Decembee 21, 1917] 



SCIENCE 



607 



omers and telescopes such as we have, to 

 them our stellar system would appear as 

 a spiral nebula, a scarcely visible point of 

 light in the starry heavens. 



Now Campbell would carry us one step 

 further in our search for the true theory 

 for the ori^n of the world. At a certain 

 point within the great spiral, a subsidiary 

 whirl was developed within which grew, 

 by the infall of planetesimals, as sug- 

 gested by Chamberlin, our solar system, 

 including the infinitesimal speck of matter 

 upon which we live our unquiet lives. 



I have now traced the growth of man's 

 idea of the origin of the planet on which 

 he lives from the crude cosmogony of prim- 

 itive ages up to the scientific theories of 

 the twentieth century. Notwithstanding 

 periods of intellectual stagnation and even 

 of retrogression, this represents a continu- 

 ous broadening of his grasp upon the reali- 

 ties of his physical environment. But we 

 have not yet attained finality. The great 

 mysteries of knowledge are as yet un- 

 fathomed. 



But one thing we have learned. 



The spirit of eternal change, 

 Which is the soul of nature 



is all pervading. What we see is but an 

 evanescent phase in an endless series of 

 changes. There was a time when they did 

 not exist; there will come a day when the 

 thousands of fiery suns which we see in the 

 heavens to-night will, each one, have cooled 

 down to darkness and death. To our finite 

 minds the life of a sun, measured as it must 

 be by hundreds of millions of years, seems 

 inconceivably long, but to "the spectator 

 of all time and all existence" to borrow 

 Plato's noble expression, it is but as a 

 momentary flash. Now although it is be- 

 lieved that there are a great many dark 

 bodies in the heavens, most of the stars are 



still alight. Together they came into be- 

 ing, together their fires will disappear. 



They shall all grow old as doth a garment, and 

 as a vesture shalt Thou fold them up. 



William Harvey McNajkn 



WORK OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 

 AGRICULTURE 



Reviewing the progress of the campaigns for 

 increased production to meet war demands 

 and conditions, David F. Houston, Secretary 

 of Agriculture, in his annual report states that 

 the farmers of the nation, patriotically re- 

 sponding to the appeals of agricultural and 

 other agenices, have produced more than 5J 

 billion bushels of cereal food crops — exceeding 

 by 1,000,000,000 bushels the five-year average 

 for cereals — record crops of Irish potatoes and 

 sweet potatoes, large crops of beans and sugar 

 beets, and an unusually large crop of perish- 

 ables. Authentic figures for meat, poultry, 

 dairy products, and vegetable oils are not 

 available for 1917, but rough estimates indi- 

 cate that the quantity for the year is slightly 

 greater than for either 1916 or 1915 and ex- 

 ceeds the five-year average by two or three 

 billion pounds. 



It must be borne in mind, however, the sec- 

 retary says, that the 1917 cereal crops are 199 

 million bushels below the yield of 1915; that 

 the carry-over of cereals from last year was 

 much below the normal ; that the percentage of 

 soft corn of the 1917 crop — which can not be 

 used for food — is unusually high; and that, 

 with the destruction of live stock in Europe 

 and the great demands from there for meats 

 and fats, with consequent greatly increased ex- 

 ports from the country, the supply of meats 

 and fats will not be adequate to meet the do- 

 mestic needs and those of the nations with 

 which we are cooperating. 



" That the farmers of the nation have gen- 

 erously responded to the appeals for increased 

 production, and that much has already been 

 done to insure a large supply of foods and 

 feedstufFs, justifies no let-down in their activi- 

 ties or in those of all agricultural agencies," 

 the secretary says. " On the contrary, even 

 greater efforts must be put forth in the coming 



