SCIENCE 



A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHINQ THE 



OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 



FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OP SCIENCE. 



Feiday, April 9, 1909 



00WTENT8 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 

 Science <md Investment : De. J. Franklin 

 Cbowell 561 



A Plea for Terrestrial and Cosmical Physics: 

 Dr. L. a. Bauer 566 



Report of the Committee of the American 

 Chemical Society appointed to cooperate 

 with the National Conservation Commission 570 



Scientific Notes and News 574 



University and Educational News 577 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



City Boys versus Country Boys: Dr. Fred- 

 erick Adams Woods 577 



Scientific Books: — 



Crew's Principles of Mechanics: Professor 

 A. P. Carman. Le Bon's The Evolution of 

 Forces: Professor W. S. Franklin. Thax- 

 ter on the Laboulbeniaceae : Professor 

 Charles E. Bessey. Scheffer's Loose Leaf 

 System of Laboratory Notes: C. W. H. 

 Spengel's Ergebnisse und Fortschritte der 

 Zoologie: Professor Frank R. Lillie .... 579 



Sir William Ramsay on Transformation of 

 the Elements 582 



Poisonous Emanations from Ferro-silicon: 

 J. L. H 583 



Special Articles: — 



The Physiological Significance of Creatin 

 and Creatinin: Professor Lafayette B. 

 Mendel 584 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: — 

 Section D — Mechanical Science and Engi- 

 neering : Dk. G. W. Bissell 591 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Db. F. 

 D. Barker. The Academy of Science of 

 St. Louis: W. E. McCouRT. The Torrey 

 Botanical Club: Percy Wilson. The 

 Northeastern Section of the American 

 Chemical Society: Kenneth L. Mark. The 

 Biological Society of Washington: M. C. 

 Marsh. The Anthropological Society of 

 Washington: John R. Swanton. The 

 Philosophical Society of Washington: E. L. 

 Fabis. The EKsha Mitchell Scientific So- 

 ciety : Dr. Alvin S. Wheeler 593 



THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 



ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE 



SCIENCE AND INVESTMENT'- 



ESTTBODUCTION 



The influence of science upon the invest- 

 ment of capital and the employment of 

 labor in productive enterprises is far from 

 receiving its due recognition in system- 

 atic economics. There is a vague sort of 

 knowledge that science and productive in- 

 dustry are related much as a handmaid is 

 related to a household. One looks in vain, 

 however, in any of the standard treatises 

 on economics for anything like an ade- 

 quate appreciation of the place of the nat- 

 ural sciences in that all- engrossing and 

 highly standardized process of production 

 and exchange which makes up the modern 

 system of industry known as capitalism. 



One reason for this lies in the fact that 

 the line of approach of the professional 

 economist to the existing system has been 

 by way of politics or philosophy — by in- 

 exact and speculative methods, rather than 

 by the more exact methods of experiment 

 and verification. The bias of approach 

 has left its mark in the ineonclusiveness of 

 economic discussion, in the lack of agree- 

 ment as to what is settled and what is not, 

 and even in the question as to what the real 

 scope and aims of economics are. Under 

 the term "progress of nations" we include 

 a complex group of forces. When we 

 come to weigh them out one by one, it will 

 appear that the greatest motive force in the 



^Address of the retiring vice-president of Sec- 

 tion I at the Baltimore meeting of the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science. 



