Friday, December 3, 1921. 



Some Proilems in Evolution: PRorEssoR 

 Edwin S. Goodrich 529 



The Spirit of Research: Professor S. E. 

 Williams 538 



The Concentration of Hydrogen Ions in the 

 Soil: Dr. Carsten Olsen 539 



The Present Status of the Concilium Biblio- 

 graphicum: Dr. Vernon Kellogg 541 



Scientific Events: 



The High Altitude Expedition to Peru; The 

 Joseph Henry Fund of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences; Dr. Nichols and the Pres- 

 idency of the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology ; Meetings of National Scientific 

 Societies 542 



Scientific Notes and News 545 



Discussion and Correspondence : 



Fur Seds of the Farallons: Dr. Barton 

 Warren Evermann. The Physical Museum 

 of the University of Wisconsin: Dr. L. E. 

 Ingebsoll. How to do Research: A. W. 

 Simon 547 



Scientifio BooTcs : 



Clarhe on Organic Dependence and Disease: 

 Professor Charles Schuchert 550 



Special Articles: 

 A Simple Micro-injection Apparatus made 

 of Steel: Dr. Egbert Chambers. On the 

 Emission and Absorption of Oxygen and Air 

 in the Extreme Ultra-Violet: Dr. J. J. 

 HOPFIELD 552 



The American Chemical Society: Dr. Charles 

 L. Parsons 555 



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

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

 Hudson, N. Y. 



SOME PROBLEMS IN EVOLUTION 1 



It was nearly 100 years ago that Charles 

 Darwin hegan his scientific studies in the Uni- 

 versity of Edinburgh. In this illustrious 

 center of intellectual activity he met various 

 friends keenly interested in natural history, 

 and a.ttended the meetings of scientific so- 

 cieties, and it was doubtless here that were 

 sown many of the seeds destined to bear such 

 glorious fruit many years later. No more 

 fitting subject, I think, could be found for 

 an address than certain problems relating to 

 his doctrine of evolution. That controversy 

 perpetually rages round it is a healthy sign. 

 For we must take care in science lest doc- 

 trine should pass into dogma, unquestioned 

 and accepted merely on authority. So from 

 time to time it is useful to reexamine in the 

 light of new knowledge the very foundations 

 on which our theories are laid. 



Perhaps the best way of treating these gen- 

 eral subjects is by trying to answer some 

 definite questions. For instance, we may ask: 

 " Why are some characters inherited and 

 others not? " By characters we mean all those 

 qualities and properties possessed by the or- 

 ganism, and by the enumeration of which we 

 describe it; its weight, size, shape, color, its 

 structure, composition and activities. Next, 

 what do we mean by " inherited " ? It is most 

 important, if possible, clearly to define this 

 term, since much of the controversy in 

 writings on evolution is due to its use by va- 

 rious authors with a very diilerent significance 

 — sometimes as mere reappearance, at other 

 times as actual transmission or transference 

 from one generation to the next. Now, I pro- 

 pose to use the word inheritance merely to sig- 

 nify the reappearance in the offspring of a 

 character possessed by the ancestor — a fact 



1 Address of the president of Section D — Zoo- 

 logy — British Association for the Advancement of 

 Science, Edinburgh, September, 1921. 



