THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 



287 



progress to which his administration 

 has been devoted. The recently in- 

 stalled presidents of Yale, Johns Hop- 

 kins and Columbia have thought it 

 wiser to confine their inaugural ad- 

 dresses to generalities, and there is 

 reason to suppose that the president 

 of Princeton will follow their example. 

 We therefore reprint above the con- 

 cluding part of the official oration giv- 

 en by him on the occasion of the Ses- 

 quicentennial Celebration of Princeton 

 University. President Wilson's atti- 

 tude toward science might be mis- 

 stated; it is better to let him speak 

 for himself. 



THE ABUSE OF ALCOHOLIC 

 TEACHING. 



The success of certain well-meaning 

 but intemperate women in securing 

 the enactment of laws requiring the 

 teaching in the public schools of the 

 injurious effects of alcoholic beverages, 

 etc., is now receiving serious attention. 

 Professor W. T. Sedgwick, in his presi- 

 dential address before the Chicago 

 meeting of the American Society of 

 Naturalists, and the New York State 

 Science Teachers Association, through 

 the report of its committee, give the 

 subject the attention it deserves. The 

 question is certainly complicated, open- 

 ing up many problems in sociology, 

 education, psychology and morals 

 which can not be settled off-hand. 

 Whether the moderate use of alcohol 

 is injurious, whether the attempt 

 should be made to prevent its exces- 

 sive use by law, whether its dangers 

 should be taught to children, are 

 questions to which science can not 

 give a definite answer. On the 

 other hand, there is substantial 

 agreement on the part of educators 

 and scientific men that the existing 

 laws prescribing the constant teaching 

 of the dangers of alcohol as part of 

 the science of physiology are undesir- 

 able. In the state of New York, for 

 example, all children below the second 

 year of the high school and above the 



third year of school work — say from 

 the ages of nine or ten to fifteen or 

 sixteen years — must have thirty lessons 

 a year on the effects of alcohol, etc. 

 The lessons must be one fifth of the 

 work in physiology and hygiene and 

 the subject must be treated in connec- 

 tion with the various chapters, fur- 

 ther the text-books in physiology are 

 practically supervised by Mrs. Mary 

 H. Hunt, who calls herself 'World 

 and National Superintendent of the 

 Department of Scientific Temperance 

 of the Woman's Christian Temperance 

 Union.' Now it is evident that all 

 that is known in regard to the effects 

 of alcohol on the tissues can be told in 

 an hour or two ; the arguments against 

 its use are economic and moral. If 

 morals are to be taught in the public 

 schools, as is the case in France, the 

 issue should be fairly met. If tem- 

 perance is a proper subject for instruc- 

 tion, it is reasonable to assume that 

 the abuse of alcohol should not receive 

 more attention than the abuse of legis- 

 lation and physiology, as exemplified 

 by what Mrs. Hunt calls 'organized 

 motherhood.' 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS. 

 We note with regret the death of 

 Professor Adolf Kussmaul, of Heidel- 

 berg, eminent for his work on aphasia 

 and other forms of nervous disease; 

 of Mr. George Griffith, assistant gen- 

 eral secretary of the British Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, 

 and of Professor Emmett S. Goff, who 

 held the chair of horticulture at the 

 University of Wisconsin. 



The Geological Society of London 

 has elected as foreign correspondents 

 Professor T. C. Chamberlin, of the 

 University of Chicago; Professor S. 

 W. Williston, just called to the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago, and Dr. T. Thor- 

 oddsen, of Iceland. — The Linnean So- 

 ciety of London has elected among four 

 foreign members Professor C. S. Sar- 

 gent, of Harvard University. — Dublin 

 University will confer the degree of 



