40 



SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLVI. No. 1176 



ticularly younger men engaged in important 

 investigations, gain tlie uncomfortable feeling 

 that they are not doing their full duty when 

 they plod along so far removed from the noise 

 of the conflict. Such persons need encourage- 

 ment at the present moment. They must not 

 all be permitted to withdraw from the less 

 conspicuous though highly important labor of 

 productive investigation which may anticipate 

 the needs of the hour. The war has already 

 directed attention as never before to the inti- 

 mate relations between science and industry, 

 as well as to the vital necessity of fostering 

 these relationships. Two generations ago, Dr. 

 Lyon Playf air deplored the holding " to mere 

 experience as the sheet anchor of the country, 

 forgetful that the molds in which it was cast 

 are of antique shape, and ignorant that new 

 currents have swept away the sand which 

 formerly held it fast, so that we are in immi- 

 nent risk of being drifted ashore." Despite 

 the brief period full of the enormous diffi- 

 culties of organizing a great military cam- 

 paign and instituting active defenses as well 

 as naval warfare, substantial headway has 

 already been made in the mobilization of 

 scientific investigation. Researches can not 

 be manufactured on command or completed 

 over night. Nevertheless the National Re- 

 search Council has already made a commend- 

 able beginning in a movement that will enlist 

 some of the best scientific minds of the na- 

 tion and encourage them to continue the work 

 for which they are specially trained and best 

 equipped. In our enthusiasm for the more 

 apparent helps to success we must not forget 

 these potent silent forces, nor allow the leaders 

 of the nation to overlook the need of support- 

 ing and stimulating them. Even war thrives 

 thrugh the fundamental discoveries of science. 

 —The Journal of the American Medical As- 

 sociation. 



SCIENTIFIC BOOKS 



Tomorrow: Letters to a Friend in Germany. 

 By Hugo Mijnsteeberg. D. Appleton & Co. 

 $1. 



As soon as Columbia really sets her face toward 

 peace, the war clouds will be dispelled and the age 



of our hopes will dawn. My mind is gleaming with 

 radiant hopes. Peace must come soon, and who 

 knows, my friend, when the roses bloom again in 

 your beautiful garden, one of the German ships 

 interned here in Boston may have brought me back 

 to the Fatherland to you. I am sure in one won- 

 drous hour at home I can tell you face to face so 

 much more than I have told you in these letters. 

 Yes, when the roses bloom. . . . 



The roses will bloom, and perchance peace 

 will come, but the author of these hopeful 

 words has departed, leaving a message which 

 will not soon be forgotten. Professor Miin- 

 sterberg wrote his last book, well called " To- 

 morrow," in the form of letters to a friend in 

 Germany. The professor of psychology has 

 given us a study of extraordinary psycholog- 

 ical interest; wherein, under a certain appear- 

 ance of unity, we see the ferment of German 

 and American ideals, and their influence on a 

 scholarly mind. When he came to this coun- 

 try, Miinsterberg stipulated that he would re- 

 main a German citizen. He did so remain, in 

 a political sense; yet he could not escape 

 Americanization, and his last wish, in the 

 midst of war and of anti-Germanism, is for the 

 union of Germany, England and the United 

 States ! 



Nevertheless, the German point of view is 

 never forgotten. The ideal is nationalism, 

 combined with a not too insistent internation- 

 alism. Science, philosophy, art, must be inter- 

 national; the new nationalism of Germany, 

 which " pleads for a kind of intellectual em- 

 bargo," is petty and dangerous to real culture; 

 yet " truth must be clothed in its national 

 garb." What is nationalism? It is not the 

 cult of race : " we have heard so often and with 

 so much assurance the story of the omnipo- 

 tence of race in human history. The true psy- 

 chologist always knew that it was a legend, and 

 the war has demonstrated it again." Yet, we 

 are told, " in every nation we grasp a oneness 

 of traditions and memories, of language and 

 customs, of laws and literature, of arts and 

 sciences, of commerce and polities, of morals 

 and religion." Do we, indeed? In Switzer- 

 land or the British Empire, for example? Is 



