i^'onal M.use^ 



SCIENCE 



Friday, December 30, 1921. 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: 



(a) On Some Presidential Addresses; (J) 

 The War against Insects : De. ' L. O. 

 Howard 641 



Address at the Laying of the Corner Stone' of 

 the Chemical Laboratory of Cornell Univer- 

 sity : Pkofessok Edw. L. Nichols 651 



The Origin of Soil Colloids and the Reason, for 

 the Existence of this State of Matters: Db. 

 Milton Whitney 653 



When will the Teaching of Chemistry become a 

 Science? Dr. Neil E. Gordon 656 



Scientifio Events: 



Earl Jerome Grimes; Electric Power Maps; 

 ~ ' of the Royal Society 658 



fie Notes and News 659 



University and Educational News 661 



Discussion cend Correspondence : 



The Acquisitive Instinct in Children as an 

 Educational Stimulus: Dr. William Drumm 

 Johnston, Jr. Linlcage in Poultry: Dr. J. 

 B. S. Haldane. The Zoological Record: Dr. 

 W. L. Sclater. Meteorologische Zeit- 

 sohrift : Dr. Otto Klotz 662 



Scientifio Books: 

 Recent Advances in Paleopathology: Dk. 

 Roy L. Moodie 664 



Special Articles: 



A Simple Method of obtaining Premature 

 Eggs from Birds: Dr. Oscar Eiddle. Tlie 

 Discovery of Olenellus Fauna in Southeast- 

 ern British Columbia: Stuart J. Schofield. 

 Howardula benigna: a Nema Parasite of the 

 Cucumber-beetle : Dk. N. A. Cobb 664 



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

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

 Hudson, N. Y. 



(a) ON SOME PRESIDENTIAL AD- 

 DRESSES: (b) THE WAR AGAINST 

 THE INSECTS i 



To prepare a presidential address to be deliv- 

 ered before either tlie British or the American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science is 

 a very serious matter, and many eminent men 

 have found it so. Is it not a sad thought that 

 each year for many years there has been a man 

 here and one over there who has had to worry 

 for months, first as to his subject and again as 

 to its mode of presentation? Of course, it 

 sometimes happens that a man like Mr. Bal- 

 four over there or Dr. Eliot on this side is 

 made president, and of course such men can 

 write profound and charming addresses almost 

 in their sleep, they have become so accustomed 

 to formal functions of great importance. But 

 the average man of science, even of presidential 

 caliber, is a specialist, absorbed in his work, 

 and the sudden realization that he must pre- 

 pare an address which should interest all scien- 

 tific men and should help to interest others in 

 science is appalling. 



I imagine that few of you have ever thought 

 of this psychological aspect of presidential 

 addresses. Possibly many of you never took 

 the trouble to read a presidential address. 

 Presidential addresses are things one is rather 

 inclined to take for granted, and when one 

 turns the pages of the journal Nature or the 

 journal Science one is apt to say to oneself 

 " That looks good; some day I must read it"; 

 and then, after a glance at the news notes, the 

 journal goes on file. In other words, presi- 

 dential addresses demand the serious attention 

 of the men who prepare them and of very few 

 besides. Yet, I have never heard a presidential 

 address before either the British Association or 



1 Address of the President of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, Toronto, 

 1921. 



