Decembek 25, 1908] 



SCIENCE 



929 



are no less profound and significant than the 

 changes which the physical sciences have brought 

 about in the conditions of human life. 



The change which is taking place in the philos- 

 ophy of the exact sciences is many sided, but a 

 prominent feature of it is the passing away of an 

 old point of view, namely, that nature is exact 

 and unvarying, that the so-called laws of the 

 physical sciences are ultimate realities, and that 

 great simple facts of the physical universe are 

 revealed in their perfection, one after another, to 

 the divining spirit of mankind. It is not easy, 

 however, to characterize the point of view which 

 is now becoming dominant. In one way it may 

 be described as a reenthronement of sense, and it 

 may be exemplified by contrasting what is said 

 above with the point of view of the author of 

 one of our best modern engineering treatises on 

 hydraulics as indicated by the following extract: 

 " Galileo said in 1630 that the laws controlling 

 the motion of the planets in their celestial orbits 

 were better understood than those governing the 

 motion of water on the surface of the earth. This 

 is true to-day, for the theory of the floio of water 

 in pipes and channels has not yet been perfected." 

 [Italics ours.] No! and it never will be Per- 

 fected! It would take too long to explain here 

 just what is meant by this declaration, for, indeed, 

 it has nothing to do with the fool idea, if, indeed, 

 it can be called an idea, that " the finite can not 

 comprehend the infinite " so that " we may not 

 presume to point out all the ways in which a 

 God of unbounded resources might govern the 

 universe." From such inanity may the great God 

 of little things deliver us! 



Every student should realize two things in con- 

 nection with his study of the physical sciences. 

 The first is that the study of the physical sciences 

 is exacting beyond all compromise, and the second 

 is that the completest science stands abashed be- 

 fore the infinitely complicated array of phenomena 

 of the material world except only in the assurance 

 which its method gives.^ 



The new physics ! Let no one imagine that 

 what he calls results (which are in nearly 

 every case, and especially in the popular mind, 

 a more or less shameless projection of ideas 

 into objectivity) constitute the new physics. 

 The readiness with which the physicist can 



- Taken from a paper on " The Study of Science 

 by Young People," New York State Education 

 Department Bulletin, No. 431, pp. 65-94, Sep- 

 tember, 1908. 



nowadays meet a new group of observable 

 effects with adequate instrumental and theo- 

 retical tools is strikingly exemplified by the 

 recent work in radioactivity. This facility of 

 the modern scientific method in the realm of 

 the physical sciences is the new physics, it is 

 a realization of what Bacon long ago listed 

 as one of the deficiencies of knowledge, 

 namely, the Art of Inventing Arts, and the 

 very essence of it is an increased realization 

 of the fact that ideas are not things. 

 Boundaries are no longer confused. 



W. S. Franklin 

 November 22, 1908 



SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES 



In The American Naturalist for November 

 Thos. H. Montgomery gives the results of 

 " Further Studies on the Activities of 

 Araneads," dealing with questions of the 

 snares, senses of touch and sight, and the 

 average duration of life. To some it will 

 seem a pity that the term Avaneids was not 

 used, since this termination has been much 

 used by zoologists. Floyd E. Chidester has 

 " Notes on the Daily Life and Food of 

 Camharus hartonius hartoni," and Austin H. 

 Clark describes " Some Points in the Ecology 

 of Recent Crinoids," noting some of the 

 factors that influence their size and distribu- 

 tion. Shorter articles are " Evolution With- 

 out Isolation" and "A Note on the [Spawn- 

 ing] of the Silverside." The book reviews are 

 unusually full and important, especially those 

 on " The Origin of a Land Flora " and " The 

 Animal Mind." 



The American Museum Journal for De- 

 cember contains an illustrated article on the 

 " Exhibit Illustrating the Evolution of the 

 Horse " in which it is noted that the Ameri- 

 can Museum collections of fossil horses are 

 larger than those of all other museums put 

 together. The " Department of Mineralogy " 

 records the reception of what is probably the 

 largest mass of polybasite ever taken from a 

 mine. It is announced that the " Tuber- 

 culosis Exhibit " installed in the new wing on 

 Columbus Avenue, will remain open for 

 several weeks. 



