120 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1389 



complete equipment to be secured. In addition 

 to this provision for annual support, the insti- 

 tute has recently received from Dr. Norman 

 Bridge the promise of $200,000 for an ex- 

 tension of the physics laboratory and of $50,- 

 000 for its library. 



It is also announced that the Southern 

 California Edison Company will immediately 

 erect at a cost of $75,000 on the campus of the 

 California institute a high-tension laboratory 

 where an extensive investigation on the trans- 

 mission of power at high voltages will be 

 made by the staffs of the company and of the 

 physics and electrical engineering departments 

 of the institute under the direction of Pro- 

 fesor E. A. Millikan and E. W. Sorensen, 

 and where other scientific researches will be 

 carried on by the professors of the institute 

 in cooperation with the Mt. Wilson Observa- 

 tory. 



A large project of research work will be at 

 once undertaken, involving the close cooper- 

 ation of the Mt. Wilson Observatory, the 

 Norman Bridge Laboratory of Physics, and 

 the Gates Chemical Laboratory of the insti- 

 tute. This research project will consist in 

 a systematic attack on the most fundamental 

 problem of physical science to-day— that of 

 the constitution of matter and its relation 

 to the phenomena of radiation. Further 

 advance in these fields is to be expected, on 

 the one hand, largely through the utilization 

 of the most powerful agencies, such as 

 enormously high temperatures and pressures, 

 high-voltage discharges and intense magnetic 

 fields; and, on the other hand, through the 

 active cooperation of physicists, astropliy- 

 sicists, mathematicians and chemists, whose 

 combined viewpoints, knowledge, and experi- 

 mental skill will contribute. These con- 

 ditions already exist in large measure at 

 Pasadena, but the scientific staff and the 

 experimental facilities are to be so extended 

 that the opportunities for the investigation 

 of this fundamental problem will be ex- 

 ceptional. 



It is also announced that, in order to sup- 

 plement the work in mathematical physics now 

 carried on by Professor Harry Bateman, 



Profesor H. A. Lorentz, of the University 

 of Leiden, will be in residence as lecturer 

 and research associate of the institute during 

 two months of the winter term, and that 

 Dr. C. G. Darwin, of the Univerity of Cam- 

 bridge, has been appointed professor of mathe- 

 matical physics at the institute for the college 

 year of 1922-23. 



THE COURSE IN GENERAL ZOOLOGY: 

 METHODS OF TEACHING 



Professor Shull has done a signal service 

 to the teaching of general zoology by calling 

 attention to the defects of the one-time prev- 

 alent " type course " and to certain advan- 

 tages to be gained by basing the course on 

 general principles. The kind of course deemed 

 best by Professor Shull is indicated in his 

 papers in Science^' ^ and his recent " Prin- 

 ciples of Animal Biology "^ and " Laboratory 

 Directions."' Professor Nichols* has dis- 

 cussed the relative merits of a course in 

 general biology as compared with separate 

 courses in botany and zoology, and Professor 

 Henderson^ has made a plea for the substitu- 

 tion of the study of human physiology for the 

 study of animals and plants. Professor Col- 

 ton* has discussed aim and incentive from the 

 standpoint of the attitude of the student 

 toward the subject. In none of these papers, 

 however, has much been said as to funda- 

 mental purpose or method. Professor Mc- 

 Clung^ in his appeal for a discussion of the 

 general course in zoology indicated that these 

 subjects should receive predominant attention 

 in any effort to arrive at a satisfactory con- 

 clusion as to how the course should be given. 

 It is to the subjects of purpose and method, 

 and esi)ecially the latter that the writer 

 desires to invite attention. 



It would seem to be self-evident that mat- 

 ters of content, arrangement and method 

 should be determined by the aim or purpose 



1 Science, Deceirdber 27, 1918. 



2 Science, March 26, 1920. 



8 New York, McGraw-Hill Book Co. 

 4 Science, December 5, 1919. 

 Science, January 16, 1920. 

 6 Science, April 16, 1920. 

 ' Science, April 11, 1919. 



