SCIENCE 



Friday, September 10, 1920 



CONTENTS 

 The British Association for the Advaiuxmewt 

 of Science: — 



The Internal Constitution of the Stars: 

 Pkofessob a. S. Eddington 233 



The Hawaiian Olona: Dk. Vaughan Mac- 

 Cadghey 240 



FranTi Slater Daggett: Professor John C. 

 Mereiam 242 



John Lossen Pricer: Professor H. J. Van 

 Cleave 242 



Scientific Events: — 



The Eruption of Katla in Iceland; Utilisa- 

 tion of the Forests of AlasTca; The Inter- 

 national Chemical Conference; Missouri Ex- 

 periment Station of the SureoM of Mines . . 243 



Scientific Notes and News 245 



University and Educational News 247 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



A Band Spectrum from Mercury Vapor : Dr. 

 C. D. Child. A New Variety of the Boof 

 Bat: Professor J. T. Patterson. Another 

 Corn Seed Parasite: J. B. S. Norton, C. C. 

 Chen 248 



Scientific BooTcs: — 



Blatchley on the Orthoptera of N ortlieastern 

 America, and Morse on the Ortlwptera of 

 New England: A. N. Caudell 251 



Special Articles: — 

 A Stand for the Barbour Microdissection Ap- 

 paratus: Dr. H. B. Goodrich. Gastric Be- 

 sponse to Foods: Drs. Raymond J. Miller, 

 Olap Bergeim, Philip B. Hawk 252 



The American Chemical Society: Dr. Charles 

 L. Parsons 254 



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

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

 Hudson, N. Y. 



THE INTERNAL CONSTITUTION OF 

 THE STARSi 



Last year at Bournemoutli we listened to a 

 proposal from the president of the association 

 to bore a hole in the crust of the earth and 

 discover the conditions deep down below the 

 surface. This proposal may remind us that 

 the most secret places of nature are, perhaps, 

 not 10 to the n-th miles above our heads, but 

 10 miles below our feet. In the last five years 

 the outward march of astronomical discovery 

 has been rapid, and the most remote worlds 

 are now scarcely safe from its inquisition. By 

 the work of H. Shapley the globular clusters, 

 which are found to be at distances scarcely 

 dreamed of hitherto, have been explored, and 

 our knowledge of them is in some respects 

 more complete than that of the local aggrega- 

 tion of stars which includes the sun. Distance 

 lends not enchantment but precision to the 

 view. Moreover, theoretical researches of Ein- 

 stein and Weyl make it probable that the space 

 which remains beyond is not illimitable; not 

 merely the material universe, but space itself, 

 is perhaps finite; and the explorer must one 

 day stay his conquering march for lack of 

 fresh realms to invade. But to-day let us turn 

 our thoughts inwards to that other region of 

 mystery — a region cut off by more substantial 

 barriers, for, contrary to many anticipations, 

 even the discovery of the fourth dimension has 

 not enabled us to get at the inside of a body. 

 Science has material and non-material appli- 

 ances to bore into the interior, and I have 

 chosen to devote this address to what may be 

 described as analytical boring devices — absit 

 omen! 



The analytical appliance is delicate at pres- 

 ent, and, I fear, would make little headway 

 against the solid crust of the earth. Instead 



1 Address before the Mathematical and Physical 

 Science Section of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science. 



