SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTES TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 



Friday, December 25, 1908 



CONTENTS 



Early Terrestrial Conditions that may have 

 favored Organic Synthesis: PEorEssoB T. C. 

 Chamberun, Db. E. T. Chambeeun 897 



University Registration Statistics : Pbofessob 

 Rudolf Tombo, Jb 911 



James Fletcher 916 



The Smithsonian Institution 917 



The Baltimore Meeting 918 



Sdentifio Notes and News 920 



The Resignation of President Eliot 921 



University and Educational News 922 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Aftonian Sands and Gravels in Western 

 Iowa: Db. B. Shimek 923 



Scientific Books: — 



The National Antarctic Expedition : Dr. W. 

 H. Dall. Parkes's Hygiene and Public 

 Health: Professoe George M. Kobee. 

 Snyder's Soils and Fertilizers: Peofessob 

 E. W. HiLQABD. Lucien PoincarS's The 

 New Physics and its Evolution: Pbofessob 

 W. S. Fbankun 923 



Scientific Journals and Articles 929 



Special Articles: — 



The Determination of the Clay Content of 

 Soils: C. C. Fletchee. Notes on the 

 Atrophy of the Eye of Raja erinacea: W. 

 M. Smallwood 930 



The Convocation Week Meetings of Scientific 

 Societies 931 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Geological Society of Washington: 

 Philip S. Smith. The Torrey Botanical 

 Club: Teact E. Hazen, W. E. Mttbeill, 

 Maeshall a. Howe. Section of Geology 

 and Mineralogy of the New York Academy 

 of Sciences: De. Chables P. Beeket. 

 Washington Section of the American Chem- 

 ical Society: J. A. LeClebc 933 



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

 review should be sent to the Editor of Science, Garrisou-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



EARLY TERRESTRIAL CONDITIONS THAT 

 MAY HAVE FAVORED ORGANIC 

 SYNTHESIS 



There is a wide gap between the in- 

 organic carbon compounds, as we now 

 know them in nature, and the much more 

 highly complex carbon compounds which 

 are the material basis of living beings. It 

 is a prevalent view that this gap can not 

 be bridged by natural processes under 

 existing conditions. On the face of things 

 this view seems to be supported by the 

 testimony of experience. This experience, 

 however, when critically examined, is not 

 altogether conclusive. Even if it could be 

 shown beyond question that the chain of 

 carbon compounds necessary to bind the 

 inorganic to the organic never is built up 

 under present conditions, there would still 

 remain a legitimate ground of doubt in the 

 possibility that this may be due to pre- 

 daceous plants and animals, especially 

 bacteria, which attack the carbon com- 

 pounds at the first stages at which they 

 become available for food and thus cut off 

 the evolving series before it is complete. 

 In this it is assumed that the formation 

 of the more complex carbon compounds 

 can come about only as the result of a long 

 series of synthetic steps, and that at some 

 of these stages, probably at many of them, 

 the products would be suitable food for 

 existing beings, especially for the almost 

 omnivorous and ubiquitous bacteria. This 

 prolonged evolution may thus be regarded 

 as an extremely precarious process in the 

 presence of predatory organisms; may in- 

 deed be regarded as practically prohibitive 



