672 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 176. 



this prize, it was announced that no communi- 

 cation had been sent in for the prize competi- 

 tion for the year 1897. At the same time the 

 Philosophical Faculty set the following problem 

 for the year 1901 : The principle of continuity, 

 or, more exactly, the representations by func- 

 tions which can be indefinitely differentiated, 

 has for a long time been regarded as a general 

 valid foundation for the mathematical treatment 

 of natural phenomena. Such a groundwork as 

 this was quite naturally* introdviced by the dis- 

 coverers of the differential and integral calcu- 

 lus. More recently, however, the progress of 

 mathematical investigation has shown gener- 

 ally that this is founded on a great number of 

 implicit suppositions to which we, in conse- 

 quence of the inaccuracies of our sensitive per- 

 ceptions, are not bound. Further, the assump- 

 tion of the molecular constitution of matter is 

 from the first in contradiction with well-known 

 laws. The Faculty wishes to receive a work 

 of real scientific interest in which such ques- 

 tions will be treated in a general intelligent 

 way, and in which a minute examination will 

 be made regarding the admissibility in relation 

 to the appropriateness of the usual mode of 

 representation. Communications may be math- 

 ematically or philosophically and psychologic- 

 ally inclined, and historical studies are desired 

 but not demanded. Papers competing for this 

 prize must be written in a modern language, 

 and will be received by the Dekan of the Phil- 

 osophical Faculty up to August 31, 1900. A 

 motto should be written on the title-page of the 

 work and on the outside of a sealed letter which 

 must accompany it, containing the name, pro- 

 fession and address of the sender. In no other 

 way can the name of the author be communi- 

 cated. It is further requested that the address 

 of the sender should be also written on the 

 title-page, iu case the prize should not be 

 awarded to it. The first prize amounts to 

 3,400 Marks, and the second to 680 Marks. The 

 prizes will be awarded on March 11, 1901, at a 

 meeting of the Philosophical Faculty in Got- 

 tingen. The communications to which prizes 

 are awarded remain the property of the authors. 

 The prize problems, for which the competi- 

 tive papers must be sent in by August 31, 

 1898, and August 31, 1899, will be found given 



in the Koniglichen Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften 

 Geschdftl. Mittheiliingen, 1896, S. 69, 1897, 

 Heft. 1, S. 26. 



THE STATISTICIAN OP THE TREASURY DEPART- 

 MENT. 



The New York Evening Post, of May 7th, 

 states : Worthington C. Ford, Chief of the 

 Bureau of Statistics in the Treasury Depart- 

 ment, is the latest victim of the rush for ofl&ce. 

 He will retire on Monday of next week, mak- 

 ing way for O. P. Austin, a former newspaper 

 correspondent who made a specialty of furnish- 

 ing statistical leaflets and circulars for the Re- 

 publican National Committee during the last 

 Presidential campaign. Mr. Hanna then prom- 

 ised him a position of importance, and he has 

 now made his promise good, though at a heavy 

 cost to the administration, under whom Mr. 

 Ford had worked faithfully and as efliciently 

 as he did under President Cleveland. 



Mr. Ford is one of the most prominent sta- 

 tisticians in the country. He is an indefati- 

 gable worker, and has not only the statistical 

 instincts, but the culture brought by loug ex- 

 ercise of the art. He was chosen by Secretary 

 Carlisle and President Cleveland from a large 

 number of persons whose names had been men- 

 tioned to them, and wholly on the ground of 

 personal merit and professional skill. It was 

 one of the few appointments made wholly re- 

 gardless of politics, and in the face and teeth of 

 opposition from big Democrats, to whom Mr. 

 Ford's sincerity of purpose, and his unqualified 

 adhesion to true revenue reform and sound 

 finance, irrespective of partisan or local inter- 

 ests, were repugnant. No fault, it is under- 

 stood, has been found with his work, which 

 has never fallen short of the highest grade. 

 But he does not understand bending every 

 other statistical consideration to the upbuilding 

 of the Republican theory, and the purveyors of 

 party patronage proved too strong for the con- 

 servative forces which have assured his reten- 

 tion so far. 



The position from which Mr. Ford retires is 

 under the civil-service rules, as extended by 

 President Cleveland. To the world at large it 

 is known as Chief of the Bureau of Statistics of 

 the Treasury Department. In the section of 



