SCIENCE 



Friday, December 12, 1919. 



CONTENTS 

 The Carnegie Institution of Washington .... 529 



The Significance of the Declining Birth-rate: 

 Pkofessor Ellen Hayes 533 



Scientific Societies meeting at St. Louis 536 



Scientific Events: — 



, Science and Industry in New Zealand; Re- 

 search in the Ceramic Industry; Awards by 

 the Henry Draper Committee of the National 

 Academy of Sciences; Addresses at the St. 

 Louis Meeting of the American Association 

 for the Advancement of Science; Mr. 

 Frich 's Bequests 537 



Scientific Notes and News 540 



University and Educational News 541 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 

 An Unusual Form of Rainbow: Professob 

 H. M. Reese. A Simple Device for illustra- 

 ting Osmosis: Elbert C. Cole. Why not 

 Government-maintained Fellowships? G. F. 

 Ferris 542 



Special Articles: — 



The Term "Inversion": Db. J. B. Tergu- 

 SON 544 



Organization of the American Meteorological 

 Society: Dr. Charles E. Brooks 546 



The American Chemical Society, V.: Dr. 

 Charles L. Parsons 547 



MSS. intended for publication and booka, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garriaon-on- 

 Pludson, N. Y. 



THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF 

 WASHINGTON! 



When the armistice was agreed to by the 

 contending nations in November, 1918, the 

 Institution had become more of an agency 

 for the promotion of warfare than one for 

 the promotion of peaceful pursuits. About 

 two thirds of the staffs connected directly 

 with the Institution, or somewhat more than 

 200 men, were engaged in war work, and 

 about the same proportion applies to the 

 Research Associates of the Institution and 

 their collaborators. ^Nearly every expert of 

 the institution was able to render assistance 

 and many of them devoted their entire time 

 and energies to government work. Of the 

 larger undertakings in this work, the most 

 conspicuous are the development to the point 

 of quantity production of the optical glass 

 industry by the Geophysical Laboratory; the 

 manufacture of precision micrometers for the 

 U. S. Bureau of Standards and the manu- 

 facture of optical adjuncts for artillery by 

 the staff of the Mount Wilson Observatory; 

 the construction of special devices for the 

 Navy in the shops of the Department of 

 Terrestrial Magnetism; the contributions of 

 the Nutrition Laboratory to knowledge of the 

 effects of undernutrition; and the informa- 

 tion service rendered by the Department of 

 Historical Research. These midertakings re- 

 quired many men in arduous researches and 

 involved no inconsiderable costs to the insti- 

 tution, since it assumed, in most cases, the 

 principal overhead expenses. Not less im- 

 portant relatively than these larger operations 

 were many special and individual contribu- 

 tions to the general cause. That essential 

 occupations were quickly developed for what 

 are sometimes called " narrow specialists " in 

 nearly every branch of learning cultivated by 



1 Prom ^ha report of the president, Dr. R. S. 

 Woodward, for the year ending October 31, 1919. 



