SCIENCE 



W OCT 27 1917 \ 



Pridat, October 26, 1917 



CO-NT-ENT& 

 The Significance of Mathematics: Professor 

 E. E. Hedbick 395 



An Institute for the History of Science and 

 Civilization : Dr. George Sarton 399 



The Medical School of the University of Penn- 

 sylvania and War Service 402 



Scientific Events: — 



The Total Eclipse of the Sun in 1918; The 

 Maria Mitchell Memorial Fellowship of the 

 Harvard Observatory; An American Hos- 

 pital in London 404 



Scientific Notes and News 407 



University and Educational News 408 



Discussion and Correspondence: — 

 Seply to Dr. Bleile : Dr. Joseph Erlanger. 

 The Correct Name for our Apple-Grain 

 Aphis: A. C. Baker 409 



Quotations : — 



Columbia University and Professor Cattell. 411 



Scientific Books: — 



West on Alga:: Professor Charles Atwood 

 Kopon). Patterson's German-English Dic- 

 tionary for Chemists: Dr. E. J. Crane .... 413 



Special Articles: — 



The Nature of the Ultimate Magnetic Par- 

 ticle: Dr. Arthur H. Compton and Oswald 

 EoGNLET. Apparatus for Physiological and 

 Physical Laboratories : Pbederick W. Ellis. 4 1 5 



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

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

 Hudson. N. V. 



THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MATHE- 

 MATICS i 



Several circumstances combine to render 

 peculiarly fitting a consideration at this 

 time of the significance of mathematics. Of 

 late we have heard much from real or al- 

 leged educators, tending to show a lack of 

 appreciation on their part, if not on the 

 part of the public, of the vital part which 

 mathematics plays in the affairs of human- 

 ity. These attacks were beginning to re- 

 ceive some hearing in the educational 

 world, on account of their reiteration and 

 their vehemence, if not through intrinsic 

 merit. 



A counter influence of tremendous pub- 

 lic force, whose import is as yet seen only 

 bj^ those most nearly interested, has now 

 arisen through the existence of war and the 

 necessities of war. To the layman, lately 

 told by pedagogical orators that mathe- 

 matics lacks useful application, the evident 

 need of mathematical training on every 

 hand now comes as a distinct surprise. 



The attacks on mathematics, and the 

 lay conception of the entire subject, cen- 

 ters naturally around elementary and sec- 

 ondary instruction. We ourselves, college 

 teachers of mathematics, have commonly 

 talked of current practise and of reforms, 

 largelj' with respect to secondary educa- 

 tion. The third influence which contributes 

 toward the present situation and which 

 maj^ strongly affect its future development 

 is the formation and the existence of this 

 great association, which affords for the first 

 time in the history of America an adequate 



1 Eetiring Presidential Address, Mathematical 

 Association of America, summer meeting, Cleve- 

 land, September 6, 1917. 



