TECHNICAL NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY 229 



terieur to designate the total circulating fluids of the 

 body— that is, the plasma plus the interstitial fluid. 



In the early decades of this century Bernard's thesis 

 was extended in many directions by Walter B. Cannon, 

 who summarized his own studies in his justly popular 

 book, The Wisdom of the Body {5}. Cannon called the 

 milieu interieur the 'fluid matrix' of the body. It was he 

 who coined the word Tiomeostasis,' and who pointed out 

 (a) that the existence of a homeostatic state is itself evi- 

 dence that agencies are acting, or ready to act, to main- 

 tain this constancy; (b) that it remains constant because 

 any tendency towards change is automatically met by 

 increased effectiveness of the factor or factors which 

 resist the change; and (c) that such regulatory factors 

 are generally imder automatic control. 



On the structure of the earth the writer has followed 

 Gamow {8}, on paleogeology, Schuchert and Dunbar 

 {17}, and on the age of the earth, Holmes {9, 10}. The 

 dating of geological periods is roughly that given by 

 Romer {15}, which differs only slightly from the esti- 

 mates given by other authorities (as, for example, {3, 4, 

 11, 12, 14} ) , no two of whom are in complete agreement. 



Sir George Darwin's theory of the origin of the moon 

 by fission of the earth is described by Gamow {8}. This 

 theory was opposed on mathematical groimds in 1930 

 by Jeffries, and it has encountered new opposition in a 

 recent dissertation by Urey {19}. Darwin s theory has, 

 however, so many attractive points in its favor that it still 

 has the support of many students of cosmogony. Many 

 factors bearing on mountain building are reviewed by 

 Eardley {6}. 



II. EVOLUTION 



21. Jepsen, G. L. "Orthogenesis," and the fossil record. 

 Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 

 93: 479. 1949- 



