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SCIENCE 



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Friday, November 24, 1916 

 contents 



Is the Eight-hour Working -day national? Pro- 

 fessor Frederic S. Lee 727 



The Care of Pamphlet Collections: Tracy I. 

 Storer 735 



The Brain Collection of the V. S. National 

 Museum : Dr. Ales Hrdlicka 752 



The Yale Chapter of Sigma Xi 739 



The Endowment of a Medical School at the 

 University of Chicago 740 



The Council of National Defense 741 



Scientific Notes and News 742 



University and Educational News 746 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 



Can a Body exert a Force upon Itself? Pro- 

 fessor Gordon S. Pulcher. Lateral Vision 

 and Orientation: T. G. Dabney. The Num- 

 ber of Bacteria in Milk: Bobert S. Breed. 

 Ostwald's Handbook of Colloidal Chemis- 

 try: Professor W. A. Patrick. The Re- 

 lation of Osmotic Pressure and Imbibition 

 in Living Cells: Professor Wolfgang Ost- 

 wald 747 



Scientific Boolcs: — 



Weather Forecasting in the United States: 

 General A. W. Greely 752 



Special Articles: — 



Extirpation Experiments in Sana pipiens 

 Larvce: Professor Bennet M. Allen. 

 Plant-sucking Insects: Kearn B. Brown. 755 



The Ecological Society of America: Dr. For- 

 rest Shreve 759 



Societies and Academies: — 

 The American Mathematical Society: Pro- 

 fessor P. N. Cole 762 



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

 review should be sent to Professor J. McKeen Cattell, Garrisnn- 

 On-Hudson, N. Y. 



IS THE EIGHT-HOUR WORKING-DAY 

 RATIONAL?i 



May I say at once that it is not my in- 

 tention to consider the political aspects of 

 the eight-hour problem? There should not 

 be political aspects in a topic that is so 

 preeminently a problem of science. Fur- 

 thermore, considered as a problem of sci- 

 ence, the eight-hour day is rarely viewed in 

 its proper light. In the voluminous liter- 

 ature that has been published concerning 

 it economic and social considerations have 

 been too often paramount. Yet in an ade- 

 quate analysis of it the real basis of the 

 whole matter is physiological — the eight- 

 hour problem is primarily a problem of 

 physiology; if the physiological effects of 

 any kind of labor are bad, the conditions 

 of such labor ought to be changed. This 

 is fundamental, and should precede any 

 consideration of the economic and social 

 effects of a change of conditions. This 

 basic fact is continually overlooked. 



The eight-hour day is the result of an 

 evolution, beginning in human aspiration 

 and fostered largely by humanitarian mo- 

 tives. That baser considerations, the de- 

 sire to earn wages at the minimum cost of 

 personal effort, impel many advocates of 

 the eight-hour principle, can not be denied, 

 but this need not blind us to the fact that 

 there are higher grounds on which the prob- 

 lem can legitimately be discussed. 



In the evolution of the eight-hour day 

 England, of all countries, presents the 

 most interesting history. Diligent search 

 has failed to reveal the origin of the tra- 



i Bead before the Section on Industrial Hygiene 

 of the American Public Health Association, Cin- 

 cinnati, October 25, 1916. 



