SCIENCE 



Editoeial Combiittkk : S. Nkwcomb, Mathematics ; R. S. Woodward, Mechanics ; E. C. Pickeeinq 



Astronomy; T. C. Mendenhall, Physics; E. H. Thurston, Engineering; Iea Remsen-, Chemistry; 



J. Lb CoNTE, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; Henry F. Osborn, Paleontology; W. K. 



Brooks, C. Hart Mereiam, Zoology; S. H. Scuddee, Entomology; C. E. Bessey, N. L. 



Beitton, Botany; C. S. MiNOT, Embryology, Histology; H. P. Bowditch, Physiology; 



J. S. Billings, Hygiene ; J. McKeen Cattell, Psychology; Daniel G. Brin- 



ton, J. W. Powell, Anthropology. 



Friday, May 12, 1899. 



CONTENTS: 



The Age of the Earth as an Abode fitted for Life : 

 Lord Kelvin 665 



The Posihom Phantom : A Study in the Spontaneous 

 Activity of Shadoios : President David Stare 

 Jordan 674 



■Scientific Books : — 



Berry's History of Astronomy: Professor 

 David P. Todd. Rank's De la methode dans la 

 psychologic des sentime^its : HiRAM M. STANLEY. 

 Books Received 682 



.Societies and Academies : — 



American Mathematical Society : Professor F. 

 N. Cole. Sub-section of Anthropology and Psy- 

 chology of the New York Academy of Sciences : 

 Professor Charles H. Judd. Philosophical 

 Society of Washington: E. D. PRESTON 684 



Discussion and Correspondence : — 



Professor James on Telepathy : PROFESSOR E. B. 

 TiTCHENER 686 



-Notes on Physics : — 



The Compensation Pyrheliometer : A. St.C. D..,. 687 



Notes on Inorganic Chemistry : J. L. H 688 



Botanical Notes : — 



Wood's Roll Botany ; Canadian Botany ; The So- 

 ciety for the Promotion of Agricultural Science: 

 Professor Charles E. Bessey 689 



T7te Forests of Canada 690 



An Exhibition of Geographical and Geological Ma- 

 terial 691 



Scientific Notes and News 692 



' and Educational S'eios 695 



MSS. intended or publication and books, etc., intended 

 for review Bhould be sent to the responsible editor, Profes- 

 sor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson N. Y. 



THE AGE OF THE EARTH AS AN ABODE 

 FITTED FOB LIFE* 



§ 1. The age of the earth as an abode 

 fitted for life is certainly a subject which 

 largely interests mankind in general. For 

 geology it is of vital and fundamental im- 

 portance—as important as the date of the 

 battle of Hastings is for English history — 

 yet it was very little thought of by geol- 

 ogists of thirty or forty years ago ; how lit- 

 tle is illustrated by a statement, f which I 

 will now read, given originally from the 

 presidential chair of the Geological Society 

 by Professor Huxley in 1869, when for a 

 second time, after a seven years' interval, 

 he was President of the Societj': 



"I do not suppose that at the present day any 

 geologist would be found * * * to deny that the rapid- 

 ity of the rotation of the earth may be diminishing, 

 that the sun may be waxing dim, or that the earth it- 

 self may be cooling. Most of us, I suspect, are Gal- 

 lics, ' who care for none of these things, ' being of 

 opinion that, true or fictitious, they have made no 

 practical difference to the earth, during the period of 

 which a record is preserved in stratified deposits." 



§ 2. I believe the explanation of how it 

 was possible for Professor Huxley to say 

 that he and other geologists did not care 

 for things on which the age of life on the 



* The annual address (1897) of the Victoria Insti- 

 tute, by Lord Kelvin, with additions written at dif- 

 ferent times from June, 1897, to May, 1898. Printed 

 also in the Philosophical 3Iagazine. 



t In the printed quotations the italics are mine in 

 every case, not so the capitals in the quotation from 

 Page's Text-book. 



