SCIENC 



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 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 



October 6, 1922 



No. 1449 



CONTENTS 



The British Association for the Advanceinent 

 of Science: 

 The Organization of ^Research: PRorESSOR 

 J. C. Irvine , 373 



The United States Fundamental Standards 

 of Length and Mass: Dr. T. C. Menden- 

 HALL 377 



Scientific Events: 



The Merschel Centenary ; American Ornith- 

 ologists' Union; Public Lectures at the 

 California Academy of Sciences; The Silli- 

 man Lectures of Yale University ; Appoint- 

 ments at the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology 381 



Scientific Notes and News 383 



University and Educational Notes 387 



Discussion and Correspondence : 



The Death Sate from Tuberculosis: Dr. 

 A. C. Abbott. Old Glaciation in the Cor- 

 dilleran Megion: Dr. Frank Leverett. 

 Some Similarities between the Geology of 

 California and Parts of the Dutch East 

 Indies: Professor H. A. Brouwer. Belief 

 for Uussian Scientific Men: Isadore Levitt 387 



Quotations : 



The British Association 390 



Scientific BooTcs: 

 Haldane on Sospiration: Professor Yan- 

 DELL Henderson 390 



Special Articles: 



Duplicate Genes in Crepis; Inheritance of 

 Glandular Pubescence in Crepis: Pro- 

 fessor E. B. Babcock and J. L. Collins.. 392 



The American Chemical Society: Dr. Charles 

 L. Parsons : 393 



THE ORGANIZATION OF RESEARCH^ 



The principles of science are to-day ■widely- 

 spread ; systematic scientific training has found 

 an honorable place in the schools and in the 

 colleges; above all, there is the realization that 

 much of human progi-ess is based on scientific 

 inquiry, and at last this is fostered and, in 

 part, financed as a definite unit of national 

 educational policy. Public funds are devoted 

 to provide facilities for those who are com- 

 petent to pursue scientific investigations, and 

 in this way the state, acting through the De- 

 partment of Scientific and Industrial Research, 

 has assumed the double responsibility of pro- 

 viding for the advancement of knowledge and 

 for the application of scientific methods to 

 industry. Scientific workers have heen given 

 the opportunities they desired, and it remains 

 for us to .justify all that has been done. We 

 have to-day glanced briefly at the painful toil 

 and ilong years of preparation; now it falls to 

 us to sow the first crop and reap the fijrst 

 harvest. 



Thanks to the wisdom and foresight of 

 others, it has been possible to frame the gov- 

 ernment policy in the light of the experience 

 gained with pre-existing research organiza- 

 tions. The pioneer scheme of the kind is that 

 administered by the cormnissioners of the 1851 

 Exhibition, who since 1890 have awarded re- 

 search scholarships to selected graduates. 

 When in 1901 Mr. Carnegie's benefaction was 

 applied to the Scottish universities the trustees 

 wisely determined to devote part of the reve- 

 nues to the provision of research awards which 

 take the form of scholarships, fellowships and 

 research lectureships. These have proved an 

 immense boon to Scottish graduates, and the 

 success of the venture is sufficiently testified by 



1 From the address of the president of Section 

 B — Chemistry, British Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science, Hull, September 7, 1922. 



