SCIENCE 



A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement 

 oi Science, publishing the ofHcial notices and 

 proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, edited by J. McKeen 

 Cattell and published every Friday by 



THE SCIENCE PRESS 



I I Liberty St., Utica, N. Y. Garrison, N. Y. 



New York City: Grand Central Terminal 



Single Copies, 15 Cta. Annual Subscription, 86.00 



Entered as second-class matter January 21. 1922. at the Post 

 Office at Utica. N. Y., under the Act of March 3. 1879. 



Vol. LV March 10, 1922 No. 1419 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: 

 The Organization of Knowledge : Dr. 

 Frederick L. Hoffman 247 



The Fifth Year of the Tropical Research 

 Station: H. F. 254 



Grants for Research Made hy the American 

 Association for the Advancemnt of Sci- 

 ence: Professor Joel Stebbins 256 



Scientific Events: 



The Exhibition of the Royal Photographic 

 Society; French Exchange Professors in 

 Engineering; Officers of English Scientific 

 Societies; The Geological Society of China; 

 The School of Hygiene and Public Health 

 of the Johns Hopkins University 257 



Scientific Notes and News 259 



University and Educational Notes 262 



Discussion and Correspondence: 



Practicable Substitutes for Grain Alcohol: 

 Dr. Lawrence E. Griffin. Iridescent 

 Clouds: Mabel A. Chase 262 



Quotations : 



Ihe Proposed Suppression of the Teaching 



of Evolution 264 



Notes on Woods: Professor Samuel J. 

 Eecoed ! 266 



Special Articles: 



Genetics of the Vienna White Rabbit: 

 Professor W. E. Castle 269 



The American Society of Agronomy: Pro- 

 fessor P. E. Brown 270 



. THE ORGANIZATION OF KNOWL- 

 EDGEi 



In an admirable introduction to Herbert 

 Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy, by Alfred W. 

 Tillet, occurs the suggestive observation that 

 "one volume after another might be glanced 

 at or even carefully read and no idea what- 

 ever obtained as to Spencer's aim." Even the 

 Study of Sociology, in the words of this au- 

 thor, "does not give any definite idea of the 

 aim of Spencer's work" but no one "even 

 superficially familiar with a moderate portion 

 of Spencer's monumental contributions to 

 knowledge can fail to be impressed by the fact 

 that it is from end to end an organized system 

 of scientific knowledge." 



What after all is the real difference between 

 scientific and general knowledge, or between 

 organized and unorganized information? Is 

 it not rather a difference in structure than in 

 function, for, as said by Karl Pearson, "the 

 classification of facts, the organization of their 

 sequence, and relative significance, is the func- 

 tion of science," which must be the objective 

 of every attempt to gather and classify the 

 knowledge extant on any particular subject. 

 The moment we desire to applj' a given train 

 of thought to some practical purpose we are 

 confronted by the necessity of understanding 

 facts in their relative significance. 



Yet so difficult is the practical task of ar- 

 riving at sound conclusions in the presence of 

 some complex phenomenon that even civilized 

 man reasons as a rule in disregard of scientific 

 principles, indifferent to the value or necessity 

 of organized knowledge as a substitute for 

 disorganized or chaotic information. The cause 

 of this anomaly is of course quite obvious; the 

 former process requires painstaking care in 

 the accumulation and classification of facts, 



1 Address of the viee-presideut and chairman 

 of Section K — Social and Economic Science, 

 Toronto, December, 1921. 



