NOTEMBEE 13, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



685 



It is possible that Professor Nutting ex- 

 cluded from his consideration all museums 

 which were wholly or partly supported by 

 public funds, but the inference drawn from the 

 paragraph quoted above is that there are no 

 museums in the central states which are fol- 

 lowing along the lines indicated in his paper. 

 There are at least two museums which should 

 be classed as provincial museums which are 

 now doing (and have been for some time past) 

 the work outlined in Professor Nutting's 

 paper, viz., the Public Museum of Milwaukee 

 and the Chicago Academy of Sciences. 



Both of the institutions mentioned are 

 making extensive local collections, the exhibits 

 are arranged and labeled with special refer- 

 ence to the education of the public, loans of 

 material are made to the schools and large 

 study collections are being acquired for re- 

 search work. Free public lectures are main- 

 tained in the latter institution. 



This statement is made with no desire to 

 criticize Professor Nutting's very excellent 

 paper, but simply to rectify a manifestly mis- 

 leading statement, the inaccuracy of which 

 doubtless escaped the notice of the author. 

 Frank C. Baker 



milk proteins 



To THE Editor of Science: The October 

 number of the Journal of Biological Chem- 

 istry contained an article entitled " Milk Pro- 

 teins," by Geo. A. Olson, and written as a 

 " Contribution from the Agricultural Chemical 

 Laboratory of the University of Wisconsin." 

 It is generally assumed that when articles ap- 

 pear under the above caption they have re- 

 ceived the sanction of those in charge of the 

 laboratory from which they emanate. I de- 

 sire to state that in this case Mr. Olson is 

 entirely responsible for the material of his 

 article and that those in charge of the labora- 

 tory assume no responsibility whatever for the 

 deductions therein stated. I trust you will 

 find a place in an early issue of Science for 

 this note. 



E. B. Hart 



University of Wisconsin, 

 November 2, 1908 



QUOTATIONS 

 the retirement of president eliot 



The announcement that President Eliot is 

 to retire next March will come as a shock to 

 thousands of persons who have never even 

 seen University Hall. The country has come 

 to look upon him. as a great natural force, 

 like the Gulf Stream, unwearied by the flight 

 of time, unworn by incessant activity. Tet 

 at the age of seventy-five even the strongest 

 man is entitled to throw oil some of his 

 burdens. This is not the occasion, however, 

 to review President Eliot's career as a whole ; 

 for he has, we trust, years of beneficent toil 

 still ahead of him; our purpose is merely to 

 touch on a few of the aspects of his admin- 

 istration at Harvard, and the causes which 

 have made his the most notable career in the 

 history of American education. 



President Eliot would be the first to point 

 out that he was fortunate in both the place 

 and time of his labors. Harvard was the 

 oldest college in the United States; it had the 

 longest tradition of culture; it was at the 

 center of the most highly educated and thor- 

 oughly civilized part of the union. Then, too, 

 he assumed the presidency in 1869, just at the 

 beginning of that period of enormous agri- 

 cultural and industrial expansion which fol- 

 lowed the civil war. America was growing 

 rich rapidly, and Harvard has shared this 

 prosperity. Other colleges have also had their 

 part in this general advancement : why has 

 Harvard taken the lead? Why is it the fore- 

 most university in America to-day? There 

 can be but one answer: Because President 

 Eliot has displayed in extraordinary measure 

 the qualities of a great leader. When the 

 graduates of Harvard addressed him in a 

 formal letter on his seventieth birthday, they 

 said : " With prophetic insight you anticipated 

 the movements of thought and life; your face 

 was toward the coming day." This is per- 

 haps the best definition of a leader — that he is 

 a man who sees in the long march of events 

 the coming of the inevitable, and sets hiroself 

 to hasten it. 



President Eliot foresaw the coming of the 

 elective system. It had, indeed, already come, 

 here and there, in a limited way. Many edu- 



