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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



good municipal government is the task of 

 securing the practical application of the prin- 

 ciples of science to the great fund of knowl- 

 edge which has been won for us by science. 

 I am continually impressed in my practical 

 relation to the work of this great city with 

 the vital relation which science bears to that 

 work. More efficient government is to be 

 sought along the lines of affairs which lie 

 within the scope of our municipal govern- 

 ment, and this is to be won for us by the in- 

 vestigators who have increased our knowledge 

 of science within the last fifty years. ... I 

 am proud to say that we give a high place 

 in everyday work to men of science who are 

 giving technical application to the principles 

 which have come to light through the inves- 

 tigations of abstract science. Work in the 

 future will demand a fuller employment of 

 men of science." 



The situation as to antarctic explora- 

 tion is described by the President of the 

 Royal Geographical Society as including a 

 German expedition in course of organization 

 on a liberal scale ; the hope that the Nor- 

 wegian Government may send out an expe- 

 dition, perhaps under the leadership of Dr. 

 Nansen ; the Belgian expedition under M. de 

 Gerlache; and the expedition under Mr. 

 Borchgrevink, which is in an advanced state 

 of preparation, and will shortly leave for 

 Australia and South Victoria Land. The 

 ship of this expedition, the Southern Cross, 

 has been designed by the builder of the 

 Fram, and has ten feet of solid oak at her 

 bows, while she is thirty-two inches in thick- 

 ness at her weakest point. Provision of 

 sledges and dogs is made for the inland 

 journey on the South Victorian continent, 

 and the expedition will make it an object to 

 explore that land and investigate the seas 

 between there and Australia. Mr. Borch- 

 grevink will take with him stores for three 

 years and a supply of carrier pigeons. 



The vice-presidential address of Prof. 

 Frank P. Whitman to the Physical Section 

 of the American Association embodied a re- 

 view of the present theories of color vision. 

 The speaker regarded it as clearly proved 

 that the number of color sensations is small, 

 and that all hypotheses of a large number 

 are untenable. The vision of white light is 

 not a compound sensation, no matter how 



complex the light may be physically, but it 

 is at the same time not a purely independent 

 one, for there are some evident relations be- 

 tween it and vision by faint light, in which 

 all the colors fade and tend to become white. 

 A definite and highly probable function has 

 been assigned to the visual purple, that of 

 adaptation, and of causing or aiding vision 

 in faint light. The number and variety of 

 known human phenomena are very great and 

 constantly increasing. Their interrelations 

 grow every day more complex, and the actual 

 mechanism governing those relations still re- 

 mains almost entirely unknown. The various 

 theories have at length arrived at such a 

 stage of flexibility that, thanks to subsidiary 

 hypotheses, almost any kind of visual result 

 might be explainable. Perhaps the most 

 hopeful line of research is that which, like 

 the study of the visual purple, seeks to find 

 a relation between color sensations and phys- 

 ical properties. 



The address of Prof. A. S. Packard, as 

 chairman of the Zoological Section of the 

 American Association, was devoted to a re- 

 view of a Half Century of Evolution and the 

 bearings of the theory on the problems of 

 the nature and origin of life. The immedi- 

 ate effect of the acceptance of evolution on 

 scientific study was, the speaker said, a happy 

 one. Collectors, instead of narrowly gather- 

 ing a specimen or two for their cabinets and 

 being content therewith, are led to look at 

 other things during their field excursions; 

 protective mimicry, for example, or the rela- 

 tion of form to environment. The race of 

 " species makers " is diminishing, while stu- 

 dents of geographical distribution are taking 

 their place, and the relation of form to past 

 geographical changes is now discussed in 

 a more philosophical way than heretofore. 

 Speaking of the relations of new forms and 

 new classes to geological changes, Professor 

 Packard was careful to indicate that their 

 probable origin lay rather in the results of 

 the gradual extension of the land masses 

 and the opening of new areas. 



Weighing the merits of the various plans 

 that have been proposed for preventing or 

 tempering the floods of the Mississippi, Mr. 

 William Starling finds that storage reservoirs 

 have but little effect in reducing the height 

 the water will reach in the stream below. 



