SCIENCE 



A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement 

 of Science, publishing the of&cial notices and 

 proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, edited by J. McKeen 

 Cattell and published every Friday by 



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VoL.iiV January 13, 1922 No. I4ii 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science : 

 Ohservation versus Experimentation: Pro- 



FESSOK Joel Stebbins 29 



General Features of the Toronto Meeting: 



Professor Burton E. Livingston 34 



Caroline Burling Thompson 40 



Scientific Events: 



The Meclcscher Research Foundation; The 

 Standardization of Biological Stains; 

 International Sera Standards; Relief Work 

 of British Universities; The Southwestern 

 Division of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science 41 



Scientific Notes and News 45 



Umversity and Educational Notes 48 



Discussion and Correspondence : 



Committee for the Protection of Animal 

 Experimentation: Drs. Edward Wiggles- 

 worth, J. C. Phillips and T. Barbour. 

 Poisonous Spiders: F. R. Welsh. A Long- 

 lived Woodborer : A. B. Champlain. Per- 

 cival Lowell: J. K. The Pasteur Cen- 

 tenary: Augusto Bonazzi 48 



Scientific Books: 



Carpenter on Insect Transformation: Dr. 

 L. O. Howard 50 



Research Funds of the United States: Dr. 

 J. A. Udden 51 



Special Articles : 



Emission Bands of Erbium Oxide: Pro- 

 fessor E. L. Nichols and Dk. H. L. 

 Howes. Laboratory Determinations of Dip 

 and Strike: Peopessoe H. G. Turner. 

 Artificial Production of Tipburn: F. A. 

 Penton and O. L. Ebsslee 53 



OBSERVATION VERSUS EXPERI- 

 MENTATION! 



In gatherings of scientific men such as this 

 one, it is customary to have a number of non- 

 technical addresses, which often take the form 

 of general surveys of certain fields of science, 

 with summaries of what is known in various 

 directions, and with indications of problems 

 which await solution. The topic which I have 

 chosen, however, would indicate that for the 

 moment it seems to me worth while to stop 

 and discuss somewhat the methods of science 

 rather than the results. No doubt all of us 

 look upon both observation and experimentation 

 as necessary evils, the means to arrive at ends 

 or results which are much more important and 

 attractive in themselves than are the processes 

 of obtaining them. 



Before a company of astronomers the con- 

 test between observation and experimentation 

 might be anticipated to mean a discussion of 

 the relative merits of the old and new astron- 

 omy, the astronomy of position, or of precision 

 as its devotees often call it, and the newer field 

 of astrophysics. Or the contest might be be- 

 tween the whole field of astronomy on the one 

 side and the domain of physics and other ex- 

 perimental sciences on the other, for we astron- 

 omers have the reputation of being precise 

 and painstaking observers, while the experi- 

 menters have, to our minds at least, the habit 

 of spending most of their energies in getting 

 ready to be precise, and then when they are 

 prepared to take what we would call observa- 

 tions, their aim is achieved and they pass on 

 to something else. But my purpose is rather 

 to consider somewhat the struggle which often 

 goes on in the mind of the investigator him- 

 self, whether he shall after a certain amount of 



1 Address of the retiring vice-president and 

 ehairman of Section D — Astronomy, American 

 Association for the Advancement of Science, 

 Toronto, December, 1921. 



