SCIENC 



Friday, October 3, 1919 



CONTENTS 



Epidemiology and Recent Epidemics: Dk. 

 Simon Plexner 313 



The New International Vnion of Pure and Ap- 

 plied Chemistry: Professor Edward W. 

 Washburn 319 



Scientific Events: — 



Gift for the Improvement of Medical Educa- 

 tion in the United States; Lectures on Popu- 

 lar Science at the University of California; 

 The American Society of Naturalists; 

 Award of the Willard Gihis Medal ...... 323 



Scientific Notes and News 325 



University and Educational News 327 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



The Bigidity of the Earth: Professors A. 



A. MiCHELSON AND HeNET G. GaLE. An 



Unusual Mirage : De. A. A. Knowlton. . . 327 



The Rockefeller Foundation 328 



fo BooTcs: — 

 Bent on Life Histories of North American 

 Diving Birds : Harry C. Oberholzer .... 329 



Special Articles: — 



of Bright Lines: De. Louis Bell. 331 



MSS. intended for ^publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review sliould be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



EPIDEMIOLOGY AND RECENT 

 EPIDEMICSi 



It has been the custom, I am informed, at 

 these meetings to spend little time and few 

 words on mere felicitations, but to proceed as 

 promptly as may be to the business of the 

 congress. However, you will, I know, indulge 

 me long enough to enable me to express to you 

 in some degree the sense of honor and re- 

 sponsibility which I feel on this occasion. 



Since the last congTess, which was held in 

 1916, in the midst of the racking uncertainties 

 of the great war, notable events and serious 

 calamities have befallen the world and ar- 

 rested the attention of all thoughtful men. A 

 bitter and passionate military contest has 

 been brought to a hopeful conclusion; but 

 because of the unparalleled cost of the 

 struggle, in lives and in treasure, deep unrest, 

 revolution even, starvation and diseases are 

 prevailing over a large part of Europe, while 

 also within the three-year period elapsed be- 

 tween the last congress and the present one 

 three destructive epidemics of disease have 

 ravaged the United States and the world. 



Hence it has seemed fitting to me that on 

 this occasion and before this representative 

 body of medical men we should pause for a 

 brief period in order to review, as it were, our 

 knowledge of epidemics and at the same time 

 of the practical hygienic measures, based on 

 this knowledge, which we already put or in 

 ordinary course of events may reasonably hope 

 to put into motion against the spread of these 

 epidemics, so that we may form a judgment 

 of the efScacy of such measures and arrive 

 possibly at new points of view from which to' 

 launch a more decisive attack. Moreover, it 



1 President 's address, X. Congress of American 

 Physicians and Surgeons, held at Atlantic City, N. 

 J., June 16 and 17, 1918. This address appears 

 in the Journal of the American Medical Asso- 

 ciation. 



