December 2, 1921] 



SCIENCE 



539 



Over the margin, 

 After it, follow it, 

 Follow the gleam. 



There is a grave danger for the spirit of 

 research when the chief criterion for the ad- 

 vancement of an individual in his position 

 is his ability to turn out voluminous material 

 describing his experiments. This motive 

 prompting lie researcher tends more and 

 more to satisfy personal ambition. There 

 will gradually appear a greater amount of 

 polemical writing and controversies over 

 priority of discovery. Nor is this all or the 

 worst of the results attained by such a stimu- 

 lus to research. Inaccuracies and careless- 

 ness in obtaining results are inevitable, it is 

 the logical outcome of a system where bulk 

 and not quality weighs so heavily in seeking 

 promotion. This tendency we are all aware 

 of, not only in individuals but we recognize 

 it as characteristic of nations as well. After 

 all what difference does it make through 

 whom truth is revealed if all can enjoy its 

 fruits? 



On the other hand, that land whose cricket 

 and other sports have imbued its citizens 

 with a sense of the " sport for the game's 

 sake " has contributed a succession of epoch 

 makers in the field of science that makes one 

 wonder whence the inspiration of it all. One 

 can not imagine the immortal Newton worry- 

 ing very much about the status of his posi- 

 tion because the first computation concern- 

 ing the force of gravity due to the earth at 

 the moon did not yield results as he had 

 anticipated. To him and a great host of his 

 fellow countrymen succeeding him it was 

 sufficient to seek first the kingdom of truth, 

 leaving it to others to judge whether the 

 honors of earth, if they had any value, would 

 be added as a natural result of ability. Is it 

 not worth while for us of America, young in 

 the research field, to consider seriously the 

 motives which are to prompt our endeavors 

 in the search for truth? The first motive 

 leads to mediocre results while the latter is 

 characterized by those discoveries which are 

 epoch making. Shall personal ambition or 

 the desire to be " a friend to man " surge 



through our endeavors? One class who fol- 

 lowed the gleam of truth was hypocritical, 

 men who seemed to have, and wished to seem 

 to have the prestige of scientific distinction 

 without actually possessing it. The other 

 class adopted as their ideal those words which 

 must be the true sentiment of every creative 

 worker in every field of human knowledge : 

 And only the Master shall praise us, and only the 



Master shall blame; 

 And no one shall work for money, and no one shall 



work for fame; 

 But each for the joy of working, and each, in his 



separate star, 

 Shall draw the Thing as he sees It for the God of 



Things as they are. ' ' 



S. E. Williams 

 Oberlin College, 

 Obeelin, Ohio 



THE CONCENTRATION OF HYDROGEN 

 IONS IN THE SOIL 



A PAPER with the above title has been pub- 

 lished in Danish in the reports from the 

 Carlsberg Laboratory (Meddelelser fra Carls- 

 berg Laboratoriet), Vol. 15, Nr. 1. An Eng- 

 lish edition of this paper will soon be pub- 

 lished in Oomptes-Bendus des Travaux du 

 Laboratoire Carlsberg, Vol. 15, Nr. 1. 



The paper contains an account of researches 

 carried on during the years 1916 and 1920 im 

 order to ascertain the importance of the con-- 

 centration of hydrogen ions with regard to 

 the natural distribution of plants. Analyses 

 were made of a series of Danish plant forma- 

 tions with regard to their botanical constitu- 

 tion, and at the same time samples of the 

 soil were taken from the places in question, 

 and the concentration of hydrogen ions de- 

 termined. In natural Danish soil it was 

 found to vary from 3.4 to 8.0 as expressed in 

 pH values. 



Wlien comparing the botanical analysis of 

 the formations with the physico-chemical 

 analysis of the soil it was immediately seen 

 that there is rather a fixed and constant re- 

 lationship between the constitution of the 

 vegetation and the concentration of hydrogen 

 ions in the soil, because important variations 

 of the latter are always accompanied by vari- 



