598 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LI. No. 1328 



velopment and maintenance of morale, the develop- 

 ment of the less fit recruits, the acceleration of 

 training and the reeducation of the wounded, the 

 detection of promising candidates for special 

 schools, finding human material for the best and 

 quickest development of submarine listeners, of 

 lookouts, and of gunpointers, all these -were pri- 

 marily psychological problems and the psycholo- 

 gists cooperated in their military solution. We 

 had no military system developed to provide for 

 these details. The enemy military authorities con- 

 fidently regarded our lack of it as prohibiting ef- 

 fective participation in the war. The rapid de- 

 velopment of a great fighting machine needed all 

 our knowledge of human capacity and individual 

 differences, and all our relevant laboratory tech- 

 niques. Psychology took an honorable and not in- 

 conspicuous part in the democratic triumph of 

 meeting a national crisis by the mobilization of 

 the experience of non-military experts. To some 

 of us it seems that we are again facing a national 

 crisis in which the major symptoms are psycholog- 

 ical. Again the enemy counts on our lack of or- 

 ganization. Our salvation depends on the re-mobili- 

 zation of the expert experience lof citizens. 



Belation of psychology to iJie National Besearcli 

 Council: James R. Angell, A.M., Litt.D., chair- 

 man of the National Eesearch Council, Washington 

 (by invitation) . The National Research Council is 

 based upon forty or more scientific societies repre- 

 senting physics, astronomy, mathematics, engineer- 

 ing in all its branches, chemistry and chemical tech- 

 nology, geology and geography, medicine, biology 

 and agriculture, anthropology and psychology. The 

 council is organized to promote the interests of pure 

 and applied science (both inside and outside the in- 

 dustries) in every practicable way throughout the 

 TJnited States. Ists relation to psychology is pre- 

 cisely similar to its relation to the other sciences 

 mentioned. In each instance, the supporting scien- 

 tific societies elect representatives who compose the 

 several divisions of the council, and these in turn, 

 comprising as a rule about twenty men, selected 

 for their eminence in their particular branch of 

 work, come together and determine the special 

 needs and opportunities for the improvement of re- 

 search in their own fields. Special attention is 

 paid to the possibilities of bringing about effective 

 cooperation among research men and research 

 agencies. Scientific investigation has hitherto been 

 largely individualistic, and the most pressing need 

 at the present moment is not so much the expansion 

 of research agencies, although this is desirable, as 

 the more effective employment of those already in 



existence. The Division of Psychology and Anthro- 

 pology has formulated a number of cooperative 

 projects, of which two may serve as illustrations. 

 One of these has to do with the examination of the 

 mental and physical characteristics of four im- 

 portant alien groups, i. e., Mexicans, Scandina- 

 vians, Sicilians and Japanese. Some two thousand 

 of each group are to be soientifloally examined by 

 the best modern methods. The result of this study 

 ought, as regards these special races, to give us 

 faj more accurate and useful knowledge than we 

 n'ow have of the problem which confronts us in 

 our present attempt to assimilate these racial stocks 

 into our native American people. The other project 

 contemplates an expedition to Central Africa in 

 the upper regions of the Congo for a study of the 

 same scientific sort upon the aboriginal natives 

 who are still to be found there largely untouched 

 by the influences of civilization. The expedition 

 will be sent out under a psychologist who com- 

 mands the languages of the regions, and with the 

 methods at present available, scientific results may 

 be expected of a character hitherto wholly impos- 

 sible. 



Psychological methods in business and industry: 

 Beaedsley EuML, Ph.D., Philadelphia. (By in- 

 vitation.) 



The individual in education: Arthuk J. Jones, 

 Ph.D., professor of education, University of Penn- 

 sylvania. (By invitation.) 



TRIDAY EVENING, APRIL 23 



Reception from 8 to 11 o 'clock in the hall of the 

 Historical Society of Pennsylvania. 



Robert Williams Wood, LL.D., professor of ex- 

 perimental physics, Johns Hopkins University, 

 spoke on "Invisible light in war and peace" (with 

 experimental illustrations). 



Aethdr W. Goodspeed 

 {To he continued) 



SCIENCE 



A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advmicement of 

 Science, publishing the official notices and pro- 

 ceedings of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science 



Published every Friday by 



THE SaENCE PRE^ 



LANCASTER, PA. GAMySON, N. Yo 



NEW YOBJC, N. Y. 



^lefdl ia the patt-«ffic« »t Lancatttr. Pm., u tecood clast nattH 



