SCIENCE 
SSS 
Fripay, JuNE 21, 1912 
CONTENTS 
Chance and the Prepared Mind: PRoFressor R. 
VIR REZ HAIR CH ere r ele atefelints allies) svsteuepal ote tetonenensiere 941 
The Work of Colonel Gorgas .............. 956 
Scientific Notes and News .........- aisbteto ste 957 
University and Educational News ...... ---- 960 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 
The Dome Theory of the Coastal Plain: 
CAPTAIN A. EF. LUCAS ................--. 961 
University Control :— 
Letters from Yale University ...........+ 964 
Scientific Books :— 
Thomson’s Biology of the Seasons; Gilbert 
White’s Natural History and Antiquities of 
Selborne: Proressor T. D. A. COCKERELL . 967 
The Hindu-Arabic Numerals: PROFESSOR 
MODIS CAPRCARPIN'S Kiteepetnrarneirelaieeteieteleicrel sls 969 
Special Articles :— 
The Source of the Current of Injury: Dr. 
JAcQuES LOEB, REINHARD BEUTNER ...... 970 
Societies and Academies :— 
The Biological Society of Washington: M. W. 
IMO, UE boobbocsouedooe boodoogoovco0e 971 
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 
review should be sent to the Editor of Sctencr, Garrison-on- 
Hudson, N. Y. 
CHANCE AND THE PREPARED MIND? 
(‘‘In the fields of observation chance favors 
only the mind which is prepared.’’—Pasteur.) 
Iv was at the opening of the Faculté des 
Sciences at Lille on December 7, 1854, that 
Pasteur, only thirty-two years of age at the 
time, but already professor and dean of the 
faculty, uttered these words in upholding, 
in his inaugural address, the value, on the 
one hand, of practical laboratory instruc- 
tion as an aid to the solution of industrial 
problems, and on the other the importance 
of investigation in pure science, even 
though the resulting discoveries might have 
no immediate application. The point of 
view may have been novel when it was 
uttered, but in the sixty years that have 
elapsed how familiar it has become. How 
closely it approximates the ideals of those 
who are striving to improve the conditions 
of medical education and of medical research 
in our own day and country. What bet- 
ter argument can the most ardent advocate 
of detailed practical instruction in labora- 
tory or hospital (medical training at first 
hand) present, than that which Pasteur 
offered in 1854. He asks: 
Where will you find a young man whose curiosity 
and interest will not immediately be awakened 
when you put into his hands a potato, when with 
that potato he may produce sugar, with that sugar, 
alcohol, with that alcohol, xther and vinegar? 
Where is he that will not be happy to tell his 
family in the evening that he has just been work- 
ing out an electric telegraph? And, gentlemen, be 
convinced of this, such studies are seldom if ever 
*An address on medical education, by Richard 
M. Pearce, M.D., University of Pennsylvania, de- 
livered at Syracuse University, May 21, 1912, 
under the auspices of the Alpha Omega Alpha 
Honorary Medical Fraternity. 
