550 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. LIV. No. 1405. 



complicated as possible. Also prepare a few 

 slides. They may be shown at embarrassing 

 moments. 



As soon as the club is assembled, gaze upon 

 them with a dreamy eye and begin your talk. 



The first step is to write nine long equa- 

 tions on the board. 



Somebody will call your attention to the 

 fact that the fifth term of the first equation 

 should have a minus sign. 



Memorize the equations beforehand if pos- 

 sible. Write them rapidly. 



The success of your talk wiU depend di- 

 rectly on the number of people you can shake 

 off at this point. 



Mathematics is always helpful in this way. 

 If your audience looks too intelligent, cover 

 the board with partial derivatives and inte- 



Having presented the equations dwell at 

 great length on the sub-electron, the rigid- 

 ity of the ether, or the density of petrified 

 rhubarb in Siberia. 



Finally when you see that vacant stare, 

 indicative of a temporary lapse of intelli- 

 gence, steal into the eyes of the front row, 

 it is time to stop. 



Pause for efFect. Gather up your books — 

 several volumes of " Annalen der Physik " 

 and four score and seven sheets of loose note- 

 book paper and ask for questions. 



There will always be questions. They are 

 indicative of an intelligent audience. 



Then there will be a discussion. In this 

 you will have no part. However, at its close 

 you will be convinced of three things: 



First: that you were entirely wrong. 



Second: that you did a fine piece of work. 



Third : that it doesn't mean anything. 



The moral of this paper is: It is much 

 easier to take data than to interpret the re- 

 sults. 



A. W. Simon 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Organic Dependence and Disease: their 

 Origin and Significance. By John M. 

 Clarke. Yale University Press, 1921. Pp. 

 113, 105 text figs. 



In a new book, marked by deep thinking, 

 and written with Huxleian vigor and pic- 

 turesqueness of phrase, we have presented to 

 us the philosophy of righteous living as seen 

 by a paleontologist, a life-long student of 

 Paleozoic faunas and floras. Beginning with 

 a study of mutual and commensal living, we 

 are shown how this develops into parasitism, 

 and out of it all comes to us the true signifi- 

 cance of ease in life and dependence. Prog- 

 ress, racial or individual, does not lie in 

 this direction, and once entered upon, there 

 is no return road to independence, the only 

 righteous mode of living. 



We need not present the evidence on which 

 Clarke's philosophy is based, since the book 

 itself gives this so clearly, but can go at 

 once to the conclusions. Parenthetically, 

 however, we would advise the reader to study 

 along with the book under review Conklin's 

 " The Direction of Human Evolution," a 

 most interesting work on philosophical natur- 

 alism, showing what evolution has done for 

 man morphologically, and what in all proba- 

 bility social evolution will do for him. In 

 these two books we have revealed to us the 

 naturalist's religion as Nature has unfolded 

 it throughout the geological ages. As Con- 

 klin says. 



The new wine of science is fermenting powerfully 

 in the old bottles of theology. 



The purpose of Clarke's essay is to set 

 forth the apparent controls governing the 

 historical origin of dependent and abnormal 

 conditions of life, and from this evidence to 

 generalize their significance to humanity. 

 The bases of this knowledge are Paleozoic 

 invertebrate fossils, plus the vista of organic 

 accomplishments through untold millions of 

 years. The evidence is presented without 

 embarrassing detail and the conclusions with- 

 out bias, and their human concerns are of 

 high moment. 



The author states that " disease is discom- 

 fort," and agrees with Huxley that " disease 

 ... is a perturbation of the normal activi- 

 ties of a living body." In other words. 



