehigh team remained in haverford over night and returned to south bethlehem on sunday the score : horizontal bar — bradford first kelley second pennsylvania bley third johnson lehigh bard bryne haverford side horse — leidke first brin ton third lawton kelley penn sylvania young sturgis lehigh lewis second david haverford c 1 v b sw i ngi n g — shoemaker brinton third bradford pennsyl vania ; collins second lehigh ; shoemaker first myers haverford parallel bars — kelley first leid ke woll erb pennsylvania trem lett third van blarcom lehigh ; lewis second edwards haver ford flying rings — bradford first levi second parker third penn sylvania jannus lehigh lewis mott haverford tumbling perkins second woll third kelley first pennsylvania vogt bailey lehigh ; roberts haverford m e society the regular march meeting of the mechanical engineering society will be held on tuesday evening march 16 in williams hall another alumnus charles h stevenson 90 in the course of lec tures on topics of general informa tion was heard in the physical laboratory on friday morning his subject was pearl cultures and pearl fisheries mr steven son stated that in the time afforded he could only hope to touch on his theme in a general way as it was one of so wide proportions the most important fisheries he descri bed as being in the persian gulf along the coasts of ceylon and in dia where pearls have been gather ed since ancient times but during more recent years they are also procured from the sulu seas the coast of australia and the snores of central america and venezuela the oysters from which pearls are obtained range in weight from a few ounces to fifteen or eighteen pounds river-pearls areproduced by fresh water mussels inhabiting mountain sti s of temperate cli mates many having been found in the united states mr stevenson said that pearls assume a great variety of forms are commonly white but have been found in all colors of the rainbow they are not brilliant but possess a beautiful subdued irridescence . their values range from a few cents to ten or twelve thousand dollars the ancients held most fanciful be liefs concerning the origin of pearls but modern investigation has prov ed that the pearl is the result of a disarrangement in the mollusc when a pearl oyster is attacked by a boring parasite the mollusc pro tects itself by depositing the secre tions of the shell-forming organ at the point of invasion as these parasites were found only in pearl bearing oysters the experiment has been tried of infecting healthy oys ters with the germs irregular shaped pearls are formed in the same manner by depositions on rough objects as a piece of wood sand or clay which may have got ten within the shell of the oyster in speaking of the fisheries and methods of procuring the pearl bearing oysters mr stevenson said that the oldest beds are those of the persian gulf where the ancient methods of diving are still in use the men going down from 10 to 12 fathoms and at one descent getting from none to fifty oysters the fisheries of ceylon are situated in the gulf of manan under the control of the indian government here the divers use a heavy stone attached to the rope by which they are let down to facilitate the des cent fishing here is more inter mittent generally beginning the last week in march and lasting from five to si x weeks . th e f i sli cr ies of the red sea are no longer of continued on fourth page the march meeting of the mining society will be held in williams hall on wednesday night pro fessor miller will be one of the speakers together with h p smith c u seigel and lloyd hoffman the brown and white lehigh university chemical society south bethlehem pa tuesday march 16 1909 college lecture fisheries pearl cultures and pearl and mrs drinker delightfully entertained by dr vol xvi pennsylvania won on friday evening by triangular meet calendar electek jal society — meeting at dr drinker's home tuesday evening march 16 mechanical society — meeting in williams hall tuesday march 16 at 7 p m mustard and cheese — rehear sal in drown hall at 2.30 p m for chorus on wednesday march 17 mandolin club rehearsal in drown hall,at 3 p m wednesday march 17 no 4.0