SCIENCE 



Friday, September 30, 1921 



The British Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: 



Problems of Physics: Professor 0. W. 

 ElCHAEDSON 283 



Scientific Abstracting : Dr. Gordon S. Fdl- 

 CHER , ,. ., 291 



Scientific Events: 



The National Committee on Mathematical 

 Bequirements ; Henry Woodward; Profes- 

 sor Pawlonf ,. .J ,. . . .;. 295 



Scientific Notes and News , 297 



University and Eduoational News 300 



Discussion and Correspondence: 

 A New Definition of Pure Mathematics: 

 Professor G. A. Miller. Gall Evolution: ■ 

 Dr. B. W. Wells. On Sounds Accompany- 

 ing Auroral Displays: De. Hebee D. Cur- 

 tis. Lawrence's Warhler: Professor 

 Jas. Lewis Howe ,. ., ; 300 



Quotations : 

 Chemistry in War ,. 302 



Scientific Books: 



Bibliography of Relativity: Dr. Freder- 

 ick E. Brasch j--,--i 303 



Special Articles: 

 Einstein's Cosmologioal Equations: Pro- 

 fessor Edward Kasner. The Production 

 of Enhanced Line Spectra iy a New 

 Method: E. A. Sawtee and A. L. Becker. 304 



The Iowa Academy of Science: Dr. James 

 H. Lees j , 3C6 



MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended for 

 review should be sent to The Editor of Science, Garrison-on- 

 Hudson, N. Y. 



PROBLEMS OF PHYSICS' 



My predecessor in office a year ago re- 

 minded you that the theoretical researches 

 of Einstein and Weyl suggest that not merely 

 the material universe but space itself is per- 

 haps finite. As to the probabilities I do not 

 wish to express an opinion; but the statement 

 is significant of the extent of the revolution 

 in the conceptions and fundamental prin- 

 ciples of physics now in progress. That space 

 need not be infinite has, I believe, long been 

 recognized by geometricians, and appropriate 

 geometries to meet Its possible limitations 

 have been devised by ingenious mathe- 

 maticians. I doubt, however, whether these 

 inventive gentlemen ever dreamed that their 

 schemes held any objective validity such as 

 would assist the astronomer and the physicist 

 in understanding and classifying material 

 phenomena. It is not certain that they will; 

 but the possibility is definite. Apart from 

 this, the whole development of relativity is 

 an extraordinary triumph for pure mathe- 

 matics. Had Einstein not found his entire 

 calculus ready to hand, owing to the purely 

 mathematical work of Christoffel, Riemann, 

 and others, it seems certain that the develop- 

 ment of generalized relativity would have 

 been much slower. It is a pleasure to be able 

 to acknowledge this indebtedness of physics 

 and astronomy to pure mathematics. 



Relativity is the revolutionary movement 

 in physics which has caught the public eye, 

 perhaps because it deals with familiar concep- 

 tions in a manner which for the most part 

 is found pleasantly incomprehensible. But it 

 is only one of a number of revolutionary 

 changes of comparable magnitude. Among 

 these we have to place the advent of the quan- 



^ Address of the President af Section A — Maths- 

 matics and Physics, British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, Edinburgh, September, 

 1921. 



