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Friday, ISTovember 18, 1921. 



CONTENTS 



What is the Matter with Fhysics Teaching? : W. 

 S. Fkanklin 



Requirements of a Monograph on the Chemistry 

 of Cellulose : Louis E. Wise 479 



Eugenics — The American and Norwegian Pro- 

 grams: Db. Henry Faiemeld Osboen 482 



Samuel Stockton Voorhees: Dr. W. F. Hille- 



BRASTD 484 



Scientific Events : 

 Synthetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers' 

 Association of the United States; The Edi- 

 torship of the ' ' Journal of Industrial Chem- 

 istry; " Director of the Sarvard College 

 Observatory ; A Southern Forest Experiment 

 Station; Organization for Research at the 

 Pennsylvania State College; Sigma Xi Lec- 

 tures at Yale University 485 



Scientific Notes and News 488 



University and Educational News 490 



Discussion and Correspondence : 



Latitude and VertelircB: Dr. David Stake 

 Jordan. Abstracts and Titles of Scientific 

 Articles from the Librarian's Standpoint: 

 The Late Eunice E. Oberlt. Longitudinal 

 Electromagnetic Forces: Dr. Gael Heeing. 

 The Scientific Bureaus of the Government: 

 De. Chaeles D. Walcott 490 



Quotations : 

 Meeting of the American Association in 

 Canada 493 



Scientific Books: 



Grabau's Text-booTc of Geology: Peofessoe 



H. L. Fairchild 494 



Special Articles: 

 A Precision Determination of the Dimensions 

 of the Unit Crystal of Rock Salt: Da. 

 Wheeler P. Davey 497 



The American Electrochemical Society: A. D. 

 Spillman 498 



The Optical Society of America: Dr. Irwin G. 

 Priest 501 



MBS. intended for 'publication and booka, etc., intended for 

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

 Hudson, N. Y. 



WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH PHYSICS 

 TEACHING? 1 



The recent appointment by the ISTational 

 Research Council and by the American Physi- 

 cal Society of committees on the teaching of 

 physics shows that our physicists who are 

 primarily interested in research are begift- 

 ning to see that something is the matter with 

 the college teaching of physics. The question 

 in everyone's mind is " Why the widespread 

 dislike of physics by college students?" As 

 a long-time member of this society I have 

 had much intercourse with engineering teach- 

 ers, and I have long had in mind an addi- 

 tional question : " Why the widespread con- 

 tempt of physics teaching among engineering 

 faculties ? " 



Before giving my answer to those ques- 

 tions I must point out that there is one kind 

 of contempt of physics teaching among en- 

 gineering teachers which is to the discredit 

 of engineering teachers themselves, namely, 

 the contempt which many of them have for 

 straight and accurate thinking which does 

 not conform to their own careless ways. 

 When I meet with this contempt, which is 

 much too often, I am sorry to say, I always 

 think of a phrase P. G. Tait used in a discus- 

 sion he gave many years ago of the perennial 

 question of elementary mechanics. " In de- 

 fense of accuracy," says Tait, " we must 

 be zealous, even unto slaying." It must be 

 conceded that P. G. Tait's ideas concerning 

 elementary mechanics were and are abso- 

 lutely correct as far as they go, and, after 

 agreeing to use the word weight to designate 

 the pull of the earth on a body, he never 

 reverted to the usage of the grocer and the 

 coal man. This is a thing many of our en- 

 1 The opening of a discussion of physics teaching 

 at the Orono meeting of the New England Section 

 of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering 

 Education; autumn, 1921. 



