July 15, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



53 



school of medicine of Leland Stanford Junior 

 University. Upon his resignation from the 

 medical faculty at Western Reserve, a dinner 

 in honor of Dr. Hanzlik was given at the Uni- 

 versity Club of Cleveland. 



At Oberlin College, Mr. F. E. Carr has been 

 promoted to an assistant professorship of 

 mathematics, and Dr. C. H. Yeaton, of Mil- 

 v^aukee College of Engineering, has been ap- 

 pointed assistant professor of mathematics. 



Dr. Paul Thomas Toung, of the University 

 of Minnesota, has been appointed associate in 

 psychology in the University of Illinois. 



Haery F. Lewis, A.B., A.M. (Wesleyan), 

 Ph.D. (Illinois), at present with the National 

 Aniline and Chemical Company of Buffalo, 

 has been elected associate professor of chem- 

 istry at Cornell College, Mount Vernon, Iowa. 



DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE 



AN ANALOGY BETWEEN THE THEORIES OF 

 NATURAL SELECTION AND ELECTROLYSIS 



1. In a recent reading of the " Origin of 

 Species " I was struck by a marked similarity 

 of the theory, to Clausius's views of the nature 

 of electrolysis. In the latter one begins with 

 ions produced by causes quite outside of the 

 electi-ical forces. Their presence is a phenom- 

 enon on a scale of forces totally beyond the 

 compass of the relatively feeble electric field. 

 They are usually an essentially rare occur- 

 rence among molecules. The period of ex- 

 istence of each ion, moreover, is relatively 

 short; but their virtues are at once retrieved, 

 I might say inherited, by the progeny of some 

 other molecule, so that the phenomenon is 

 practically continuous. The familiar result 

 is that the presence of an apparently inade- 

 quate field gives us a continuous supply of 

 anions and cations at the electrodes. 



2. Now replace ionization by variation, 

 also an essentially independent phenomenDn. 

 Consider the positive ion a favorable variation 

 and the negative ion an unfavorable varia- 

 tion. Let the electric field be replaced by nat- 

 ural selection, which embodies a sort of tend- 

 ency or draft of tlie same nature as a physical 

 field of force. At least, reciprocally with the 



individual, it amounts to that, as is evidenced 

 by the term " struggle. " Physical forces, 

 moreover, are in a similar way doubly spe- 

 cific. Finally, let the cathode be the goal of 

 survival and let the anode denote extinction. 

 Then the two mechanisms would function in 

 the same way. 



3. I have drawn inferences from the model; 

 but these are beyond the mark here. It is 

 merely my purpose to indicate that a mechan- 

 ism which functions so efficiently in the lab- 

 oratory, can not under a wider interpretation, 

 fail to function in the economy of nature, and 

 that you have in electrolysis an ocular and 

 approachable demonstration of the result. 

 The thing works. Of course the model repre- 

 sents only an infinitesimal element (as it 

 were) in the continuity of Darwinian evolu- 

 tion. Nevertheless given ionization (however 

 rare among millions of molecules) or an avail- 

 able variation; given also an electi-ical field 

 (however feeble) or natural selection, you can 

 not have stagnation; irremediably you will 

 have to accept development, appreciable with- 

 in a period commensurate with the two 

 factors. 



Carl Barus 



Beown TJniveesitt, 

 Providence, K. I. 



NATIONAL TEMPERAMENT IN SCIENTIFIC IN- 

 VESTIGATIONS 



To THE Editor of Science: In Professor 

 Carmichael's paper on " National temperament 

 in scientific investigations " in Science for 

 April 1, 1921, occurs the sentence: 



They (the British) have iw university eager to 

 nurse and develop new talent, so that the new 

 thinker becomes devoted to nature. 



In Merz's " European Thought in the Nine- 

 teenth Century," in the first volume, part one, 

 " on the growth and the diffusion of the sci- 

 entific spirit in the first half of the nineteenth 

 century," we find the statement on page 286: 



The rare genius, gifted with the power of 

 original thought, who found no academy ready 

 to call him, no schools where he could be trained, 

 no university eager to nurse and develop his 

 talent, did not retire into the depths of his own 



