DECEMBER 13, 1918] 
discoveries of science are reduced to their 
most cruel and malevolent application. 
While we may not be able to specify the 
ways in which a League of Nations shall act 
to maintain peace, let us at least impress upon 
our government the essential importance of 
reaching the best possible understanding with 
other nations as a means of preventing future 
wars—in other words, the importance of form- 
ing the best attainable League of Nations for 
the maintenance of peace. We can not im- 
press the government to this end in any way 
better than the truly democratic way of peti- 
tioning. 
The precise form that a petition in favor 
of a League of Nations may take is of second- 
ary importance, but it is of prime importance 
that the great body of public opinion which is 
so strongly in favor of permanent peace should 
make itself known to the government, and 
thus strengthen the purpose of those public 
servants who have this great end in view. 
Let me note that six or more members of the 
National Academy, present at the Baltimore 
meeting, being officers in the Army and Navy, 
refrained from signing the following state- 
ment, because officers are not allowed to take 
part in such matters. 
W. M. Davis 
CAMBRIDGE, MASs., 
December 3, 1918 
The undersigned members of the National 
Academy of Sciences, meeting in Baltimore, 
November 18, 1918, having petitioned the 
Congress of the United States to take action, 
in consultation with the governments of many 
other countries, toward the formation at as 
early a date as possible of a League of Nations 
for the maintenance of peace, hereby urge the 
members of other learned societies in the 
United States to do likewise. 
Cuartes D. Watcorr, Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, Washington, D. C. 
ArtHur Gorpon Wesster, Clark University, 
Worcester, Mass. 
H. S. Jennines, Johns Hopkins University, 
Baltimore, Md. 
SCIENCE 
599 
Doveras H. Campsett, Stanford University, 
California. 
Victor C. Vaucuan, University of Michi- 
gan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 
Josepu P. Innings, U. S. Geological Survey, 
Washington, D. C. 
Wapemar Linpcren, Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology, Cambridge, Mass. 
Joun M. Crarke, State Museum, Albany, 
Naw. 
Wuirman Cross, U. S. Geological Survey, 
Washington, D. C. 
Joun J. Apet, Johns Hopkins University, 
Baltimore, Md. 
W. M. Davis, Harvard University, Cam- 
bridge, Mass. 
Epwin G. Conxury, Princeton University, 
Princeton, N. J. 
Water Jones, Johns Hopkins University, 
Baltimore, Md. 
W. S. Hatsrep, Johns Hopkins University, 
Baltimore, Md. 
G. A. Buss, University of Chicago, Chicago, 
Til. 
Hewry M. Howe, National Research Coun- 
cil, Washington, D. C. 
F. L. Ransome, U. S. Geological Survey, 
Washington, D. C. 
Ernest F. Nicuors, Yale University, New 
Haven, Conn. 
W. H. Howett, Johns Hopkins University, 
Baltimore, Md. 
EXPERIMENTAL OSMOSIS WITH A LIVING 
MEMBRANE! 
Tr was after an early killing frost some years 
ago that I cut down the dahlias before the sun 
could make effective its warmth of the early 
day. As the sickle passed through one of the 
large stems, water flowed out of the chamber 
between two nodes. A somewhat closer inspec- 
tion revealed that fully half of the large cham- 
ber had been filled with water and that part of 
it had developed into long acicular erystals of 
ice. I was reminded of the advice given by an 
expert in dahlia culture, namely that, when 
the flowering period began, the plants should 
be given all the water they could stand. Ap- 
1A personal communication to a former student. 
