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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. L. No. 1287 



theories of other sciences whicli have a direct 

 bearing upon the work in hand. In discuss- 

 ing the subject, I shall confine my attention 

 to the importance of a knowledge of the prin- 

 ciples of physics and of methods of physical 

 measurement in their bearing upon work in 

 other fields. ISTo doubt the arguments will ap- 

 ply equally well, in their general aspect, to 

 any science in its relation to the others. My 

 reasons for emphasizing physics are, first, that 

 I want to confine myself to the facts with 

 which I am most familiar, and second, that 

 many of the measurements and experiments 

 made in almost any science are purely phys- 

 ical, involving mechanics, sound, heat, light 

 and electricity with its newest branch, radio- 

 activity. 



In engineering, the fact that physics is 

 fundamental has been universally recognized, 

 in some cases by presenting a more intensive, 

 or a longer com-se in general physics, and in 

 other cases by putting into the curriculum 

 intermediate and advanced courses having a 

 direct bearing upon the problems to be en- 

 countered later. Engineering is commonly 

 spoken of as applied physics, and it is there- 

 fore to be expected that physics and its appli- 

 cations should occupy a large part of the 

 engineering courses. "Workers in those sci- 

 ences which have more recently become ex- 

 perimental, and in those which, though having 

 long found much of their advancement in ex- 

 periment, are finding new experimental meth- 

 ods — these have not yet fully recognized the 

 aid they might receive from physics. On the 

 other hand, the physicist himself has failed to 

 recognize the aid which his science might 

 give. Consequently little has been done to- 

 wards promoting the idea of developing 

 courses in physics with reference to its appli- 

 cations to the chemical, biological and med- 

 ical sciences. 



The handicap of insufficient familiarity 

 witli physical measurements and technique, in 

 the case of so many workers in the sciences, 

 is no doubt due to the fact that the great 

 majority of students in these sciences become 

 so absorbed in their own problems, and see in 

 their own fields so many immediate things to 



be undertaken that they are led to pay but 

 scant attention to any others. Or, on the 

 other hand, students follow a prescribed course 

 of study, which may have been laid out with- 

 out sufficient consideration having been given 

 to the value of including in that course the 

 sort of training which later might prove ex- 

 tremely useful if not indispensable. 



It is true that some recognition has been 

 given physics in all undergraduate courses 

 looking towards graduate work in chemistry, 

 biology, medicine, and in some cases, psychol- 

 ogy. The future chemist or bacteriologist 

 " gets " one year of physics, consisting of 

 three or four hours a week of classroom, lec- 

 ture and laboratory work, and this during his 

 freshmen or sophomore year. An extra year 

 may be added, perhaps, in individual cases, 

 for more or less advanced laboratory work, 

 upon the planning of which the instructor has 

 unfortunately often spent too little thought to 

 bring out fully its possibilities from the stu- 

 dent's point of view. 



Those who plan such a prescribed covirse of 

 study may justly argue that the year of phys- 

 ics to which their students are now " exposed," 

 even in classes made up wholly of chemical 

 or premedical students, is too frequently " just 

 physics," and that no emphasis is placed upon 

 the relation of physics to the science in which 

 the student is interested. To a certain extent, 

 this is true. The physics instructor's failing 

 must be traced back to the same cause, how- 

 ever, as an effect of which his knowledge of 

 the other sciences is insufficient to enable him 

 to apply his physics in the manner expected. 

 But aside from this, there is so much ground 

 to be covered in a single year that, regardless 

 of the text used, the class must be carried 

 along at a terrific pace, following the text as 

 closely as it may, in order to cover the ground 

 in the allotted time. After such a course, it 

 can not he expected that a student should re- 

 tain much in the way of aiility to apply phys- 

 ics to anything else when, at the end of the 

 semester, the sum total of physics which he 

 can successfully apply to the impending ex- 

 amination is so small! Besides, most of the 

 courses properly include physics in the fresh- 



