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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIII. No. 1375 



which, is flanked on either side by a drum 

 membrane. The energies transmitted to the 

 air of the middle ear from the deep surface 

 of one drum membrane may pass directly to 

 the deep surface of the other membrane. 



The ability to locate a sound may be partly 

 due to its intensity. It may also be due to a 

 differential registration of fundamental and 

 overtones on the two sides. A pure tone may 

 not be located. Overtones are less readily 

 dampened out than fundamentals as Mach's 

 experiments seem to indicate. The relation 

 of the position of the sound source to the 

 head-form and diffraction into the two ex- 

 ternal canals would therefore play an impor- 

 tant role in relation to the differential regis- 

 tration of fundamental and overtones. This 

 was I believe worked out in part by Fife of 

 Princeton University. 



It would seem that the evidence in birds 

 points not only to a great acuteness in hear- 

 ing but also to a definite ability in deter- 

 mining the direction of the sound source. 

 This in spite of the fact that birds do not 

 possess the functional auricle of the mammal. 

 If it be true that the sense of location for 

 sound is so well developed in owls, wood- 

 peckers and possibly robins, then a special 

 significance may be attached to a confluence 

 of the middle ear cavities. It may be that a 

 more definite analysis of the fundamental and 

 its overtones is due to a greater efficiency of 

 the two drum membranes applied to a single 

 middle ear. 



The writer will appreciate and acknowledge 

 any direct observational data on this prob- 

 lem of the acuteness of hearing in birds and 

 in particular the evidence for the definiteness 

 with which a bird may locate a sound source. 

 a. g. pohlman 



St. Louis Univeesity School op Medicine 



QUOTATIONS 



SCIENTIFIC ORGANIZATION 



Professor W. M. Wheeler, a learned and 

 witty American biologist, has recently ad- 

 dressed a genial remonstrance to his scientific 

 fellow-citizens on their devotion to resounding 



phrases. His remarks deserve a wider applica- 

 tion, and are very pertinent to ourselves. The 

 current watchword of the elect, he says, the 

 " highbrow " toast of the moment, is " organi- 

 zation." Wayward, individual pursuit of 

 knowledge is out of fashion. It is distasteful 

 to the bureaucratic spirit of the age, it tends 

 to overlapping of effort, and it exalts personal 

 reputations, possibly and regrettably those of 

 obscure miofficial people. The committee is 

 the thing. The problem must be set, the parts 

 allotted, the results received, edited, and is- 

 sued by the authority of men sitting round 

 a table. There must be sub-committees and 

 super-committees, joint committees and spe- 

 cial committees. How else shall we control 

 genius, encourage mediocrity, and secure 

 " team-work " ? How better can science 

 present a respectable front to governments or 

 offer responsible hands for grants-in-aid ? A 

 detached individual is an imstable creature ; 

 he may die, neglect to report, get off the lines, 

 or make discoveries of a very upsetting kind. 

 A committee is safe; its existence secures 

 continuity and is a guarantee against the 

 precipitate production of imcomfortable 

 truths. But the professor fears that the child 

 product of organization is organizers, and 

 that in elaborating our machinery we forget 

 its purpose. Fortunately, however, mankind 

 is wiser than any of its generations and has 

 a knack of creeping out of the hard shells it 

 continues to secrete. " Organization " is the 

 fad of to-day, and will be as ephemeral as its 

 predecessors. " Culture " was one of these. 

 But " culture " died, and its corrupt body be- 

 came decadence when, ceasing to be a mental 

 attitude, it became an intonation and a set of 

 opinions. Progress was another; but that has 

 hardly recovered from the shock of the war, 

 which gave us good reason to distrust some 

 aspects of modern civilization. Now even 

 popular preachers find it safe to mock at 

 " progress." The truth is that a conception 

 seldom becomes crystallized in a phrase until 

 it has outgrown its most fertilizing activity. 

 Ideas have their cycle of life; they are bom 

 of the great, named by the dull, and killed by 

 common usage. — The London Times. 



