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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



hath established a new doctrine in his 

 lifetime.' Complete and universal ac- 

 ceptance was, however, not obtained 

 until late in the century, even after 

 Malpighi had in 1661 by means of the 

 newly invented microscope completed 

 the demonstration of the circulation by 

 tracing the course of the blood in the 

 capillaries. In contrast with the te- 

 nacity with which traditional concep- 

 tions have been adhered to in the past, 

 as illustrated in this discovery and its 

 reception, and the whole history of sci- 

 ence is strewn with more bitter strug- 

 gles for acceptance, it is gratifying to 

 note the receptivity of the public mind 

 to new theories in our day and the tol- 

 erance and readiness with which they 

 are accorded a hearing. 



The significance of Harvey's work 

 lay not merely in the discovery of the 

 circulation of the blood and the pro- 

 found changes which it wrought in the 

 conceptions of the functions of the body 

 and in medical thought and practise, 

 great though these were. It lay more 

 perhaps in its contribution to the de- 

 velopment of scientific method. In the 

 words of the Harveian orator, " here 

 for the first time a great physiological 

 problem was approached from the ex- 

 perimental side by a man with a mod- 

 ern scientific mind who could weigh 

 evidence and not go beyond it, and 

 who had the sense to let the conclu- 

 sions emerge naturally but firmly from 

 the observations. To the age of the 

 hearer, in which men had heard, and 

 heard only, had succeeded the age of 

 the eye, in which men had seen, and 

 had been content only to see. But at 

 last came the age of the hand — the 

 thinking, devising, planning hand; the 

 hand as an instrument of mind now 

 reintroduced into the world in a modest 

 little monograph of seventy-two pages, 

 from which we may date the beginning 

 of experimental medicine." 



SCIENTIFIC ITEMS 

 Sir David Gill, astronomer royal in 

 South Africa, has retired — Dr. Wilhelm 

 Waldeyer, professor of anatomy at 



Berlin, and secretary of the Berlin 

 Academy of Sciences, has celebrated his 

 seventieth birthday. — The sum of about 

 $5,000 has been subscribed for the foun- 

 dation for the advancement of geo- 

 graphical study in honor of Dr. von 

 Neumayer. — Advantage will be taken 

 of the twentieth anniversary of the 

 isolation of fluorine to present a gold 

 medal to M. Moissan.— In acknowledg- 

 ment of his work in metallurgical re- 

 search, Professor Henry M. Howe, of 

 Columbia University, has received 

 from the Russian emperor the order 

 of the Knighthood of St. Stanislas. 



Dr. Sven Hedin, who by order of 

 the government was denied access to 

 Tibet from the side of India, is making 

 good his entry into western Tibet from 

 Chinese Turkestan. — Mr. Walter Well- 

 man and Major Hersey have returned 

 to this country. The former will go 

 to Paris in six weeks to continue his 

 supervision of the changes in his air- 

 ship. Major Hersey will accompany 

 the Chicago Record- Herald expedition 

 in its attempt to reach the Pole next 

 summer. — Captain Roald Amundsen 

 sailed on November 8, on the Scandi- 

 navian-American steamer Hellig Olaf, 

 for Christiania, where the records of 

 his magnetic observations in the Arctic 

 will be worked out. Captain Amund- 

 sen has presented his entire collection 

 to the Norwegian government. The 

 new king of Norway has conferred 

 upon him the highest decoration of the 

 kingdom, the grand cross and cordon 

 of St. Olaf. 



A scientific session of the National 

 Academy of Sciences was held at the 

 Harvard Medical School, Boston, be- 

 ginning on Tuesday, November 20. — ■ 

 The American Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science and the twenty 

 or more national scientific societies 

 affiliated with it will meet in New 

 York City during convocation week, 

 beginning on December 27. It is ex- 

 pected that this will be the largest and 

 most important meeting of scientific 

 men ever held in America. 



