FEBRUARY 16, 1912] 
of years of service, say not less than ten, to be 
released from the professorial duties for a 
period of about a year, and, at any rate, not 
less than six months on full salary, a substi- 
tute being paid out of the income of the fund; 
the purpose of this release from college duties 
being to enable the professor to refresh his 
mind by travel or research or visits to other 
universities, and so gain fresh stimulus and 
equipment for his work.” 
Tue University of Pittsburgh will celebrate 
its one hundred and twenty-fifth anniversary 
on February 27, 28 and 29, 1912. The first 
charter was granted to the Pittsburgh Acad- 
emy on February 27, 1787. In 1819 it became 
the Western University of Pennsylvania, the 
name being again changed in 1908 to the 
University of Pittsburgh. Educational con- 
ferences will be held on Tuesday, February 
27. On Wednesday, February 28, an histor- 
ical address on “ The Progress of Higher Edu- 
cation since 1787 ” will be given by Chancellor 
Kirkland, of Vanderbilt University. This ad- 
dress will be followed by the conferring of 
honorary degrees. In the afternoon an his- 
torical address on the University of Pitts- 
burgh will be given by former Chancellor 
Holland, followed by addresses by representa- 
tives of educational institutions. On Thurs- 
day, February 29, there will be conferences of 
the college presidents of Pennsylvania and 
secondary schools of western Pennsylvania. 
The visiting guests will be entertained at 
luncheon on each day of the anniversary cele- 
bration and at the alumni anniversary ban- 
quet on Wednesday evening. 
By vote of the faculty of Oberlin College, 
the budget for the current year contains a 
special appropriation to be used in defraying 
the expenses of administrative officers, pro- 
fessors and associate professors who wish to 
attend meetings of scientific societies and 
other gatherings of a professional nature. 
The faculty is divided into ten groups, and 
each has a proportionate share in the general 
fund. 
THe inauguration of President Hibben of 
Princeton University will take place on the 
morning of Saturday, May 11. 
SCIENCE 
267 
Farner ALEXANDER J. Burrowes, S.J., a 
native St. Louisian and now the head of 
Loyola University, has been elected president 
of St. Louis University, succeeding Father G. 
P. Frieden, S.J., who died suddenly two 
months ago. 
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 
PROFESSOR JENNINGS AS A BIOLOGICAL PHILOS- 
OPHER 
Nor for many a day, according to my no- 
tion, has anything more significant taken 
place in the biological realm than Professor 
Jennings’s presidential address on “ Heredity 
and Personality’ before the American So- 
ciety of Naturalists at its recent meeting 
(Science, December 29, 1911). 
How splendid an era of biological achieve- 
ment will have been ushered in when men of 
Jennings’s rank shall come forth from their 
laboratories upon occasion and discuss, with- 
out feeling the need of apology for doing so, 
the infinitely large as well as the infinitely 
small problems of our science! This address 
augurs for Jennings as commanding a place 
in the larger biology as he now holds in the 
smaller. 
Concerning the particular road, namely, 
that of genetics, by which Professor Jen- 
nings has come so near the edge of the woods 
of biological minutism I shall say little 
at this time. Rather it is about his réle as 
philosopher, or better as metaphysician, that I 
wish to speak. In the first place I want to 
express my gratification at the clear evidence 
furnished by this address particularly, that he 
possesses both the aptitude and the courage to 
be the successor of Brooks, not merely as a 
professor of zoology but as an upholder of the 
rights and dignity of the philosophical side of 
biology. In the second place I am going to 
claim the privilege usually accorded to senior- 
ity of years and counsel Jennings against the 
supposed necessity of apologizing for the vio- 
lation of good biological manners when he 
yields to his inclination to talk to fellow biol- 
ogists on large subjects. 
Now as to the problems raised. 1 do not, as 
already said, propose to go far into the sub- 
