March 24, 1922] 



SCIENCE 



321 



avoid the consequences of the stark evolution- 

 ary processes there operative. This scheme has 

 been essentially to provide sufficiently adequate 

 transport facilities, by sea and by land, so that 

 the physiologicalljf obligate elements of the en- 

 vironmental complex, food, heat, shelter and 

 clothing, could be in whole or in part taken 

 from the temperate zone into the Arctic and 

 act as a buffer between the exotic white man 

 and the indigenous environment. In short 

 what the Arctic explorer has always endeavored 

 to do is to project, like a pseudopodium, a 

 piece of the temperate environment into the 

 Arctic environment, and move in and out of 

 the country along the center of the pseu.dopod. 



Stefansson's plan is philosophically quite 

 diflferent. It is based biologically upon the con- 

 siderations : first, that the physiologically obb'- 

 gate essentials of life must be generalh' if not 

 universally present in the Arctic, else there 

 could and would be no Eskimos there; and 

 second, given that these essentials are there, 

 a sufficiently acute, penetrating and optimisti- 

 cally sympathetic application of the reasoning 

 faculties of the scientifically trained mind 

 should enable one man to avail himself of 

 them and hence live, as well as another. 

 It is quite easy, given a sufficient lack of 

 knowledge of the facts, on the one hand, 

 and of imagination, on the other hand, to prove 

 conclusively by a priori logic that this theory 

 of Stefansson's is all wrong. In point of fact 

 a considerable number of the members of his 

 expedition logically excogitated the matter and 

 came to the conclusion that in holding such 

 views Stefansson was not merely silly but prob- 

 ably also insane, and in consequence felt justi- 

 fied in (a) disobeying his orders as Commander 

 of the Expedition, (b) in refusing to render 

 him any aid (cf. pp. 114-115 regarding chrono- 

 meters), and (c) in actively hindering his 

 preparations and subsequent operations. 



The best possible refutation of a purely logi- 

 cal proof that Stefansson's theory was all 

 wrong was, of course, to carry through, over 

 a long period of time and a wide range of 

 area, travels in the polar regions, living entirely 

 off the country as the native Eskimos do. Pre- 

 cisely this is what Stefansson did for a period 



of nearly five years, with brilliantly successful 

 results, viewed from any standpoint. "The 

 Friendly Arctic" is the record of how it Avas 

 done and of what happened. With two or 

 three companions, a few generally poor sledges 

 (because the good ones were either left on the 

 Karluk or retained by the logical but unimag- 

 inative southern party), some dogs, a rifle apiece 

 with a modicum of ammunition, a little scien- 

 tific apparatus for observing, et prceterea 

 nihil, Stefansson moved about over the polar 

 ice and lands freely at will, and added richly 

 to the world's knowledge of the regions. 



Evei-y one who is interested in the philos- 

 ophy of evolution, general biology and human 

 psychology, as well as those interested in geog- 

 raphy and Arctic exploration, should read this 

 fascinating book. It records an extraordinary 

 intellectual achievement. 



Raymond Pearl 

 School op Hygiene, 



The Johns Hopkins University 



SPECIAL ARTICLES 

 ACOUSTIC TOPOGRAPHY IN A ROOMi 



1. Introductory. — A plan of the room is 

 given ill figure 1, where W, W denote the un- 

 broken walls, I the interferometer and U-gauge, 

 L the electric lantern, A other apparatus. The 

 coordinates along which the surveys are to be 

 made are x, y, z, y being between walls, x 

 toward the open door and z above the table T. 

 For more refined work, /. L, A, etc., should 

 have been removed to another room; but for 

 my present purposes this is unnecessary. 



The pin hole probe described in this journal 

 (Science, May 27, 1921) has since been found 

 useful for the location of nodes in pipes and 

 other vessels, both telephone and windblown. 

 These experiments are omitted as without 

 interest here, except in so far as they indicated 

 the exceptional sensitivity of the probe to 

 nodes. It is relatively quite unresponsive to 

 ventral segments or to wave trains. The pres- 

 sure variations in question are converted into 

 static pressures through the intervention of the 



1 Advance note, from a Report to the Carnegie 

 Institution of Washington, D. C. 



