sciencr; 



OCT i I 



Friday, October 12, 1917 



CONTENTS 



Radiation and Matter: Professor William 

 DuANE 347 



The Belations of Magnetism to Molecular 

 Structure: Pkoeessor A. P. Wills 919 



Enrollment in Science in the Sigh Schools: 

 Professor Elliot E. Downing 351 



Scientific Events: — 



Professor Eoiertson 's Gift to the University 

 of California; The Health of Munition 

 Workers in England; Electrical Engineers as 

 Lieutenants in the U. S. Naval Reserve; 

 Psychological Examination of Recruits 352 



Scientific Notes and News 356 



University and Educational News 359 



Discission and Correspondence:— 



International Units and Symbols in Aerog- 

 raphy: Professor Alexander McAdie. 

 Symbols: Dr. Otto Klotz. Bacterial Leaf- 

 spot of Tobacco: F. A. Wolf and A. C. 

 Poster. Plant Diseases in Canada: Dr. H. 

 T. Gt'ssow. Common Plant Names: Mar- 

 garet Armstrong. A Simple Explanation: 

 Professor Cyril G. Hopkins 360 



Quotations : — 

 Columbia University and Professor Cattell. 363 



Scientific Books: — 



Findlay's Chemistry in the Service of Man: 

 Professor Jas. Lewis Howe. Ulugh Beg 's 

 Catalogue of Stars: Dr. Benjamin Boss. 364 



Five Years of Starvation of Larvw: Dr. J. E. 

 Wodsedalek 366 



Special Articles: — 

 The Role of the Nucleus in Oxidation: Pro- 

 fessor W. J. V. OSTERHODT 367 



Societies and Academies : — 



The American Mathematical Society: Pro- 

 fessor F. N. Cole 369 



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

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

 Hudson, N. Y, 



RADIATION AND MATTER i 



We must congratulate ourselves upon 

 the fact that we have been able to listen to 

 such clear, concise and accurate presenta- 

 tions of the most fundamental problems 

 that lie before pure science to-day. I would 

 like, also, to extend to the speakers our sin- 

 cere thanks for their efforts in giving us 

 such interesting expositions of these ab- 

 struse theories. 



It is my privilege to open the discussion 

 on radiation and the structure of matter. 

 Modern theories of radiation are largely 

 concerned with Planck's conception of the 

 radiation of energy in quanta, and with the 

 extraordinary action constant usually de- 

 noted by the letter "h." I would like to 

 present for your discussion some ideas on 

 the relations between the high frequency 

 vibrations which we observe in general X- 

 radiation, and the forces holding the elec- 

 trons and atoms together, including a phys- 

 ical conception of what this constant " h " 

 really means. 



Instead of basing the discussion on the 

 conceptions of entropy, and thermo-dy- 

 namic probability, I shall start from our 

 recent experiments on general X-radiation. 



Before we learned from experiments that 

 X-rays had definite wave-lengths, people 

 supposed that they had, and that we could 

 calculate their frequencies bj^ the formula 

 kinetic energy equals hv. 



(1) i m v- = hv. 



1 Presented at the symposium on ' ' The Struc- 

 ture of Matter" at a joint meeting of the Sections 

 of Physics and Chemistry of the American Asso- 

 ciation for the Advancement of Science, The Amer- 

 ican Physical Society and the American Chemical 

 Society, New Tork, December 27, 1916. 



