466 



SCIENCE 



[Vol. LV, No. 1427 



lie had tried to keep his feet upon the earth 

 as though his shoes had leaden soles and to 

 leave to others premature speculation as to the 

 origin of these bodies. It is evident from their 

 composition that they come from regions where 

 there was no air, for they contain iron, both in 

 a free state and in compounds that are not 

 stable in the presence of oxygen. From their 

 structure it is evident that some have under- 

 gone secondary igneous changes. In conclu- 

 sion, Dr. Merrill quoted the verse, "All my 

 dreams come true to other men," and said that 

 he would leave the developments and deduc- 

 tions from his work to future investigators and 

 "may all my dreams come true to other men." 



The address bestowing the Daniel Giraud 

 Elliot Medal for the year 1920 was made by 

 Dr. Henry rairfleld Osborn, of the American 

 Museum of Natural History, New York City. 

 This medal is intended to be awarded every 

 year for contemporary contributions to zoology. 

 Previous awards were made to F. M. Chapman, 

 C. W. Beebe and Robert Ridgway. Dr. Osborn 

 sketched the history of paleontology from the 

 time when Cuvier first announced the law of 

 correlation. But the ability of the biologists 

 to restore an extinct animal from a single bone 

 was exaggerated and for a time such general 

 theoretical work fell into disrepute. The great 

 American paleontologists, Leidy, Cope and 

 Marsh, limited themselves mostly to descrip- 

 tion. But now again the time has come when 

 general principles and relationships may be 

 founded upon a more substantial basis. Among 

 the young investigators who are taking up this 

 work is Professor Othenio Abel, of Vienna, 

 who has undertaken a general study of the 

 causes of evolution. His guiding thought is 

 that morphology depends upon physiology and 

 that to understand a form we must know its 

 function. Professor Abel pursued his studies 

 even during the war when his family was in 

 such distress that he had to send out his 

 children to friends for food, and in 1920 he 

 produced an inspiring work, entitled Methoden 

 der Paleobiologischen Forschung. 



In the absence of Professor Abel the medal 

 was received by Edgar L. G. Prochnik, Aus- 

 trian chai'ge d'affaires, who said that all Austria 

 would rejoice over this honor done to one of 



her citizens. Conditions in Austria are exceed- 

 ingly hard at present on account of the curtail- 

 ment of Austria's resources and it is felt that 

 the future of Austria lies in the mental power 

 of her sons. The Austrian scientists are deter- 

 mined to bring theii- country to the rank which 

 she occupied in science and art previous to the 

 war. The disposal of this medal was another 

 proof that science was not limited in its scope 

 to creed or nationality. Professor Abel serves 

 in the ranks of science, the peace maker. 



President Waleott, in handing over the medal 

 to the representative of the Austrian Legation, 

 said that the award would carry with it an 

 honorarium which was to be forwarded to Pro- 

 fessor Abel. 



Next, Dr. Vernon Kellogg, permanent secre- 

 tary of the National Research Council, was 

 called upon to tell something of the work and 

 plans of that institution. The National Re- 

 search Council, he said, was the child of the 

 National Academy of Sciences, born in the 

 tempestuous times of the war. The child had 

 grown with amazing rapidity and had mani- 

 fested the characteristic virtues and defects of 

 lusty youth. Some of its parents — the use of 

 this unconventional plural is justified by the 

 collective parenthood — do not know whether to 

 be proud of it or uncomfortably disturbed by it. 

 The motto of the National Research Council 

 is "cooperation and organization." The latter 

 word was looked upon with disfavor and even 

 suspicion by some scientists, but, rightly under- 

 stood, as the council interprets it, there was 

 nothing to fear from it. He had recently been 

 reading the reports of the visits that had been 

 paid by members of the council to 150 universi- 

 ties, colleges and other laboratories. In all 

 these were found men earnestly engaged in re- 

 search, often under disheartening conditions 

 and in isolation. The National Research 

 Council can aid and encourage these scattered 

 and ill-equipped scientists to work out their 

 plans in a concerted way. Nothing shall inter- 

 fere with the individual freedom and initiative 

 which are the main strength of scientific en- 

 deavor. Apart from the endowment and build- 

 ing fund, the National Research Council had 

 raised over a million and a half dollars, which 

 was being expended in promoting research 



