SCIENCE 



AUG 6 1920 ) 



Friday, August 6, 1920 



CONTENTS 

 Medical Research: Sm T. Clifford Allbutt. 115 



Tlie Eecent Earthquahes at Los Angeles, Cali- 

 fornia: Dr. Ralph Arnold 121 



Augusto Bighi: Professor Augustus Trow- 

 bridge 122 



fie Events: — 

 The Centenary of Sir Joseph BanTcs; The 

 Epidemic of Influenza in England; The En- 

 forcement of the Food and Drugs Act; 

 Alaska Surveys and Investigations in 1920. 123 



Scientific Notes and News 125 



University and Educational News 128 



Discussion an,d Correspondence: — 

 A Priori Use of the Ganissian Law : Dr. Ed- 

 win G. Boring. Albino Vertebrates: Dr. 

 John S. Dexter. A Plea for More Ex- 

 plicit Designation of Scientific Beprints: 

 EosE M. MacDonald 129 



Scientific BooTcs : — 



The Second Norwegian Arctic Expedition: 

 Professor Charles Schuchert 131 



Special Articles: — 

 Computing Ages of Animals: Dr. J. Bollin 

 Slonaker. The Classification of the Opa- 



Dr. Maynard M. Metcalf 134 



The Ohio Academy of Science: Professor Ed- 

 ward L. Rice 136 



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

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

 Hudson, N. Y. 



MEDICAL RESEARCHi 



I have isaid that I would not plunge with you 

 this evening into the ocean of science; but if 

 you are a little tired of hearing of the depend- 

 ence of medicine upon science you may find re- 

 freshment or diversion in contemplating the 

 deibts of science to medicine. My old medical 

 friend Mr. Meade, of Bradford, was almost 

 the only man who knew much about flies at the 

 time when Manson and Eoss began to watch 

 these little pests. Without medicine, bacteriol- 

 ogy and the study of the cell would have 

 made slow way ; yet it is the study of the cells 

 of bacteria, of algse, of protozoa — not of man- 

 darins — which has brought us nearer to the 

 secret of life. On the wonderful world of the 

 cell I have spoken before. Professor Hopkins 

 has lately described to us the almost incredible 

 coexistence in it of different constitutions, 

 phases, and events ; though every change in amy 

 phase affects the equilibrium of the whole cell 

 system. And every one of these is essential to 

 the whole ; " so long, for example, as a liver cell 

 remains alive its glycogen constituent can not 

 be wholly removed." If a cell be so ground up 

 as to become more homogeneous, its reactions 

 fall out at haphazard, and the cell dies by mu- 

 tual destruction of its parts. This process of 

 nature is illustrated on a mighty scale to-day 

 in the disintegration of the Russian social or- 

 ganism. 



Some of the apparently simple cell constitu- 

 ents, hsemoglobin for instance, are incredibly 

 complex; this substance is specific for every 

 kind of animal; in allied species, if concordant, 

 it is not identical. Of the chromosomes I need 

 say nothing; except to hope that as X rays 

 have analyzed crystalline structure some such 

 rays may analyze nuclear constitutions. 



By another way, medicine has promoted re- 

 search on organic syntheses ; and conversely on 



1 From the address of the president of the Brit- 

 ish Medical Assooiation at the Cambridge meeting. 



