SCIENCE 



Friday, May 28, 1920 



CONTENTS 

 Suggestions for Physical Investigations hear- 

 ing upon Fundamental Froilems of Physiol- 

 ogy and Medicine: Professor Raiph S. 

 LiLLiE 525 



The LongnecJc Sauropod Barosaurus: Pro- 

 fessor G. E. WlELAND 528 



Louis Valentine Pirsson: J. P. Iddings 530 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 



The Fourth Annual Meeting of the Pacific 

 Division 532 



Scientific Events: — 



The Mathematical Institute of the Univer- 

 sity of Strasbourg ; The Forest Products 

 Laboratory Decennial Celebration; Engi- 

 neering Investigations of the U. S. Geolog- 

 ical Survey; Award of the Willard Gibbs 

 Medal; The Metirement of Professor Fair- 

 child of the University of Bochester 534 



Scientific Notes and News 537 



University and Educational News 540 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



"Petroliferous Provinces" : Dr. Morris G. 

 Mehl. An Improved Method of holding 

 Lairge Specimens for Dissection: Dr. Hor- 

 ace GUNTHORP 541 



Scientific BooTcs: — 



South — The Story of ShacMeton's Last 

 Expedition: General A. W. Greelt 543 



Special Articles: — 



The Ash of Dune Plants: Dk. W. D. Rich- 

 ardson 546 



The Utah Academy of Sciences: Dr. C. Arthur 

 Smith 551 



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

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

 Hudson, N. Y. 



SUGGESTIONS FOR PHYSICAL IN- 

 VESTIGATIONS BEARING UPON 

 FUNDAMENTAL PROBLEMS OF 

 PHYSIOLOGY AND MEDICINEi 



Since diseased conditions imply deranged 

 cell-processes — leading to failure of local 

 functioning or to defective coordination be- 

 tween the activities of different parts of the 

 organism — it is clear that the problem of pre- 

 venting and rectifying such derangements in 

 man (the problem of medicine) resolves itself 

 ultimately into the means by which cell- 

 processes can be restored to the normal after 

 disturbance. A scientific (as distinguished 

 from an empirical) knowledge of how to re- 

 store normal conditions must be based on an 

 exact knowledge of the conditions determining 

 normal protoplasmic activity, and this knowl- 

 edge presupposes a fuller insight into the 

 fundamental physico-chemical constitution of 

 protoplasm, since it is only through an under- 

 standing of the properties of the essential 

 living substance that we can hope to tmder- 

 stand how the living system acts under differ- 

 ent conditions. 



The fundamental questions are thus: what 

 kind of a system, in the physico-chemical 

 sense, is living protoplasm? and what are the 

 conditions of equilibrium, i. e., of normal 

 self -maintenance, of such a system? 



As a physico-chemical system protoplasm 

 is peculiar in various respects, of which per- 

 haps the chief are: 



1. The self-maintenance of the system 

 through its own continued chemical activity; 

 i. e., the preservation of the normal equili- 

 brium — or continued life — depends upon the 

 active continuance of the chemical processes 



1 Contribufaon to the diseussion at the Conference 

 on Biophysics held iby the National Research 

 Council, Division of Medical Sciences, at "Wash- 

 ington, February 21, 1920. 



