SCIENCE 



Friday, April 19, 1918 



CONTENTS 



A Common-sense Calendar: Professor How- 

 ard C. Warren 375 



Chemical Literature and its Uses: Marion E. 

 Sparks 377 



Research Worlc at the University of Michigan 

 Biological Station: Dr. George R. La Rue. 381 



Scientific Events: — 



The Proposed Transfer of the United States 

 Naval Observatory to the Smithsonian In- 

 stitution; Gift to the Eed Cross for Medical 

 Sesearch in France; Joint Information 

 Board on Minerals and Derivatives; Physi- 

 cians for the Army and Navy Service 383 



Scientific Notes and News 386 



University and Educational News 389 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



The Existence of Lecithin : Dr. Clarbnce J. 

 West. Desmognathus fitscus (sic) : Pro- 

 fessor Harris Hawthorne Wilder. A 

 Molluscan Garden Pest : Dr. Frank Collins 

 Baker. The Xellow Clothes Moth: Dr. R. 

 C. Benedict. The Aurora of March 7: 

 Professor Frank P. Whitman 389 



Scientific BooJcs: — 

 Darboux's Prinripcs de Giomdtrie: Pro- 

 fessor 6. A. Miller. The Pleistocene at 

 Uero: Dr. N. C. Nelson 393 



Special Articles: — 



The Investigation of the Peripheral Nervous 

 System, Muscles and Glands: Dbs. S. E. 

 Lonowell and a. D. Me.\d 39,5 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc..iiit«nded for 

 ie\'iow should be sent to 'fbe Editor of Science, Garruon-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



A COMMON-SENSE CALENDAR 



Our present Calendar is merely a rough 

 tool. We can readily calculate dates inside 

 of each mouth, and with some figuring we can 

 reckon a month or two ahead. But when we 

 are called upon to connect the proper week- 

 day with some date more than two months 

 ahead or behind, scarcely one of us can per- 

 form the operation without reference to a 

 calendar. Current-year calendars are gener- 

 ally accessible, but it is no easy matter to 

 ferret out old dates. It is even more difficult 

 to determine dates in future years. In short, 

 our measuring scale for dates is faulty. Like 

 the Roman numerals it is imsuited for any 

 but the simplest problems. 



AVho, for example, can find out for himself 

 on what day of the week he was born? On 

 what day of the week was the Declaration of 

 Independence signed, or the Battle of Water- 

 loo fought? 



If your lease expires October 1 (or May 1), 

 and you have to move, in what part of the 

 week will this happen? If you have a regular 

 engagement the first Monday of each month, 

 will it conflict with another engagement on 

 the third of next month or the mouth after? 

 What months this year have five Sundays? 

 How many annoying mistakes have you made 

 during your life in such calculations? 



If a ninety -day note or a three-month note 

 is to be paid, on what day of the week is it 

 due? Some quarters are longer than others, 

 making the e.xact reckoning of interest diffi- 

 cult. Weekly periods of earnings in one year 

 are not exactly comparable with the corre- 

 sponding periods in other years. Holidajs, 

 like interest days, fall on different week-days 

 in different years — sometimes very awkwardly. 



The lopsidedness of our calendar is due to 

 the Emperor Augustus, who insisted that his 

 month should contain as many days as the 

 month of Julius Csesar. As a matter of his- 



