592 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LVI, No. 1456 



vni 



In bringing to a close this brief and inade- 

 quate review of the major trends of biology I 

 want to say a few words about a purely practi- 

 cal movement which is rapidly gaining force 

 and seems likely shortly to have a pronounced 

 effect upon the development of the whole sub- 

 ject, including its theoretical aspects, and par- 

 ticularly its teaching. I refer to the rapi-dly 

 growing recognition of the fact that all of the 

 activities of all living things, including mian, 

 are properly a part of biology in a greater or 

 less degree. The practical importance of this 

 lies in its corollary that the biologist may and 

 probably does have something important to con- 

 tribute towards the solution of the most various 

 sorts of human problems, agricultural, medical, 

 social, economic, and so on. During the last 

 quarter of a century it has been increasingly 

 forced upon the attention of university teach- 

 ers of biology that students of sociology, of 

 philosophy, of medicine, of economies, and of 

 many other subjects, who had no intention to 

 become professional biologists, not only wanted 

 to, but needed to know something about biology. 

 At first covertly resisted, this need is now 

 frankly being recognized and in some degrees 

 met by the reorganization of courses, and de- 

 partures of varying degree from the traditional 

 method of teaching this subject. This is, I 

 think, entirely healthy and desirable. There 

 is going along with this broadening of the view- 

 point of biological teaching a welcome broaden- 

 ing of the opportunities for a useful and profit- 

 able career in biology. There are already many 

 kinds of applied biology attracting young men 

 and women. And quite beyond the range of 

 these somewhat narrow specialties, we are wit- 

 nessing such phenomena as the employment of 

 research workers in general biology by a great 

 corporation manufacturing electrical appli- 

 ances, to mention but a single instance. 



To one who esmibarked upon a biological 

 career twenty-five years ago, solely because he 

 was seduced by the charm of the subject, and 

 who in yielding renounced, against the advice 

 of family and friends, the supposedly certain 

 and considerable rewards which would come if 

 he continued, as he had tentatively started, on 



a career in which he might finally become a 

 teacher of Greek, the opportunities for the 

 biologist of the present day seem somehow 

 humorously magnificent. 



If in what I have said I have succeeded in 

 any degree in indicating the intellectual justifi- 

 cation of Dr. John A. Lichty's splendid gift to 

 Mount Union College for the endowment of its 

 flourishing depai'tment of biology, my principal 

 object will have been achieved. Under the able 

 leadership of Professor M. J. Scott we may 

 confidently expect the work of the department 

 to go forward in close touch with each new 

 and pi'omising field of endeavor which biology 

 presents. I can not allow myself to close with- 

 out expressing, as a biologist, my deep admira- 

 tion and profound respect for the breadth of 

 vision and deep philosophical insight which is 

 implied in the endowment by a worker of the 

 field of medicine of a chair of general biology. 

 The Milton J. Lichty Chair of Biology is an- 

 other enduring demonstration of the fact that 

 the most enchanting of all the sciences has 

 really come into its own. 



Raymond Pearl 

 School op Hygiene and Public Health, 

 The Johns Hopkins Univbrsity 



EARTH-CURRENT OBSERVATIONS! 



The Department of Terrestrial Magnetism of 

 the Carnegie Institution of Washington is plan- 

 ning ito install earth-current lines for system- 

 atic observations at its magnetic observatories. 

 During tlliis year such lines are being installed 

 at the Watheroo Magnetic Observatory, about 

 120 miles north of Perth, Western Australia, 

 and some time later similar installations will 

 be made at the Huancayo Magnetic Observa- 

 tory, about 125 miles east of Lima, Peru; both 

 of 'these magnetic obiservatories are conducted 

 under the auspices of the Department of Ter- 

 restrial Magnetism. Various initial investiga- 

 tions concerning best methods of eanth-current 



1 Presented before the Philosophical Society of 

 Washiagton, February 25, 1922. The full paper is 

 published in the March-June, 1922, issue of Ter- 

 restrial Magnetism and Atmospheric Electricity, 

 pp. 1-30. 



