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 



I 1 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 September 29, 1922 No. 1448 



CONTENTS 



The British Association for the Advancement 

 of Science: 

 Some Aspects of Animal Mechanism: Sir 

 Chaeles S. Sherkijtgton 345 



Can Waste of Mental Effort he avoided? Pro- 

 fessor Florian Cajori 355 



An Institute for Acoustic Besearch: Pro- 

 fessor Christian A. Ruckmick 357 



Proposed Federation of American Biological 

 Societies: Professor A. Franklin Shull 359 



Scientific Events: 



Bust of Chester S. Lyman; Effects of For- 

 est Fires on Food and Game Fishes; Con- 

 ference on World Metric Standardisation ; 

 Activities of the BocTcefeller Foundation.-. 361 



Scientific Notes and News 364 



University and Educational Notes 366 



Discussion and Correspondence : 



Growth of Plants in Artificial Light from 

 Seed to Seed: E. B. Harvey. The 

 Preparation of Clear Beef Agar: Frank- 

 lin W. Marsh. The Effect of Feeding 

 Velvet Beans to Pigeons: W. D. Salmon. 

 A Chemical Spelling Match: Dr. C. A. 

 Jacobson 366 



Scientific BooTcs: 



Loeb on Proteins and the Theory of Col- 

 loidal Behavior: Professor James Ejen- 

 dall 369 



Special Articles: 



Mosaic Cross-inoculation and Insect Trans- 

 mission Studies: O. H. Elmer. Sper- 

 matogenesis of the Garter Snake: Lloyd 

 E. Thatcher 370 



SOME ASPECTS OF ANIMAL 

 MECHANISM! 



It is sometimes said that science lives too 

 mu-ch in itself, but once a year it tries to re- 

 move that reproach. The British Association 

 meeting is that annual occasion, with its op- 

 portunity of talking in wider gatherings about 

 scientific questions and findings. Often the 

 answers are tentative. Commonly questions 

 most difficult are those that can be quite brief- 

 ly put. Thus, "Is the living organism a 

 machine?" "Is life the running of a mechan- 

 ism?" The answer cannot certainly be as short 

 as the question. But let us, in the hour be- 

 fore us, examine some of the points it raises. 

 Of course for us the problem is not the 

 "why" of the living organism but the "how" 

 of its working. If we put before ourselves 

 some aspects of this working we may judge 

 some at least of the contents of the question. 

 It might be thought that the problem is pre- 

 sented at its simplest in the simplest forms ot 

 life. Yet it is in certain aspects more seizable 

 in complex animals than it is in simpler forms. 

 Our own body is full of exquisite mechanism. 

 Many exemplifications could be chosen. There 

 is the mechanism by which the general complex 

 internal medium, the blood, is kept relatively 

 constant in its chemical reaction, despite the 

 variety of the food replenishing it and the 

 fluctuating draft from and input into it from 

 various organs and tissues. In this mechan- 

 ism the kidney cells and the lung cells form 

 two of the main sub-mechanisms. One part 

 of the latter is the delicate mechanism link- 

 ing the condition of the air at the bottom of 

 the lungs with that particulai- part of the 

 nervous system which manages the ventilation 

 of the lungs. On that ventilation depends the 



1 Presidential address delivered at the Hull 

 meeting of the British Association on. Septem- 

 ber 6. 



