September 22, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



425 



groups have been made, based on the data 

 that were obtained. 



Leading metal-producing companies from all 

 sections of the country will be represented by 

 members of their staff at the meeting of the 

 American Institute of Mining Engineers, 

 which convenes in Arizona on September 18. 

 The country's record production of metal dur- 

 ing the past year has greatly stimulated the 

 interest in those general mining topics which 

 will be discussed at the institute's sessions. 

 More than twenty corporations have already 

 expressed a desire to be represented by insti- 

 tute members who may participate in the tech- 

 nical gathering. Some of these are Anaconda 

 Copper Mining Co., the largest copper produc- 

 ing company in the country; American Smelt- 

 ing and Refining Co., the largest lead-produc- 

 ing company; Ray Consolidated Copper Co., 

 Treadwell and Alaska Juneau mines, Miami 

 Copper Co., and the New Jersey Zinc Co. 

 Among the engineers who will be present are 

 L. D. Ricketts, Benjamin B. Thayer, William 

 L. Saunders, Sidney J. Jennings, George D. 

 Barron and Philip N. Moore. A special train 

 from New York will be the traveling head- 

 quarters, the train moving from point to point 

 in Arizona each day during the week of the 

 convention. Some seventy papers have been 

 prepared for discussion at the meeting. These 

 papers bear largely upon new methods of pro- 

 duction and the mining outlook in various 

 parts of the world. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 NEWS 



Under the will of William Watson Law- 

 rence, of Pittsburgh, Princeton University 

 will ultimately receive the residue of his 

 estate, estimated at more than $750,000. 



Professor Carl T. Dowell, instructor of 

 chemistry at the University of Texas, Austin, 

 has been elected associate professor of chem- 

 istry at Tulane University. 



The following appointments and changes 

 are announced from the University of Illinois : 



Professor Richard C. Tolman, recently at the 

 University of California, has been appointed 

 professor of physical chemistry to succeed Pro- 

 fessor E. W. Washburn, who has been ap- 

 pointed head of the department of ceramics. 

 Dr. Roger C. Adams has been appointed as- 

 sistant professor of organic chemistry to suc- 

 ceed Dr. C. G. Derick, who is organizing a re- 

 search laboratory for the Schoellkopf Aniline 

 and Chemical Works in Buffalo. Dr. Horace 

 G. Deming, recently returned from the Philip- 

 pines, has been appointed associate in chem- 

 istry to assist in the instruction in general 

 chemistry and qualitative analysis. Professor 

 C. W. Balke, formerly at the head of the divi- 

 sion of general chemistry and qualitative anal- 

 ysis is organizing a research laboratory for the 

 Pfanstiehl Company in North Chicago which 

 is engaged in the application of rare metals 

 to industrial uses. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 

 VITALISM 



I have read with much interest the addresses 

 that have appeared in Science, forming part 

 of a symposium on " The Basis of Individual- 

 ity in Organisms." But I have not noted that 

 two well-known facts, that seem to me of 

 major importance to the discussion, have been 

 jointly focused on the problem. May I men- 

 tion them, and briefly suggest their bearing ? 



1. I assume all would agree that non-percep- 

 tual realities — Spencer's Unknowable, Kant's 

 Ding-an-sich, Locke's Something, I know not 

 what, that supports sensations — exist, and are 

 the kernel of all matter, dead and living. 

 These realities — whose natures remain so dim 

 to our inquiries — it is that behave in the ways 

 laboriously and skilfully discovered, described 

 and formulated by natural science. Their 

 existence and basal activity might, further, be 

 thought to validate vitalism. For the active 

 beings (i. e., themselves) of which conscious 

 organisms are aware are the very realities that 

 behave after the conscious fashion, and their 

 natures might reasonably be thought to throw 

 light on their behavior, as has, in fact, been 



