SCIENCE 



A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement 

 of Science, publishing the official notices and 

 proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, edited by J. McKeen 

 Cattell and published every Friday by 



THE SCIENCE PRESS 



1 I Liberty St., Utica, N. Y. Garrison, N. Y. 



New York City: Grand Central Terminal 



Annual Subscription, $6.00 Single Copies, 15 Cts. 



Entered as second-class matter January 21, 1922, at the 



Post Office at Utica, N. Y., under the Act of March 3, 1879. 



VOL. LVi August 25, 1922 No. 1443 



CONTENTS 



The Becprd of Science: Professor Wm. 

 Warner Bishop 205 



The Depletion of Soils by Chemical Denuda- 

 tion: Dr. Milton Whitney 216 



Scientific Events : 



The Pittsburgh Meeting of the American 

 Chemical Society; Exhibit of Optical In- 

 struments; Ventilating Code of the Amer- 

 ican Society of Seating and Ventilating 

 Engineers; The Aquarium of the Zoolog- 

 ical Society of London 219 



Scientific Notes and News 221 



University and Educational Notes 225 



Di'SCussion and Correspondence : 



The Food Habits of Swordfish: Professor 

 J. S. Kingsley. Experimental Transfor- 

 mation of the Smooth-bladder of the Dog: 

 Dr. Eben J. Carey. An Albino Mutation 

 of the Dematiaceous Fungus Brachy- 

 sporium Trefolii: Dr. Lee Bonar. A 

 Damp Chamber for Microscopes: Pro- 

 fessor Clifford H. Farr. The Cost of 

 German Publications: Professor Jas. 

 Lewis Howe 225 



Quotations : 



Science and the Tropics 228 



Scientific BooTcs: 



Keyser's Mathematical Philosophy: Pro- 

 fessor G. A. Miller 229 



Special Articles: 



The ' ' Winter Cycle ' ' in the Foiol : Dr. J. 

 Arthur Harris and H. E. Lewis. The 

 Effect of X-Rays on Chemical Reactions: 

 A. E. Olson 230 



The Fifteenth Annual Conference on Weights 

 and Measures 232 



THE RECORD OF SCIENCE^ 



One learns by adversity — at least such is the 

 popular belief, although the press dispatches 

 from Europe during the past few months would 

 seem to give the lie to this old adage. It used 

 to be my fate to encounter at frequent intervals 

 a genial friend of great distinction in the field 

 of physics and astronomy, long engaged in 

 high administrative functions, an alumnus of 

 this university — altogether a man of great 

 weight and substance, who endeavored each 

 time we met to overwhelm my cherished ambi- 

 tions by bringing forth with great gusto this 

 aphorism, ''Bibliography is the platitude of 

 research!" So much did this phrase please 

 him that he paraded it on many occasions, and 

 I confess I used to dodge around the corner 

 to avoid its rotund and sonorous condemna- 

 tion of my own ways and works. I hope to 

 show you that bibliography is the foundation 

 of research, and that however level and flat 

 that foundation may be, however dull may be 

 the task of laying it deep and strong, no last- 

 ing and lofty superstructure may safely be 

 reared, save on the secure footing of a knowl- 

 edge of previous work done by others, a knowl- 

 edge resting necessarily even in the field of 

 science on the much despised labor of the 

 bibliographer. 



There is prevalent on every university 

 campus, I suppose, an impression — not among 

 students alone — that the various branches of 

 human knowledge are for practical purposes 

 divided into two groups, the laboratory sciences 

 and the book sciences. This is an extremely 

 convenient and easy grouping — and it has cer- 

 tain elements of truth in its facile cleavage of 

 the field of inquiry. But it is e.ssentially inac- 

 curate in that it ignores a fundamental factor 

 common alike to research with the microscope 



• ' Address at the auiuial lueetiiii;- of the Miehi- 

 gnii Chapter of Sigm;i Xi. 



