SCIENCE 



A Weekly Journal devoted to the Advancement 

 of Science, publishing the official 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 



Annual Subscription, $6.00. Single Copies, 15 Cts. 



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 



Mat 12, 1922 



The Factor of Safety in Sesearch: Pro- 

 fessor A. Franklin Shull 497 



What iecomes of the Fur Seals: G. D-illas 

 Hanna 505 



Scientifio Events: 



Loss from Animal Diseases; The California 

 State Fisheries Laboratory ; Mathematical 

 Publications; Grants for Research by the 

 National Academy of Sciences; The Elia- 

 him Hastings Moore Fund 507 



Scientific Notes and News 510 



University and Educational Notes 513 



Discussion and Correspondence: 



Did Humphry Davy melt Ice by rubbing 

 Two Pieces together under the Receiver of 

 an Air Pump? Professor Arthur Taber 

 Jones. A Paracelsus Library in this Coun- 

 try: Dr. Carl Hering. The Teaching of 

 Evolution in the Baptist Iiistitutions of 

 Texas: S. A. E. The Metric Campaign: 

 Howard Richards 514 



Scientific BooTcs : 



The Biological Researches of Gustaf Bet- 

 zius: Dr. O. Larsell 516 



Special Articles: 



Polyploidy, Polyspory and Hybridism in 

 the Angiosperms: Professor E. C. Jef- 

 frey, A. E. LONGLEY, C. W. T. Penland. 

 The Reaction of Drosophila to Ultraviolet: 

 Dr. F. E. Lutz, Professor F. K. Eicht- 

 MYER - 517 



The American Association for the Advance- 

 ment of Science: 



Section A — Mathematics and Associated 

 Societies: Professor William H. Eoevek. 

 Section B — Physics — and Associated Soci- 

 eties: Professor S. E. Williams. Section 

 K — Social and Economic Sciences: Dr. 

 Frederick L. Hoffman. Section N — 

 Medical Sciences: De. A. J. Goldfarb 519 



THE FACTOR OF SAFETY IN RE- 

 SEARCHi 



Once in the drear dead days unfortunately 

 still fresh in memory the head of a great insti- 

 tution for the aid of education wrote, with 

 reference to research, these words: "In the 

 last two decades more sins have been com- 

 mitted in its name against good teaching than 

 we are likely to atone for in the next genera- 

 tion." Evidently the time of reformation had 

 not arrived when this disparagement was 

 uttered, for some ten years later the same pen 

 recorded history as follows : "Much of that 

 which has gone on in American universities 

 under the name of research is in truth only an 

 imitation of research." 



To some of you, more than conunonly zealous 

 in support of investigation and with a back- 

 ground of rural experience, these words may 

 come with memories of the odor of new mown 

 hay and visions of waving yellow fields and 

 the reflection that excessive heat sometimes 

 causes mental aberrations. For the quoted 

 passages could have come only from an annual 

 report, naturally written just after the end of 

 the fiscal year; but unfortunately for this 

 simple explanation, the fiscal year of the insti- 

 tution in question does not end in June, and 

 the derogation of research was conceived in 

 the cool gray days of autumn. Moreover no 

 charge of alienation of reason could be brought 

 against the author of these rebukes that would 

 not lodge with equal justice in other quarters. 

 The chief executive of another great institution 

 which has done and is doing as much in the 

 field of research as any of its kind in America 

 voiced a similar sentiment thus : "Quite too 

 much attention is paid to those who when they 

 make some slight addition to their own stock of 

 infonnation fancy that the world's store of 



1 Address of the President of the Michigan 

 Academy of Science, Arts and Letters, March 

 29, 1922. 



