SCIENCE 



Friday, IIay 21, 1909 



CONTENTS 



The Phy steal Basis of Life: Pbofessoe Vic- 

 toe C. Vaughan 799 



Ethnological Evidence that the California 

 Vave Skeletons are not Recent: Db. C. 

 Hakt Mebbiam 805 



Fru Signe Rink : De. W. H. Dall 806 



Exhibit of the Bureau of Education at the 

 Alaska-Yukon-Paoific Exposition 806 



Delegates to the Darwin Celebration at Cam- 

 bridge 807 



The American Chemical Society: Peofessoe 

 Chablks L. Paesons 808 



Scientific Notes and News 808 



University and Educational News 812 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Genera witlwut Species: Peofessoe T. D. 

 A. CoCKEEELL. The Future of Nomencla- 

 ture: A. AbsSne Gieault 813 



Scientific Books: — 



Gaskell's The Origin of the Vertebrata: 

 Peofessoe Bashfoed Dean. Wenley's 

 Modern Thought and the Crisis in Belief: 

 Peofessoe Aethue O. Lovejoy 816 



On the Nature and Possible Origin of the 

 Milky Way 819 



Botanical Notes: — 

 Out of Door Botanical Study ; Some South 

 African Botany; A New Botanical Jour- 

 nal; Leo Errera: Peofessoe Chaeles E. 

 Besset 821 



Special Articles : — 



Determination of the Coefficient of Correla- 

 tion: Peofessoe Fbanz Boas. The En- 

 zymes of Ova — influenced by those of 

 Sperm: De. Oevtlle Habey Beown. Note 

 on Accessory Cleavage in the Hen's Egg: 

 De. J. Thos. Patteeson 823 



The American Philosophical Society 826 



Societies and Academies: — 



The Academy of Science of St. Louis: 

 Peofessoe W. E. McCouet. The Philo- 

 sophical Society of Washington: R. L. 

 Pabis. The Biological Society of Wash- 

 ington: M. C. Maesh 835 



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

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

 Hudson, N. Y. 



THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF LIFE^ 

 It is frequently stated that the cell is the 

 unit of life, and this is a convenient form 

 of expression, but its exact truth depends 

 upon the conception that one has of life. 

 The cell may be regarded as the morpho- 

 logical unit of life, but form in and of 

 itself, and as recognized by the eye, is not 

 essential to the manifestations of life. We 

 know no life apart from matter, and matter 

 and energy are the only things that we do 

 know. When matter becomes endowed with 

 life, it does not cease to be matter ; it does 

 not lose its inherent properties; it is not 

 released from the laws that determine its 

 structure, its attractions and its motions. 

 In studying the organized cell of living 

 things, whether vegetable or animal, 

 whether bone or brain, it should always be 

 borne in mind that it is material in com- 

 position, subject to the fundamental laws 

 that govern matter, and possessed of the 

 properties essential to matter. 



The only essential, characteristic and 

 constant difference between living and non- 

 living matter is that within the former 

 there is constant and rhythmic metabolism, 

 while in the latter no such process occurs. 

 The living cell is made up of active, labile 

 molecules and these molecules consist of 

 numerous atoms, and each atom contains 

 a large group of electrons: atoms and elec- 

 trons are ia ceaseless, rhythmic motion, 

 while groups of atoms are being constantly 

 cast out of the molecule and replaced by 

 new groups split off from matter outside 

 the molecule. Metabolism, the one char- 



' Address of the president before the Association 

 of American Physicians, Washington, May 11, 

 1909. 



