December 29, 1916] 



SCIENCE 



921 



Let us appreciate this work of Hopkins and 

 Whiting as an interesting contribution to the study 

 of nitrification, but let us not draw too far-reach- 

 ing and improper conclusions from it which are 

 only partially applicable to field conditions. 



In fact Hopkins and Whiting say in this Bulle- 

 tin that: 



"The addition of limestone with the insoluble 

 phosphates prevents the detection of soluble phos- 

 phates. ' ' 



They also say that: 



"The nitrous acid produced may act upon com- 

 pounds of iron, aluminum, potassium, sodium or 

 magnesium which occur in soils, or it may act 

 upon tricaleium phosphate, calcium silicate or cal- 

 cium carbonate, if present. ' ' 



In their hope of confining the solvent action of 

 the nitrous acid as fully as possible to the raw 

 phosphate rock, Hopkins has recommended that 

 the phosphate be turned under in intimate con- 

 tact with organic matter, yet when one realizes the 

 even closer contact of the many soil particles with 

 the organic matter at the same time, it will be ob- 

 viously impossible for the nitrous acid to attack 

 wholly or even chiefly the raw rock phosphate. 

 This idea is fully supported by Thome's practical 

 field tests in Ohio, by the work of Mooers and 

 others in Tennessee, and by the collective evidence 

 of practically all of the agricultural chemists in 

 the United States and Europe. 



H. J. Wheelek 



I gladly leave the judgment of the ethical 

 and scientific questions involved to the impar- 

 tial court of my colleagues at home and abroad. 

 H. J. Wheeler 

 92 State Street, 

 Boston, Mass. 



1016 OR 1S16? 



The following announcement has appeared 

 in the Washington Times, Wednesday, De- 

 cember 20, 1916 : 



PHRENOLOGIST TO SPEAK 



Professor G. W. Savory, a graduate of the 

 Fowler School of Phrenology of New York, will 

 address the Enosinian Literary Society of George 

 Washington University on the evening of January 

 15. His subject will be "Brains — How to Know 

 and Handle Them." The lecture will be given in 

 the assembly hall of the Arts and Sciences De- 

 partment building, 2023 G street northwest. 



Comments would seem superfluous. 



A. Hrdltcka 



QUOTATIONS 



SCIENCE IN GERMANY FROM AN ENGLISH 

 VIEWPOINT 



Germany has been held up to us so long as 

 the model in all matters of state organization 

 that most English students of institutions will 

 read with surprise the letter published in 

 another column, which has been addressed by 

 the Committee of the Institution of German 

 Engineers to Herr von Bethmann Hollweg 

 in favor of the opening of the German civil 

 service to men of scientific training. To-day 

 the higher branches of the German civil serv- 

 ice are reserved for lawyers, and are not open 

 to graduates of the technical high schools. 

 The evil of this system has long been felt in 

 Germany. Ten years ago the German govern- 

 ment admitted that the higher branches of 

 their civil service were not manned in accord- 

 ance with the requirements of the time. The 

 training of those officials, even since the re- 

 forms of 1906, consist of a secondary-school 

 course with a strong bias towards the humani- 

 ties, followed by a short university course al- 

 most exclusively composed of legal subjects. 

 The ordinary law course is the higher civil 

 service course. Whatever a student's inclina- 

 tion or tendency may be, the legal training is a 

 condition precedent to a civil service career. 

 " Civil servants," the chancellor is told with 

 pathetic force, " are called upon to deal with 

 problems the expert solution of which calls 

 for just the type of mental equipment that is 

 provided by the technical high schools. . . . 

 The forcible exclusion of the intellect that 

 is available amongst these circles from par- 

 ticipation in the higher civil service consti- 

 tutes a waste of the intellectual powers of our 

 nation." 



The loss of the German nation under such 

 an absurd system is not our concern ; the point 

 that we are interested in is that this nation, 

 which claims to lead the world in adminis- 

 trative efficiency is in this instance, at least 

 as dissatisfied with its achievements in the 

 most important part of the organization of a 

 nation as even England herself. Of course all 

 the world knows now that Germany has long 

 eked out her various weaknesses in adminis- 

 tration by trumpetings 'that have brought 

 down with a run the Jericho walls of foreign 



