SCIENCE 



Feiday, October 29, 1920 



CONTENTS 

 The Agronomist's Part in tlie World's Food 

 Supply: Dr. F. S. Harris 395 



Scientific and Industrial Research in France, 

 Italy, Belgium and Japan 400 



Scientific Events: — 

 Aeronautic Section of the American Society 

 of Mechanical Engineers; Committee on 

 Problems of Electrical Insulation; Acqui- 

 sitions of the Oriental Institute of the Uni- 

 versity of Chicago; The News Service of the 

 American Chemical Society; Grants for 

 Research of the American Association for 

 tile Advancement of Science 401 



Scientific Notes and News 404 



University and Educational News 407 



Discussion and Correspondence: — - 

 Professor Field's Use of the Term Fossil: 

 Professor Arthur M. Miller. Galileo's 

 ExperimJints from the Tower of Pisa: Pro- 

 fessor Plorian Cajori. Jonathan Ed- 

 wards on Multidimensional Space and the 

 Mechanistic Conception of Life: J. M. 0. 408 



Scientific Boohs: — 



Gager's Seredity and Evolution in Plants: 

 Professor Bradley M. Davis 4i0 



Notes on Climatology and Meteorology : — 

 Aerological Work in the United States: C. 

 LeEoy Meisinger 410 



Special Articles: — 



Note on Einstein's Theory of Gravitation 

 ; and Light: Professor Edward Kasnek... 413 



The American Chemical Society : Dr. Chables 

 L. Parsons 414 



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

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

 Hudson, N. Y. 



THE AGRONOMIST'S PART IN THE 

 WORLD'S FOOD SUPPLYi 



The welfare of mankind is intimately 

 bound up with the world's food supply. Not 

 that man can " live by bread alone," but he is 

 unable to devote himself to the higher phases 

 of an advancing civilization if he is conscious 

 of the gnawings of hunger. Since the short- 

 age in various food products during the war, 

 people generally have taken a much keener 

 interest in the whole question of food supply. 

 The old statement that " we never miss the 

 water till the well runs dry " is here exempli- 

 fied. So long as the grocer had plenty of 

 flour and sugar most people considered the 

 supply in much the same way as they con- 

 sidered the supply of air. The only worry 

 was to find money with which to purchase 

 needed articles. 



When it became necessary to go to a dozen 

 stores before being able to buy any sugar, 

 and then only a pound or two ; when the meat 

 allowance was restricted; and when white 

 flour had to be supplemented by all kinds of 

 substitutes — then people began to realize that 

 the supply of food might not be inexhaustible. 



The shortage of food during the war has 

 been a good lesson for the people of the 

 United States. It has taught them what 

 some of the peoples of Asia have been so 

 often forced by famine to realize, namely, 

 that food can be had only when a supply is 

 available, and that this supply may at times 

 be far short of actual needs. Conditions dur- 

 ing the war were of course unusual; we hope 

 they will never recur. I do not at this time 

 desire to consider the food shortage due to the 

 war but rather the whole food situation as it is 

 likely to affect mankind in the future as the 



1 Address of the president of the American So- 

 eieity of Agronomy, Springfield, Mass., October 18, 

 1920. 



